Lord Of The Flies Social Hierarchy Analysis

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The Social Hierarchy in Lord of the Flies Throughout the history of society, there has always been a hierarchy based off wealth and power. An island of twelve year old boys must be free from the struggles of societal obstacles, right? You discover throughout the duration of the book that this is not the case. In William Golding’s novel Lord of the flies you see what his views are on human nature through the actions of stranded schoolboys. While World War II was in full swing, a plane filled to the brim with school boys was shot down. All adults were killed in the crash, which meant there was a remote island full of twelve year olds. Twelve year old boys who had virtually no survival skills and no one to help them. They managed to roughly organize…show more content…
At first the bigguns took care of them, but as the story progressed, we witness how the littluns are valued significantly less than the other members of their improvised society. Because of their size, they are unable to do the same amount of work as the bigguns. This makes them have less value in their community, until they are worth nothing at all. The bigguns disregard the littluns concerns and safety with the excuse that they are “just kids”. When, in fact the bigguns themselves are just kids as well. ”... and that's not all. Them kids. The little 'uns. Who took notice of 'em? Who knows how many we got?” (Piggy, 46) This quote shows just how ignored the littluns truly are. The bigguns don’t know their names or how many there are. Because there is such an abundance of weak littluns, they just don’t care enough to ensure their safety. No single biggun would capable of keeping track of the littluns by himself. However, instead of working together to take care of their weaker island members, they just gave up. The bigguns saw that extra effort would have to be put in to take care of them and no one stepped up. Similarly to how the poor are dealt with in the outside world. The financially stable see the struggles of poverty. But they know they can’t solve poverty by themselves, so often no one makes an effort at all. Both on the island and throughout the world, some human lives are valued over others. “You want a
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