Patricia Cornwell, a famous writer, once said, that “I believe the root of all evil is the abuse of power”. To receive power in one’s life, they bring out strong emotions, such as fear or guilt to persuade the person to obey their commands. But, these people are simply exercising their power, and only have a relationship with them asymmetrically. The person will authority has the ability to limit the choices of another, and uses physically or psychologically pain only to pursue their goal.
A person can rightfully deserve power, or obtain power by acting savagely. Either way, having authority in society can force people to act inhuman, and make people suffer dramatically. Similarly, in the article “Simulated prison in ‘71 Showed a Fine Line Between ‘Normal’ and ‘Monster’ by John Schwartz, and the novel The Lord of the flies by William Golding both are examples of how authority is the root of all evil in their societies. In the article, it illustrates how an experiment made random people have authority over others, which caused them to act savagely.
In the novel, The Lord of the Flies, the bookuihd uses the symbolization of the conch to depict the children’s power in their society, which illustrates when man acts barbaric only when he is ambitious and craves for power. When receiving power in society, people would be envious of man’s power and will attempt to gain the same authority, as evidence by a physiologically study and Jack’s behavior when he acts savagely while getting power. In the article, “Simulated prison ‘71 Showed a Fine Line Between ‘Normal’ and ‘Monster’” by John Schwartz, he examines how a psychological Stanford University study turned people into ‘monsters’.
The university created a simulated prison that chose 24 random students to be either prison guards or prisoners for two weeks. Within days the guards begin to act kartic, by placing plastic bags over people’s heads, and forcing people to perform sexual acts. The main goal of this experiment was to “ give insight on how ordinary people can, under the right circumstances, do horrible things – including the mistreatment of prisoners at the Abu Ghraib prison in Iraq” (Schwartz 1). This study indicates how regularly people, can be persuaded to do dreadful things when given power.
Outside of the simulated prison, the guards were regularly; normal people who wouldn’t even imagine harming anyone physically, or emotionally. But, since they were given authority over the prisoners; it caused them to act like a ‘monster’. The guards encourage the prisoners to do sexual acts, as well as violently harassed them. When ordinary people were labeled as guards, it caused them to automatically believe that they were superior to the prisons. Since they had no limitations to what their power could’ve held, the guards had the desire to do anything they wanted with them.
This theory was demonstrated the same way during the novel, the Lord of the Flies. Golding emphasizes that when boys are stranded alone on an island, they use an object, in this case, a conch determines which character has power. Ralph, who is depicted as an average young boy, and Piggy who is depicted as an unpopular outsider due to his appearance and intelligence. To Ralph the shell looked “interesting and pretty and a worthy plaything; but the vivid phantoms of his day-dream still interposed between him and Piggy, who in this context was an irrelevance” (Golding 15).
Immediately, the shell was notice by it’s appearance. At the beginning of the book, it the conch is beautiful, and attractive everyone. The couch was not tampered, and didn’t have any scratches. It was pure and innocent, just like the boys society. The conch was bright pink, and captured the boys attention every time. When Ralph first notice the remarkable conch, he claims it brings him “vivid phantoms”. Already, the couch has influence one boy of the incredible things that he can do in their society. Even though, his dream was interrupted by the irrelevance of Piggy, Ralph saw the the couch was special.
Piggy gives Ralph the idea to blow into the conch to summon the people around him, which not only introduces new characters but the power of the couch. In fact, Ralph was voted to be chief because he summoned everyone together on the island, instead of Jack who demanded to be led. When the boys picked the leader “there was a stillness about Ralph as he sat that marked him out: there was his size, and attractive appearance; and most obscurely, yet most powerfully, there was the conch. The being that had blown that, had sat waiting for them on the platform with the delicate thing balanced on his knees, was set apart” (22).
The kids didn’t just pick Raph cause of his strong appearance, but the conch attracted everyone. Right at the beginning of the novel, the conch becomes a powerful symbol of their civilization. This represents law and order in their society, as they continue to progress through the book. Another reason the conch was also quickly seen as a simple of power, which Ralph decides to make whoever speaks in their meeting hold the conch. The shell is considered “most powerful”, and that it is more than just a symbol, it is a vessel of political legitimacy, that governs over the kids.
