The Impact of Proper Guidance in Lord of the Flies Essay Example

Virginia Tech, Sandy Hook, the University of Texas and many other schools have been  targets of school shootings. Recently on November 30, 2021, Ethan Crumbley a 15 year old student at Oxford High School carried out another school shooting. Ethan, like other school shooters, “showed signs of mental distress at home and at school” (Aljazeera). These warning signs were not only ignored by peers but also ignored by his parents, Jennifer and James Crumbley who are standing trial for their neglect. Ethan was not taken seriously when he left concerning text messages about the house being haunted or when he was looking up different types of gun bullets. His parents were not able to get Ethan the help he needed. The disregard of Ethan’s mental state and well being caused him to revert back to his evil nature, killing 4 and injuring 7 others. As exemplified through Ethan’s story, people are driven to extreme violence. Whether it’s due to their upbringing or toxic stereotypes put on them by society, the lack of proper guidance results in evil acts being committed. Golding rightly argues that people are naturally evil, and only guidance from society prevents them from acting on it. 

Golding validly argues that the lack of proper guidance leads to fostering men with toxic masculinity. While children’s minds are developing, they are susceptible to everything around them. Children’s core beliefs are founded upon what they are exposed to from evil to good. Throughout the decades, society’s expectations and standards have expanded immensely, allowing more inclusivity and representation. That being said, men are still influenced by harsh gender norms. By human nature, people develop toxic beliefs due to their upbringing. The lack of inclusivity and guidance during their youth furthers the cycle of repressed emotions where, “...manhood is measured in strength, where there is no way to be vulnerable without being emasculated…” (Black).  Violence is used as a way to gain respect in a world where power is measured by strength. Toxic masculinity creates a lack of emotional support for men. Men push down their feelings because vulnerability makes them weak.  Throughout the generations, this lack of emotional support leads men to act on their evil nature as a reaction to a fear of being weak. This outdated model for masculinity does not bring awareness to the emotional struggles men face.  There is a lack of guidance on how to cope with one’s emotions causing Michael Ian Black’s son, “...16 years old, swallowing his frustration, burying his worry, stomping up the stairs without telling us what’s wrong…” (Black). Men do not have access to open conversations about mental health and the tools to deal with emotional hardships. By burying emotions inside, these feelings fester and get stronger causing men to act out oftentimes in a violent manner. These unstable emotions can come out at any time without any sort of real trigger to cause it because they have been hidden for so long. By refusing to acknowledge feelings, people often lose interest in their hobbies and have unpredictable mood swings. “We’ve seen what withdrawal and rage have the potential to do. School shootings are only the most public of tragedies'' (Black) presented in the news every few weeks. This pattern needs to stop. Toxic masculinity not only is dangerous to the men affected by it but also to the general public where people never know what might happen to them. Society pressures men to conform to this ideal of showing no emotions. The lack of expressing these feelings has caused men’s suicide rates to sky rocket, “White males accounted for 69.68% of suicide deaths in 2020”(American Foundation for Suicide Prevention). Men need authoritative figures to guide them in the correct direction and let them know how to properly deal with their emotions. Parental figures need to provide emotional support and a shoulder to lean on for men to understand that showing emotions does not equate to being weak. Golding argues that this lack of guidance leads to a core belief of toxic masculinity in men. Oftentimes this idea of toxic masculinity is pushed onto other males that do not conform to another’s ideology on masculinity., “...A few days ago, I posted a brief thread about these thoughts on Twitter, knowing I would receive hateful replies in response. I got dozens of messages impugning my manhood; the mildest of them called me a “soy boy”...” (Black). Men have been taught these wrong morals for so long that they can not accept anything different. The idea of being overly masculine is so hardwired into their brain because of the repeated guidance from society to do so. Golding believes that people are teaching their kids to grow up in a world of toxic masculinity. Kids rely on their parents to teach them the necessary skills to succeed in life and as of now, parents are failing because they do not know any better. Parents are passing along what they were taught; raising their kids to go down a dark path of evilness and violence. Toxic masculinity is deeply integrated into society and nothing has been done about it. This pattern will continue throughout generations unless society reforms it’s idea of masculinity and gives people a new way of thinking.

Golding’s novel Lord of the Flies further develops his justified ideas that a lack of supervision creates one’s evil nature to be revealed. A person’s mind doesn’t stop developing until around age 25. Until then, they simply have not matured and can easily be influenced by the world around them. Lord of the Flies follows a group of shipwrecked boys stranded on an island alone with no adults. This lack of guidance from mature minds  causes the boys to act on their primal savage instincts .The longer they were stranded,“The world, that understandable and lawful world, was slipping away. Once there was this and that; and now-and the ship had gone” (Golding 82).  Without any one to distinguish right from wrong, any sense of democracy slowly shatters until the boys have reverted to pure savagery. No rules and no guidance allows the boys to freely explore their evil thoughts. Golding makes it known that the boys on the island are fully aware of their evilness. The evilness starts off small, as simply as throwing rocks at someone until all of a sudden it festers into murder. With no punishment for indulging in these savage acts, the boys simply are not able to grasp that what they are doing is wrong. Instead of feeling guilty about these evil urges, they become enthralled with the idea of violence. Ultamitely they are driven to murder and no one bats an eye when,“Softly, surrounded by a fringe of inquisitive bright creatures, itself a silver shape beneath the steadfast constellations, Simon's dead body moved out towards the open sea.” (Golding 140). The lack of support from adults causes the boys to lose grip of reality. They live in a  fantasy on the island, one where evil acts are engorged and not punished. Golding argues that the evilness one is born with leans more on animalistic primal instincts, reverting back to a person’s most basic wants and needs. The boys are selfish and do not think about the consequences of their actions. Their minds simply are not developed enough for them to truly grasp the impact of these events. When a child does something wrong, their parents guide them into understanding not only that what they did was wrong, but also why it was wrong. “Without the support of mothers and fathers , such children have nothing but the fruits of what they can beg and steal to live on” (Golding) and in this case, it means savagery and murder. The longer they go without the necessary guidance they need, the worse the evilness becomes. Golding characterizes the boys as enjoying the evilness and lacking the property empathy to fully understand the awful nature of their actions simply because no one is there to guide them.  

Golding verifiably argues that a lack of proper guidance feeds into one’s evil nature. Today’s society is making advances to create a more inclusive world but there are still many issues. Toxic masculinity is a core belief in today's society and often leads to extreme violence. Parents neglect the need to express emotional support for their children evident in the case of Ethan Crumbly. Another young mind corrupted by the incorrect guidance throughout their youth. The pattern needs to stop. People are reverting to aggression and pent up emotions leading to more crimes and overall evil acts. Something must be done to fix the lasting damages thrusted upon these young minds by their parents. “Parents are the ultimate role models for children. Every word, every movement, and action affects. No other person or outside force has a greater influence on a child than a parent.” – Bob Keeshan.