“An attempt to trace the defects of society back to the defects of human nature.”
Lord of The Flies and The Outsiders
Literary Comparison
In this paper, I
will discuss two popular novels that have different settings and plots, though
they have common moral implications. The first novel is Lord of the Flies by
William Golding which is about a bunch of schoolboys left in a deserted, beautiful and fruitful coral island without grownups while evacuating from
England during WW2. According to Kirstin Olsen, this novel raises several
questions: Are human beings evil? How does evil arise? What is the nature of
isolation? Why and how do we choose our leaders? While The Outsiders by S.E.
Hinton is the story of lower-class Greasers and their feud with the financially
well-off Socials (aka Socs) (Gillespie, 2006). The story takes place in the US
state of Oklahoma. Both novels represent certain aspects of human nature and
the defects and effects of it in society. Also, both have a clash of two
opposing sides which leads to the themes of loss of innocence and isolation.
First, there is a
rivalry between the two groups in both novels. In the Lord of The Flies, the
fundamental clash is between the main characters Jack and Ralph. Ralph
represents a democratic leader that has respect for the law and protects the
weak while Jack’s governing style is through fear, violence, and tyranny which
make him a dictator in the presence of Ralph. There is a theme of good vs evil
between those characters. Ralph meaning “good” which is order and civilization
when Jack meaning “bad” because of his savagery. In The Outsiders, there are
two gangs in Tulsa: Socs and Greasers. There is also a clash of two groups, but
it is more about the social status of the members of those groups. Socs are the
rich kids that ride fancy expensive cars and have a “decent” future to dream
about. On the other side, Greasers are lawless hoodlums that come from
working-class families. They carry weapons to give the impression of a tough
greaser. And they usually drive souped-up old cars. We can also see that both
sides in both books are trying to survive. In TO, Ponyboy and his brothers are
trying to survive without their parents as greasers. In LOTF, the setting is
the deserted island, and kids are waiting for rescue by grownups. We can name
this “survival” theme as the struggle of life itself in TO.
One theme that
bounds these two books is the loss of innocence. In The Outsiders, Ponyboy
pretended that he didn’t lose his friend Johnny. However, later on, he loses
his innocence and accepts his friend’s death. Though Ponyboy doesn’t stop
hoping and dreaming as Johnny told to him in his deathbed:
“Stay gold,
Ponyboy. Stay gold.” (p.181)
These lines are very prominent. They
show Ponyboy’s unique personality and character that Johnny could grasp in the
end.
In LOTF, there are
a lot of allusions to the Bible and Milton’s Paradise Lost. They are stranded
in a wonderful island -the paradise- as innocent schoolboys -angels- but their
actions turned the island into hell and boys into devils. There are symbols
like the actual “Lord of the Flies” created by boys using the head of a
pig they killed, “beastie” that Jack was trying to scare everyone with,
their violent dance, and fire. The “beastie” appears to the reader in a variety
of guises: as a “snake-thing,” “beast from water,” “beast from the air,” and,
finally, as an aspect of human nature (Fitzgerald & Kayser, 1992). Pig’s
head speaks to Simon revealing that the actual beast is in the humans not in
nature. When Simon was about to tell that “no beastie exists” all the boys kill
him during their violent dance that depicts pig slaughter scene. Jack was the
first one to kill a pig and on page 92. The act of slaughter satisfied him.
“His mind was
crowded with memories; memories of the knowledge that had come to them when
they closed in on the struggling pig, knowledge that they had outwitted a
living thing, imposed their will upon it, taken away its life like a long
satisfying drink.”
We can feel Jack’s
loss of innocence and savagery bursting inside of him. Roger kills Piggy and
breaks the conch which stands for law and order, the main trait of democracy
since everyone has the right to free speech with the conch (Bruns, 2008). Jack
tried to kill Ralph afterward, which shows the loss of their childlike purity.
In the last chapter, boys also set the island on fire. They cry at the end
because of what they have done.
“Ralph wept for
the end of innocence, the darkness of man’s heart, and the fall through the air
of a true, wise friend called Piggy.”
Readers can see
defects of human nature affecting the entire society and herd mentality behind
it.
