Lord of the flies: themes and symbolism

Lord of the Flies: An Organizational Overview

The film "The Lord of the Flies," although it is about young children in a desperate situation, could be said to confirm the managerial wisdom reflected in Smith and Berg's writings about the Paradoxes of Group Life. In short, to maintain a functional group organization, the unique needs, individual characteristics, and special contributions of all of a group's members must be acknowledged, for the organization to remain a functional entity. The organization must have a clear sense of individual and collective priorities, and attempt to use individual strengths to maximum effect, to realize the organizational goal of survival.

When the group of boys of "The Lord of the Flies" is first shipwrecked, the young children seem largely like rather faceless, nameless children to the eyes of the viewer. The boys are all frightened, although to various degrees. However, soon, individual characteristics emerge. Some of the boys are younger; other boys are older. Some are quiet about their feelings; others are noisy. One boy is quite intellectual, overweight and asthmatic, and seems to have little savvy as to how to avoid being teased. He admits that his schoolyard nickname was "Piggy." Another boy named Jack is a clear leader, as he cleverly marshals the boys to accomplish different necessary tasks that are crucial for immediate survival on the island.

The initial characteristics of the organization when the group is first shipwrecked suggest a certain level of functionality. The boys prioritize and engage in effective time management, due to the fact that some of the boys have enough strength of character to exercise leadership. Also, the goals of the group seem to be ones that should be shared by all of the members, such as food, water, and a safe place to rest. Even in a highly individualized organization, no single member of the group can put these basic needs aside.

Thus, the first example of functionality is that the group makes its first priority to find food and to gain shelter. The second priority of the group is to build a signaling fire, to attract the attention of a passing ship or plane. Eventually, this goal becomes less important, as the organization begins to deteriorate, and also because the demands for rescue are not as immediately, viscerally, and physically felt as the need to eat and sleep. At the beginning, there is also functional recognition of individual differences, that the younger boys, or little ones, as they are called, may have special needs and less ability to contribute to the organization's survival than other boys. Jack assigns the younger boys tasks they can conceivably master, showing his astuteness as a leader.

However, there is also a hint early on that there is some dysfunctional qualities and persons within the group. Some boys resist Jack's leadership, not because they agree with his statements, but because they deny a need for leadership altogether, or because they wish to be the leaders, simply because they think it is better to lead than to follow -- hardly a convincing reason to change the competent leader of an organization during a crucial point of the organization's survival. They want to put their general, faceless stamp upon the island's organization. Furthermore, the fears of the younger boys make it difficult for them to prioritize survival needs and this is not always addressed. Also, early on, there is some factionalism and clannishness, as the boys turn against Piggy because he looks different and some of the boys ally against Jack. This shows a dangerous, early tendency towards scapegoating and finger pointing that is anathema to group functionality and unity.

Jack and Piggy emerge as two of the most interesting characters in the film, from the point-of-view of the filmgoer. Piggy begins as a shy, overprotected boy who is not astute to the ways of the other children. However, he is clearly an intellectual and has a fine mind, and Jack overcomes his initial resistance to Piggy's appearance and begins to accept his council. Piggy finds out that he can relate to at least some of the boys of the island, like Jack, after initially feeling resistant to playing like a child with the other boys, as he grew up fairly isolated from other children back home. Jack discovers that he is not simply a leader, but that leadership makes personal demands on one's character that are not always enjoyable. Jack realizes that the boys cannot play all day, or forget about civilization, like schoolboys on a fun holiday. Instead, they must engage in the serious preparations of surviving on an abandoned island. Jack also realizes his limits as a leader as the group's fears conflict with its survival needs.

Both boys change because they are placed in such an extraordinary, personally demanding situation. However, simply being part of an organization with other boys alters the character of the children. If Jack and Piggy were in their normal situation, quite likely they would find themselves allied with the rest of the boys of their age group who might want to play all day, or engage in fantasy, against the will of adults. But the situational pressures force the boys to gain a new maturity and to take unique roles in relationship to the larger community. However, the immaturity of many of the other boys meant that Jack had to realize that he was not a naturally accepted leader under all circumstances, as much as he might like to imagine himself as such on a playground, because his authority and his council, however wise, was frequently challenged.

Smith and Berg suggest that an organization is at its most functional, when it can acknowledge individual difference and the special contribution individuals can make to that organization, rather than attempts to subsume such difference within the confines of a greater philosophy. For example, rather than force Piggy to engage in the most laborious physical tasks, Jack used Piggy as an advisor. Rather than have all of the children constantly tend the flame, tending the flame was left to certain group members. The age and different physical abilities of the children were respected. However, the desire of other boys to exert leadership, and to make their influence felt in a less democratic fashion was difficult to manage. Furthermore, the homogeneity of the common goals of the group was not enough to keep the group together -- the differences, even the negative differences of some of the boys should have been better managed by Jack and his friends.