Tabula Rasa In Lord Of The Flies

Once a sapling sprouts, it begins as vulnerable and weak. It is inevitably exposed to the ruthless forces of nature. Harsh winds may tear apart its feeble branches. The scorching sun may exsiccated it, while unrelenting, cold winters can simply freeze it to death. Overtime, the sapling is scarred with wounds, evidence of nature’s cruelty. In a similar manner, people are born fragile, and once exposed to outside influences, they continue to bear the scars of those experiences. Once corrupted by society, there is no way of reverting humans to their initial state of purity. This idea reflects the theory of Tabula Rasa, which expresses that people are born with a mind of a “blank slate”. It states that overtime, human identity and morality will …show more content…
Filled with bloodlust, the boys began chanting at the feast, and even Ralph and Piggy, who opposed Jack’s authority, felt compelled to join the ritual. Golding describes the tribe’s demented ritual, “There was the throb and stamp of a single organism” (Golding, 218). Golding conveys the boys’ sense of belonging and unity that they feel when they perform the chant. Despite their opposition towards Jack, they sought peer approval from the tribe, because his tribe represented the majority of civilization. Ultimately, the need to achieve uniformity and submit to peer pressure are aspects of society, because modern culture cultivates a mentality within young children that they need to conform to society’s expectations or face rejection. As a result, Ralph and Piggy felt compelled to participate in the ritual in fear of exclusion, implying that the boys’ mindset was most likely influenced by prior learned experiences from present civilization. Therefore, the evil in the boys cannot be innate, because the death of Simon, which was the ultimate act of evil, resulted from the boys’ moral judgement being clouded by their hunger for peer approval. However, if they were uninfluenced by the corrupted beliefs of society, Simon’s death could have been entirely avoided. All in all, the ritual and death of Simon conveys how the root of corruption lies not inherently …show more content…
In the novel, the boys’ atrocities mirrored what they witnessed in modern civilization. For instance, the greatest evil in society lies in violence. Children live in an ugly reality, in which they inevitably witness acts of violence everyday. A report describes the effect of violence on children, “Most experts believe that children who are raised in abusive homes learn that violence is an effective way to resolve conflicts and problems” (domesticviolenceroundtable.org). Violence is pervasive in society, and children, who witness it, are described to be more likely to engage in violence themselves. Golding reflected the psychological implications of violence in his novel, and he conveyed how the boys became more susceptible to peer pressured and immune to the realities of bloodshed. Above all, by normalizing abuse within society, violence causes children to become more vulnerable to corruption. This supports the theory of Tabula Rasa, because it emphasizes how children mimic the aspects of modern civilization, including its

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