Group Psychological Approach To Interpret Lord Of The Flies

William Golding was awarded Nobel Literature Prize in 1983 because of his masterpiece-Lord of the Flies, "his novels which, with the perspicuity of realistic narrative art and the diversity and the universality of myth, illuminate the human condition in the world today". Since its publication, Lord of the Flies has been a hot topic in the academic research of literary works. Literary critics have focused on myth and archetypal reading while others have adopted an approach to feminist reading in the pig-hunting episode of the novel.This thesis intends to read and interpret Lord of the Flies in the light of group psychology to analyze the characters' personality, status in group, leadership and obedience, group cohesiveness and conformity, status and interaction in groups, group productivity and leadership effectiveness, intergroup conflict, personality. In Lord of the Flies, the novel devastatingly reveals that the destructive forces of primeval cruelty, irrationality, barbarity and ignorance dwell in people, so my thesis will use the collective behavior, deindividuation and behavioral contagion to explain the reason and the process how they make the civilized environment to savaged one. The thesis consists of five chapters.Chapter one is a brief review of the criticism on Lord of the Flies and the aim as well as the value of this thesis, and brings up my theoretical basis.Chapter two is devoted to analysis of the characters' personality, status, leadership and obedience by way of the group psychology.Chapter three and chapter four are dedicated to using the deindividuation and behavioral contagion to interpret the reason why the boys become savaged. Deindividuation is a psychological state of decreased self-evaluation, causing anti-normative and disinhibited behavior, Jack uses mask to hide his personal identity to behave violently to be free from the self-consciousness of shame. Behavioral contagion means the rapid spread through a group of visible and often unusual symptoms or behavior, and therefore, Jack also makes use of the Beast to horrify these boys to be barbaric in the end. Chapter five gives a conclusion to the thesis, by using group psychological approach to the novel, this thesis can succeed in exposing the reason why these boys on the island become savaged even though they are from civilized society.