Ages of the
characters in both novels should be discussed too. Golding’s choice was to show
corrupt human nature, starting with its purest forms from childhood. That’s why
he chose the schoolboys age 6 to 14. Also, he chooses an island as a setting to
focus on nature. These choices together reflected the message of the writer
(human nature) perfectly. Hinton’s novel is a teenage novel discussing
real-life teenage problems. Her characters were mostly underage trying to
survive on their own. Thus, theme loss of innocence could be shown through
different incidents in both novels.
Another common theme is isolation. In LOTF, children are on an isolated island as mentioned
before. They have a loss of order. Ralph is left out from the rest of the crew
towards the end. Because he didn’t like Jack’s dictatorship and tyranny, he was
hiding from him alone. In TO, Ponyboy was the one who felt like an “outsider”.
His gang teased him for his intelligence and love of literature. Even the book
starts with Ponyboy’s feeling of isolation. He tells how different he is both
physically and mentally. Also, I think the lack of grownups in both novels
gives a feeling of isolation. Mostly underage kids are trying to survive by
themselves. Although in LOTF, boys were enthusiastic that there are “No
grownups!”, life on the island didn’t go as planned. The absence of a
family makes boys’ lives harder, economically, and psychologically. They don’t
have dreams, and plans about the future like Socs do. This lifestyle gives them
hard times.
A slight mention
of individuality can be made too. For instance, Piggy’s role was very important
because he was giving a rational talk, but because of his looks, nobody was
choosing him as a leader. The murder of Simon is another brilliant example of
society’s defects where everyone follows a leader they find powerful and
suitable in looks like Jack. They don’t choose Piggy or Ralph in the end. If we
take Ralph, Piggy, and Samneric individually, they wouldn’t have killed Simon.
They were regretting doing it later. They act upon society’s actions. In OT,
Ponyboy’s feelings of isolation give his character a deep sense of meaning.
While reading his conversations with Cherry, it feels like “ordinary people”
exist and there is a place for every individual not only gangs. Johnny says in
the novel;
“But I gotta say
something. It seems like there’s gotta be someplace without greasers or Socs,
with just people. Plain ordinary people.”
Considering groups
and individuals, another similarity that comes into mind is physical looks. In
OT, Ponyboy’s hair was an important symbol of his belonging to greasers. He
lets Johnny cut and bleach it. However, in the beginning, he was feeling “tuff”
with his oily long greaser hair. Losing his hair was a separation from his
group. In LOTF, Jack paints his face to scare pigs. Later, when he gathers his
tribe, everyone war paints their face. Jack’s power was understood by his
actions. Painting his face and hunting was validating his power and also
tyranny. How we perceive power and validate changes within ourselves and the
surrounding people affects society’s nature. In these novels, we could see the
effects of characters’ properties on other people’s decisions and perceptions.
Overall, both
novels tried to discuss human nature’s defects which directly affect society.
In LOTF, civilization corrupts because boys can’t create authority, thus
leading them into a cruel way of living. In TO, we see a teenage boy’s
questioning while trying to blend in the society he was put in. In both novels,
writers chose different settings and characters, though they had many in
common. Every action has a consequence. In both books, we can see that both
parties have suffered their actions and all of them were affected in some way.
Elif İbişoğlu, June 2020.
Primary Sources:
•
Golding,
William. Lord of the Flies. New York: Penguin Group, 1959.
•
Hinton,
S. E. (2016). The outsiders. Penguin.
Secondary Sources:
•
Olsen,
K. (2000). Understanding Lord of the flies: a student casebook to issues,
sources, and historical documents. Greenwood Publishing Group.
•
Gillespie,
J. (2006). Getting inside S. E. Hinton's "The Outsiders". The English
Journal, 95(3), 44-48. doi:10.2307/30047043
•
FITZGERALD,
J., & KAYSER, J. (1992). GOLDING'S "LORD OF THE FLIES": PRIDE AS
ORIGINAL SIN. Studies in the Novel, 24(1), 78-88. Retrieved May 27, 2020, from
www.jstor.org/stable/29532839
•
Bruns,
B. (2008). The symbolism of power in William Golding's Lord of The Flies.
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