Lord Of The Flies Dehumanization Analysis

If you were to sit down with any normal boy aged 6-12 and asked them what their desires are, you would get answers along the lines of being a rockstar, or receiving a new toy truck, etcetera. But in the case of the boys in the William Golding’s novel Lord of the Flies you would get answers surrounding brutality, survival, and returning to modern society, depending on who among the boys you are asking. In this engaging story you find themes surrounding innocence, societal structure, and even things like dehumanization. But going into these themes there is a question: the conflicts between pursuing a personal desire and choosing to conform. When examining this question, you find that it is really the source of the boys issue in this book. How …show more content…
Pigs are symbol shadowed throughout this story regarding dehumanization in many different senses. Right from the beginning of the novel the boys call a chubby classmate, one of the main characters, “piggy”. The nickname alone is dehumanizing and allows for the boys to band together and treat him poorly without the guilt that would normally be associated with this kind of behaviour. You begin to understand that Piggy is irritated but still wants the other boys to like him, so he allows for the name to be used without objection (other than in the very beginning). Two of the other supporting characters within this novel, Sam and Eric, become clumped together as one person (not literally) and later referred to as “Samneric”. Sam and Eric are very close because they’re the only people on the island with blood relation to each other, so although these boys may be friends with other people on the island, they are essentially outcasts and not generally found playing with anyone else. Ultimately, the dehumanization of these characters makes it harder for them to fit in or conform with the others, and leads to their wants not mattering when it comes to decision making or desires among the group as a