The Effects of a Highly Stressful Situations on an Individual Essay Example

"We've got to have rules and obey them. After all, we're not savages. We're English, and the English are best at everything. " (Golding, Lord of the Flies). Through his allegory novel titled Lord of the Flies, William Golding explores the idea of civilization versus savagery through his allegory. The novel takes place in the mists of a war and describes the lives of British boys after their plane gets shot down over an island. The novel focuses on maintaining civilization while in a highly stressful situation through the use of the conch shell. The novel concludes with a navy soldier coming to their rescue while the boys are recollecting what happened when they reverted to barbarism. In The Lord of the Flies, Golding suggests that when individuals are strong-willed, uncommunicative, and culpable, they make decisions without regard to human life. This is demonstrated through comparing the characters of Roger, Jack in The Lord of the Flies, and Macbeth in Shakespeare’s play Macbeth.

In the novel, the reader is introduced to Roger as a quiet and intense older boy. Midway through the novel, Rogers's curlaty begins to surface when he terrorises the littlun Henry by throwing rocks at him. The quote "Roger gathered a handful of stones and began to throw them. Yet there was a space around Henry, perhaps six yards in diameter, into which he dare not throw. "(Golding 64-65) shows that Rodge’s moral code is starting to break. This quote shows the beginnings of the physiological urge that he feels to torment Henry due to the stressful circumstances. However, Roger does not physically hit Henry because, at this point in the novel, the boys are still building their civilization and civilized instinct still dominates the savage instinct. Near the end of the novel, Rogers' savage instinct overpowers his civilized instinct, and he sides with Jack. Roger believes that Jack's brutality and willingness to commit violence will make him a powerful and effective leader. As civilization breaks down on the island, Roger reverts to cruelty and pushes a boulder which hits Piggy and knocks him over the cliff to his death. Roger’s actions show that his determination to savage instincts caused the destruction of the civilization on the island.

From the beginning of the novel, Jack is presented to the reader as being the antagonist. Being a former choirmaster, he arrived on the island expecting to instantly be the leader. However, he faced resistance when he met Ralph. After losing the vote on becoming leader, Ralph appoints him and his choir group to be hunters. The quote, "‘Jack’s in charge of the choir. They can be - what do you want them to be?’ ‘Hunters.’" (Golding, 19) shows that Jack’s main interest is hunting, an endeavour that begins with the desire for meat and builds to the overwhelming urge to master and kill other living creatures. Hunting develops the savagery that already runs close to his surface. Since Jack, along with the other boys, was in a highly stressful situation, the transition from hunting to barbarism was effortless. As the island transitions from civilization to barbarism, Jack and his tribe overlook basic fundamental survival needs, and when Ralph calls him out in front of everyone, Jack simply says to "do their dance". The quote, "Jack leapt on the sand. ‘Do our dance! Come on! Dance!’" (Golding, 167) shows that the group’s civilization has completely collapsed. Being in the highly stressful situation, Jack and his group fell victim to mob mentality and turned completely savage and murdered Simon with their hands and mouth. The fall of civilization is understood to have originated from Jack and the chant that they do whenever they kill a pig. The chant "Kill the beast! Cut his throat! Spill his blood!" signifies that the boys are slowly naturally reverting to cruelty, due to the stressful circumstances. If Jack had been communicative with Ralph, they could have shared leadership and the boys would have remained civilized.

In Shakespeare's Macbeth, the protagonist, Macbeth, is a prime example of how a highly stressful situation can cause one to revert to cruelty. At the beginning of the play, Macbeth was seen as a hero among the people due to his courageous battles. However, the three wicked witches play upon his desire to become king and ultimately lead Macbeth to his death. After the witches told Macbeth that he would one day be king, he was so determined to see it through that he resorted to doing savage acts to achieve it. One of those acts was assassinating the current king, Duncan. After committing such a savage act, Macbeth was starting to feel remorseful. However, his savage instincts overpowered his civilised instincts, so he decided that he must see it through and that he was willing to do anything to become king. After killing King Duncan, he naturally reverted to cruelty and started to commit unholy acts. When Macbeth willingly murders, lies, and deceives, he loses his health and sanity, causing him to act in a savage manner. Throughout the play, Shakespear describes Macbeth as barbaric due to the fact that he commits curial acts such as murdering Mcduff's family and assassinating his best friend. After the witches' first prophecy comes true, Macbeth finds himself in a highly stressful situation due to the fact that he believes that he is next in line to become king, but he is not heir to the throne. This stressful situation alters the way he thinks and causes him to lose the ability to rationally think things through. The reason Macbeth reverts to cruelty is because he becomes corrupted by the thought of becoming king and having control of the people. Due to the stressful situation, Macbeth is unable to think rationally, which causes him to feel culpable and commit murder.

To summarize, when an individual is in a highly stressful situation, they resort to cruelty or barbarity and make decisions that negatively impact human life. In The Lord of the Flies, Roger develops savage instincts and ultimately kills Piggy because of the highly stressful environment he was in. The antagonist, Jack, slowly transitions from being civilized to being barbaric with the help of hunting, and kills Simon due to the overwhelming stress of the tribe dance. In Shakespear’s play, Macbeth resolves to commit cruel acts such as murder in the hope of becoming king and maintaining the throne. When faced with a highly stressful situation, it is best to stay calm and remain civilized.