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Directions: Read and talk to the text. Then answer the questions at the end.

Lord of the Flies is still a blueprint for savagery

Six decades ago, William Golding set out a terrifying [1] view of the base instincts of a marooned band of children. But how close to the truth was ‘Lord of the Flies’? Eleanor Learmonth and Jenny Tabakoff leaf through a dark and bloody history of disaster.

Saturday 15 March 2014

"I'm afraid. Of us."

Those words first appeared in print exactly 60 years ago when William Golding published

his most famous novel, Lord of the Flies.

It's easy to see how Golding got the inspiration for his tale of humanity red in tooth and

claw: he had served in the Royal Navy during the Second World War and wrote Lord of

the Flies while teaching boys at Bishop Wordsworth's School.

For our book No Mercy, we spent five years researching how accurately Golding's novel

reflects the behaviour of real-life groups of disaster survivors stranded in isolated corners

of the globe, asking: did Golding get it right?

It turns out he did.

Accounts of survivor groups through history – from the siege of Numantia in 134 BC to

the Chilean miners trapped under the Atacama desert in 2010 – mirror what happened on

Golding's imaginary tropical island. When Ralph tells Piggy he's afraid "of us", reality

shows he was right to be afraid. The destructive processes Golding described are

astonishingly accurate.

When groups of people are clinging to life, the greatest threat may be not the harsh

environment, starvation or dehydration, but the other survivors standing next to them on

the deserted beach or the remote, snow-covered mountain.

Group fragmentation, leadership struggles, [2]personal hatred, theft, abuse, frenzied

[3]violence, the discarding of empathy and [4]compassion-these are all things that

afflicted both Golding's schoolboys and many real survivor groups.

The real-life 'Lord of the Flies'

The Robbers Cave Experiment

A group of boys find themselves stranded in a beautiful but isolated environment. For a

brief period things go well, but then human nature starts to assert itself, and their mini-

society [5]descends swiftly into antagonism, hostility and violence. That was the

fascinating premise of not one, but two books published in 1954.

But while Lord of the Flies was a novel, Muzafer Sherif's The Robbers Cave Experiment

was factual: a scholarly text that also became highly influential, although much less

famous.

The spark that lit Golding's creative fuse was his scorn for the books he had been reading

to his children, particularly RM Ballantyne's The Coral Island. As a teacher, Golding

found Ballantyne's depiction of boys living in an island utopia of fun and friendship deeply

unconvincing.

While Golding worked his way through rejections and rewrites, an experiment was taking

place in Oklahoma that would start with a very similar premise. Twenty-two boys were let

loose in a deserted scout camp in the Robbers Cave State Park by a team of psychologists

headed by Muzafer and Carolyn Sherif. The boys were given food, shelter and [6]almost-

complete autonomy, with the researchers there only to observe them. The aim of the

experiment was to generate friction between two groups of strangers, then bring them

together to resolve their differences by forcing them to co-operate. The participants, who

thought they were attending a normal summer camp, were 11-year-old boys.

Sherif and his team carefully selected intelligent, well-adjusted boys from middle-class,

white families. The researchers pretended to be camp staff and janitors, and melted into the

background. The boys were divided into two groups before arriving: later called the

"Rattlers" and the "Eagles".

In phase one of the experiment, each group was left alone for a week of camping, hiking

and swimming. Both established their own [7]hierarchies, unaware of the other group's

existence.

Then Sherif allowed them to hear the other group in the distance, which sparked

immediate signs of rivalry and territorialism in both groups. The announcement by the

staff of a tournament between the two tribes caused even greater hostility: as soon as they

set eyes on each other, the insults started to fly. After losing an early contest, the Eagles

dispensed [8]with their complacent leader; a more aggressive boy seized power and

immediately threatened to beat up anyone on his own team who didn't take the competition

seriously. The first day ended with the Eagles seizing and burning the Rattlers' flag; the

next day, the [9]Rattlers destroyed the Eagles' flag. Brawls erupted and the researchers had

to break them up.