It is quickly illustrated that only some characters get to fully use the power of the conch. For example, whenever Ralph holds the conch he gets everyone’s full attention, whereas someone like Piggy, an intelligent outside character, has brilliant ideas but are not heard due to lack of respect. The children on the island depending on Ralph and the conch. They were used for Ralph summoning meetings with it, and being passed around as a sign of authority. The children on the island don’t value the conch, but value the power they receive when they hold it, especially by Jack.
As the guards continue to use their authority to overpower the prisoners, in their society they act more aggressively, Similar, to Jack in The Lord Of The Flies, who only demonstrates his power in aggression in their environment. The guards were so tempted to act unhuman when given power over the prisoners, it felt right. The people who were labeled as guards felt accomplished and satisfied when they sexual harassed people and started to abuse them. Since prisons automatically have a balance of unequal power, the guards impulses tend to be more aggressive and in this case brutal.
In “Simulated prison ‘71 Showed a Fine Line Between ‘Normal’ and ‘Monster’”, Professor Zimbardo claimed that “it’s not like we put bad apples in a good barrel. We put good apples in a bad barrel. The barrel corrupts anything it touches” (2). The guards were completely ‘normal’ people, before they were in this social experiment. Like the professor said they were “good apples”, completely unconnected people and wouldn’t do harm to anyone. Their environment and the power they had made them turn into ‘bad apples’.
The guards continues to force some of the prisoners to do sexual acts, and continued to abuse them. They felt like they were doing their job, not realizing that they brought physical and emotional pain to the prisoners. Wanting power can make people act chartic, making people act uncivilized. This feeling of having power is so strong, it can affect your judgment in life. The professor even had to end his experiment two weeks earlier, since he saw a dramatic change in the guards attitudes. The act of savagely driven by power in a civilization, is also shown in The Lord Of The Flies.
Their civilization started failing when Jack was devastated when he didn’t get chosen as leader on the island, and decides to only receive power by acting savagely. As the story continues, the conch begins to change it’s appearance by the “”exposure to the sun bleaching the yellow and pink to near-white, and transparency. Ralph felt a kind of affectionate reverence for the conch, even though he had fished the thing out of the lagoon himself” (78). This shows that their civilization is losing authority. As Jack continues to strive for power, this forces their civilization to act more savage.
They conch was once pure, and pretty is know damaged by the effects of the island. Ralph notices that the conch has been overused, and the “exposure to the sun bleaching the yellow and pink to near- white”. Claiming that a once yellow and pink shell, is now nearly transparent. As the shell starts changing their boys slowly start changing their personalities. They adjusted to life on the island and are now acting more violently towards people and the animals. The change in the shell appearance means that their civilization is losing their authority.
Without an adult, the children are misguided and struggle to remember their civilized ways. As the story develops, the characters change even their appearance to receive more power than others in a fierce way. Some charters follow in Jack’s footsteps, and act like savages. One of the most significant death in the book was also the death of the conch. Rogar who was the most similar to Jack, killed Piggy by rolling a giant rock that “struck Piggy a glancing blow from chin to knee; the conch exploded into a thousand white fragments and ceased to exist” (181).
In one of the last major fight scenes, where Ralph actually tries to take back ownership of being leader, their couch broke. The conch was established as their civilization, without anyone governing them, they all act kactic. The conch “exploded into a thousand white fragments and ceased to exist”. The couch, just like the boys civilization, ceased to exist because people craved power. The desire for power, changed the boy’s identity by forcing them to have a conviction that what they did was acceptable. The couch disappearance was the ending point of the boys society.
They were free from rules, and an authority figure power. In John Schwartz’s article, “Simulated prison ‘71 Showed a Fine Line Between ‘Normal’ and ‘Monster’” and in William Golding’s novel the Lord Of The Flies, both depict how authority will lead to a civilization acted like ‘savages’. The physiologically study showed us, that average human beings will act crazy will receive a higher title compared to someone else. In their fake prison, the guards abused the prisoners by forcing them to do sexual acts. In the novel, the boys were innocent and depended on the couch as their government.
As the boys become less innocence ent in the novel, by killing for sport, their government is useless to them. Their society ends up being chaotic and some characters don’t survive at the end of the story due to the boys foolishness. Golding calls this mankind’s “essential illness’, meaning that a civilization will fail, and turn to savagery when people have control over people. Power is the reason behind a failing civilization, or as Patricia Cornwell once said it is the root of all evil. When we abuse power, it will cause normal; innocent people to act inhumanly and bring out the evil in their society.
