McKeown 1
Kristin McKeown
Mrs. Dougherty
English II, Meeting Period 8
13 November 2011
How Ethical Citizens Relate to Literature
After reading Lord of the Flies by William Golding, many connections can be made to this novel. The main connection is the formation of an ethical citizen. The main characters of the story are Ralph, Piggy, Jack, Simon, and Roger; these characters are removed from society and end up on an uncivilized island with many other young boys. During their stay on this island, their ethics that they are accustomed to evolve and change over time. The biggest themes of the novel are survival of the fittest and man’s cruelty to man, just a few of the very many within the book. The major conflict in the story is between Ralph and Jack, as to who is the better leader of all the boys. They constantly have their own fights and bickering among the rest of the boys, and eventually brings out the worst in everyone due to the deteriorating conditions they are in. In the book, with every challenge that the boys face against each other, their ethics decay. The study of literature contributes to my personal formation as an ethical citizen, as defined through a view on the study of literature, and Golding’s message throughout his novel, Lord of the Flies, to show that Golding’s work can be evaluated and applied to literature, to the reader and to ethical citizenship.
The definition of an ethical citizen is a person who sees an opportunity that needs to be done, took the initiative and completed the task. An ethical citizen follows the rules of society that they are living in, and they have a sense of what is right and wrong, as well as knows the boundaries between joking and seriousness. This novel and many others are not real life, but they

McKeown 2 certainly can be connected. In the beginning of the novel, when the boys finally meet each other and are familiar with who is who, they call a huge meeting to get everything under control. At the meeting, they vote for a leader of the entire group of boys and create a foundation for rules to develop. Of course, included within all of these responsibilities of an ethical citizen is someone who listens to others, takes what they have to offer, and applies it to his/hers decisions.
Many novels attempt to use their story to apply to ethical citizens. Literature is a piece of writing, often a novel that is creative, original and has a continual theme throughout it. People read literature out of their own interest. Lord of the Flies, in particular, is a very well, written book. A personal stance on the book is that it sends a message to the reader that is meaningful, even throughout the most awful circumstances either with living conditions or people being cruel to others to persevere and not give up hope. William Golding sends many themes and messages through his book to his readers. The main theme of the book is survival of the fittest. “There aren’t any grownups. We shall have to look after ourselves” (page 33). Here Ralph shows that the boys have an epiphany, a sudden realization that they have no adult supervision to care after them on the island. Only the strongest and most persevering are going to survive their stay.
The main focus of Lord of the Flies is survival and how ethics can change and evolve throughout the book. A good example of changing ethics in the story involves Jack. In the beginning of the novel, he comes across as the leader of a bunch of choirboys. Yet, as the story unfolds, he begins to cause minor arguments with Ralph. Then these minor arguments turn into full out fights, to the point where Jack decides to go off on his own and create his own group of boys to be the leader of. After this, he and Ralph battle physically at the end of the story, where
Jack has Roger push a huge boulder down a hill, resulting in the death of Piggy. There are no adults on this stranded island where the boys are. They must learn to adapt to live with each

McKeown 3 other and to keep the laws agreed upon in order to keep the entire clan under control. Golding’s intent in the book is to show the reader what can happen to anybody, like all of the boys, when taken removed from society. From the beginning of the novel, the boys clearly did not expect what was going to happen in the rest of the story. The boys began with their old ethics, still grasping onto them since they had just landed on this island. Yet as the story unfolded, their ethics went downhill. For example, Roger throwing the rocks, in the beginning of the novel he wanted to scare the littluns by throwing pebbles at them but missing, to the end of the novel, rolling the boulder down the hill killing Piggy.
As for defining my own self as an ethical citizen, I feel that I fall into the category. An example of being an ethical citizen is helping out by doing charity work. Throughout my recent life, I have been helping my community by participating in multiple charity groups. While I was taking religious education here in town it was required that we contributed at least 10 hours of our time within about an eight month period to do community service. Throughout this process, I helped to make desserts for Dorothy Day, wrote holiday cards to the elderly, and helped with guiding eye puppies. I have participated in Relay for Life for the past two years with being the captain of my teams, FBI and Speak Now for both years and raising money for cancer. As being a member of society, you are able to achieve all the opportunities for being an ethical citizen.
Golding’s message, of showing what can happen to someone when taken away from society can apply to my current self, as well as to my future self. Although, I am not isolated from society now, it could easily happen to me in the future. I perceive that my ethics will grow stronger and stronger, but no one knows what will happen. The boys within Lord of the Flies, did not expect to end up on a island in the middle of nowhere with no parental guidance or even the

McKeown 4 bare essentials without having to fight for them. Their young age shows that they come with little knowledge, but as growing older, you gain more and grow ethically.
As for evaluating the quality of Golding’s work, it can be evaluated as it applies to all around the general idea of literature, to the deeper investigating of an ethical citizen and how it applies to myself as a reader. Golding’s work, Lord of the Flies, falls into the definition of literature, because it is certainly a creative, original work that has an overarching theme, survival of the fittest, as well as many themes under this, like revenge and man’s cruelty to man, to name a few. The quality of Golding’s work applies to the investigation of an ethical citizen because within Lord of the Flies, Golding shows how the characters first began as ethical because they lived in a place where there were rules to follow, and they knew what was wrong and right. After living on the deserted island, the characters attempt to have a code of ethics to follow in the beginning of the book, but it does not end up applying for the entire book, after Jack leaves the whole clan of boys, to form his own. Due to the conditions that the boys were all living in, it certainly brought out the worst in everyone, resulting with the deaths of Piggy and Simon towards the end of the novel. Lastly, Golding’s work applies to myself as a reader because many of the themes within the book relate to the children and the coming of age. In many situations, people are forced to grow up faster by maturing more quickly than their actual life growth.
Overall, William Golding’s intent in the book, Lord of the Flies, relates to many topics within the modern world and the future. The novel’s elements define ethical behavior through
Golding’s intent. He wants me to assess my own status as an ethical citizen and through this, evaluate the quality of his work. He applies these ideas to characters and events to make it look like real life boys. In Lord of the Flies, the study of literature helps with my personal growth of being an ethical citizen, which is shown through Golding’s message in the story and through the

McKeown 5 definition of an ethical citizen in real life to help prove that Lord of the Flies informs its readers to be ethical citizens.