Later, the Rattlers executed a night raid on the Eagles camp, wearing full war paint to

terrify the enemy. They raced into the cabin unopposed, smashing and stealing. The Eagles

[10]leader rounded on his routed troops, accusing them of being "yellow", and they

[11]subsequently carried out a counterattack on the Rattlers camp armed with sticks and

baseball bats.

Mission accomplished, they retreated and rearmed, this time filling socks with stones.

The psychologists watched the arms race [12]escalate over the following days. Finally, one

violent mob brawl became so sustained that the researchers were forced to step in, drag the

boys apart and remove them to separate locations.

How long did it take for mere friction to [13]escalate into a juvenile war, in an idyllic

setting where everyone had plenty of food? Phase two lasted just six days from the first

insult ("Fatty!") to the final all-out brawl. Golding would have loved it.

One of the 33 miners trapped 700m underground in northern Chile in 2010 – the men suffered hallucinations of small apparitions and evil emanating from the rock (EPA)

The fear of the supernatural

The 'Belgica' and the trapped Chilean miners

[14]Golding was also right about the corrosive [15]effects of darkness, fear and the spectre

of the supernatural. The Lord of the Flies boys, stranded by a plane crash on an

uninhabited island paradise, are paralysed by their fear of an unseen creature they call "the

beast".

Most of the boys are convinced the beast will emerge under the cover of darkness to kill

them. Their fear is so intense that they resort to ritual sacrifices of flesh to appease the

beast.

Golding saw belief in the beast as a tipping point in the boys' journey from civilisation to

base, human instinct: "The world, that understandable and lawful world, was slipping

away."

Civilisation has a habit of slipping away from stranded and stressed survivors as irrational

fears start to surface. Trapped in the Antarctic ice on the Belgica in 1898, ship's doctor

Frederick Cook observed the effects on the crew of the "soul-despairing darkness" of the

polar winter. Although they had adequate supplies, the men's physical and mental state

[16]deteriorated rapidly as they were [17]incapacitated by depression and fear.

When one man, Emile Danco, died three weeks into the polar night, Cook was convinced

the darkness had hastened the death. Unable to bury Danco, the men hacked a hole through

the thick sea-ice next to the Belgica, and dropped the weighted body in.

[18]Soon the men were being plagued by [19]mysterious groaning sounds that

[20]reverberated through the hull of the ship. Many were convinced it was Danco, and had

visions of his corpse suspended directly beneath their ship. Even the ship's cat, Nansen,

went mad and died. Another crewman developed symptoms identical to Danco and

[21]became gravely ill and deranged. Luckily, they were saved by the return of spring and

the release of the Belgica from the pack-ice.

As recently as 2010, the Chilean miners trapped in the collapsed San José mine reported

many sightings of small [22] [23]apparitions flitting through the black corners of the

mine. They were so common the men gave them a name – "mineros chicos". [24]Several

men also felt evil manifesting out of the rock itself. "The Devil was there – we weren't

alone," said Samuel Avalos. "I felt that evil presence myself."

In a 1959 BBC radio interview, Golding reflected on the appearance of the beast and its

meaning: "It's the things that have crawled out of their own bones and their own veins,

they don't know whether it's a beast from the sky, air, or where it's coming, but there is

something terrible about it as the conditions of existence."

Théodore Géricault's 'Raft of the Medusa' (1818) revealed some of the horrors that took place on board – of 147 who took to the raft, only 30 survived the first 48 hours

The darkness

The raft of the 'Medusa'

During the day, survivor groups have to contend with hunger, thirst, in-fighting and

[25]other pragmatic issues. But as night comes, a new issue emerges: the darkness itself.

For the 147 survivors of the wrecked Medusa abandoned by their longboat-sailing

shipmates on a huge, unseaworthy raft in 1816, the darkness stirred up a potent mix of

terror, despair and mindless aggression. On their second night adrift off the West African

coast, a collective insanity descended and a pitched battle began on the raft. "The soldiers

and sailors," wrote one of the few survivors later, "terrified by the presence of inevitable

danger, gave themselves up for lost."

[26]An orgy of destruction ensued, directed both at the raft, which they tried to chop up,

and other passengers. People were hacked or beaten to death and thrown into the sea.

Unarmed, deranged men used their teeth and [27]fists: one man had his ankle badly

mauled, another nearly had his eyes gouged out. By morning, more than 60 were dead, but

"as soon as daylight beamed upon us, we were all much more calm".

The survivors passed the day in a state of shock. There were now sharks circling, attracted

by the blood and mutilated corpses caught in the structure of the raft.

Those who had survived managed to get [28]through the next 24 hours unscathed, but on

the fourth night, "darkness brought with it a renewal of our disorder in our weakened state.

We observed in ourselves that natural terror… greatly increased in the silence of the

night."

Some of the men became filled with a "horrid rage" and the slaughter recommenced. By

the next morning, when the insanity had retreated, only 30 of the 147 who had boarded the

raft were still alive.

Survivor maths

The 'Mignonette'

Often in dysfunctional survivor groups, a division quickly appears between the healthy and

strong, and the weak and sick. Survivor maths reasoning works like this: if there is a set

number of people consuming limited provisions, and it is likely that some will die in a few

days anyway, why should the group waste precious food or water on the dying?

Sometimes this means abandoning them, but at other times the calculation is much more

ruthless.

[28]Such was the situation aboard the dinghy of the Mignonette, in the infamous case of its

cabin boy, Richard Parker. The Mignonette was sailing from England to Sydney in 1884,

when the flimsy yacht suddenly sank after being hit by a large wave. Richard Parker found

himself on a dinghy with three other men, floating more than 1,000km from the nearest

land. After two weeks adrift, the captain, Tom Dudley, raised the issue of drawing lots and

eating the loser. At first, the others refused, saying they should all die together. But the

captain tried desperately to persuade them: "So let it be, but it is hard for four to die, when

perhaps one might save the rest."

After several more days, Parker became (according to the others) sick and possibly

[29]comatose, at which point he became the loser of survivor maths. He is said to have

muttered, "What, me?" as Dudley drove a penknife into his jugular. In his legal

depositions, Dudley would initially claim Parker was unconscious, but somewhat later in

his eight different versions of the truth, he admitted that Parker had spoken.

Singling out the sick and weak is useful to a survivor group in two ways. First, it can

provide a seemingly legitimate rationale for abandonment or murder. Second, sick and

weak people are much easier to dump or [30]dispatch.

The Lord of the Flies principle is ruthless: if the strong are battling to survive, why should

they waste care and resources on the weak? After all, one man dead would mean more

food and water for the rest. In William Golding's novel, the first to die was a "littlun".

1. Fill in the chart using information from the text.

S

O

A

P

S

Tone

2. Does this article make you want to read Lord of the Flies? Why or why not?

3. After reading this article, which of the 5 examples from history given do you want to

know more about? Why?

SAT Practice: Choose the best answer for the questions below.

1. The author suggests that the greatest threat to survival may be

a. Dying before being rescued

b. The other survivors

c. Not being rescued

d. The environmental factors

2. Based on the article, how long does it take for survivors to become savage?

a. Even with enough supplies, savagery happens within days or weeks.

b. Without enough supplies, savagery happens within days or weeks.

c. Even with enough supplies, savagery happens within months or years.

d. Without enough supplies, savagery happens within months or years.

3. According to the article, the survivor maths is described as

a. The inevitability that weaker people die first.

b. Giving up on the weakest member of the group ensures more resources for the

strongest members.

c. Being able to survive by calculating the probability of rescue.

d. When weaker people voluntarily sacrifice themselves for the good of the group.

4. Which choice provides the best evidence for the answer to the previous question?

a. In William Golding's novel, the first to die was a "littlun"

b. Singling out the sick and weak is useful to a survivor group in two ways.

c. Often in dysfunctional survivor groups, a division quickly appears between the healthy and strong, and the weak and sick.

d. The Lord of the Flies principle is ruthless: if the strong are battling to survive, why

should they waste care and resources on the weak?

Directions: As a group you will use the text to determine the best meaning of each word.

Be prepared to defend your answers.

1. In line 1, marooned, most

nearly means

a. Stranded

b. Rescued

c. Abandoned

d. Reddened

2. In line 2, frenzied, most nearly means

a. righteous

b. Justified

c. Bloody

d. Crazy

3. In line 3, discarding, most nearly means

a. releasing

b. Disposing

c. Distributing

d. Feeling

4. In line 4, afflicted, most nearly means

a. Troubled

b. Affected

c. Diseased

d. Attracted

5. In line 5, antagonism, most nearly means

a. Hatred

b. Annoyance

c. Rivalry

d. Opposition

6. In line 6, autonomy, most nearly means

a. Authority

b. Control

c. Communication

d. Independence



7. In line 7, hierarchy, most nearly means

a. Governments

b. language

c. Ranking

d. Schedule

8. In line 8, complacent, most nearly means

a. Satisfactory

b. Ineffective

c. Courageous

d. Deadly

9. In line 9, Brawls, most nearly means

a. Fistfights

b. Discussions

c. Cries

d. Volcanoes

10. In line 10, routed, most nearly means

a. Driven

b. Beaten

c. Victorious

d. Rounded

11. In line 11, subsequently, most nearly means

a. Hastily

b. Happily

c. Savagely

d. Eventually

12. In line 12, escalate, most nearly means

a. Elevate

b. Disappear

c. Intensify

d. End



13. In line 13, idyllic, most nearly means

a. Imaginary

b. Perfect

c. Beautiful

d. Sustainable

14. In line 14, corrosive, most nearly means

a. Explosive

b. Corrective

c. Passive

d. destructive

15. In line 15, spectre, most nearly means

a. Belief

b. Disbelief

c. Play

d. Spirit

16. In line 16, deteriorated, most nearly means

a. Expanding

b. Declined

c. Connected

d. Blanketed

17. In line 17, incapacitated, most nearly means

a. Headless

b. Murdered

c. Paralyzed

d. Cured

18. In line 18, plagued, most nearly means

a. Haunted

b. Infected

c. Tormented

d. Tricked



19. In line 19, reverberated, most nearly means

a. Echoed

b. Replied

c. Amplified

d. Repeated

20. In line 20, deranged, most nearly means

a. Died

b. Vomited

c. Drowned

d. Insane

21. In line 21, apparitions, most nearly means

a. Clouds

b. Insects

c. Phantoms

d. Vibrations

22. In line 22, flitting, most nearly means

a. Fitting

b. Flying

c. Feeling

d. Falling

23. In line 23, manifesting, most nearly means

a. Coming

b. Magnifying

c. Speaking

d. Crawling

24. In line 24, pragmatic, most nearly means

a. Problematic

b. Realistic

c. Logistic

d. Idiotic



25. In line 25, orgy, most nearly means

a. Party

b. Fire

c. Rampage

d. Measure

26. In line 26, mauled, most nearly means

a. Bitten

b. Burned

c. Handled

d. Injured

27. In line 27, unscathed, most nearly means

a. Unhurt

b. Asleep

c. Unhappy

d. Silent

28. In line 28, dinghy, most nearly means

a. Deck

b. Lifeboat

c. Yacht

d. Raft

29. In line 29, comatose, most nearly means

a. Dead

b. Violent

c. Unconscious

d. Healed

30. In line 30, dispatch, most nearly means

a. Message

b. Eat

c. Disappear

d. Kill

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