Steven Truong December 16, 2013 Period 4 Lord of the Flies Obedience is a deeply ingrained behavior tendency, indeed

a potent impulse overriding training in ethics, sympathy, and moral conduct. Through Stanley Milgrams observation, obedience is perennial. Whether it is through subjugation, persuasion, or simple instruction, human compliance occurs frequently. Obedience has been a timeless topic of discussion as there are many literary and scientific works on it. Regardless of the different ideas and arguments that each work communicates, all productions on obedience have one common trait: they all address the belief that unchecked obedience becomes a mortal flaw. The dangers of blindly following others are that individuals lose their conscience to those they follow and that compliance becomes a habit that may be unchangeable. In the act of compliance, one is ready to conform or agree to given orders. Evidently, blindly giving in to anothers orders is equivalent to losing ones conscience as the decisions (whether moral or immoral) are made by the director while the follower accepts the decisions. In the Lord of the Flies by William Goulding, Jack the leader of the hunters on the island sways the stranded boys to follow his lead by offering them meat and protection. Ultimately, the boys fall under Jacks rule and are subservient to him as they receive meat and protection. With their focus on the boon resulting from their obedience, the boys do not notice that they have lost their morals as they carry out unethical duties ordered by Jack. Furthermore, in Stanley Milgrams The Perils of Obedience, the teacher loses his or her conscience to those instructing them. Despite questioning the principles of electrocuting the learner at high and lethal voltages, and in some cases feeling bad for the learner, the majority of the teachers continued with the experiment because of given orders by the facilitator. By continuing to electrocute the learner, it is apparent that the teachers have abandoned their conscience; thereby proving that unchecked obedience strips away the sense of morality as individuals succumb to the will of another. This phenomenon illustrates the issues of individuals failing to make their own decisions, allowing themselves to be governed, and essentially losing their individuality as they become slaves to those they conform to. However, the act of compliance is only further exacerbated as it continues without constraint. Over time, blind obedience sets a precedent and eventually becomes a habit. This habit of conforming is seen in Shirley Jacksons The Lottery. In this short story, a town follows the tradition of stoning a citizen. Like the teachers in Milgrams experiments, some of the participants of The Lottery tradition have challenged the tradition by arguing that other towns have ended the practice of stoning as it is

inherently egregious to kill a person through a lottery. Yet, the town seems to ignore the fact that the ritual is unethical and continues it because it is precedent. By rationalizing the practice to be tradition, it is apparent that the town has accepted this egregious act time after time and has turned blind obedience into a habit. Indeed, compliance is a product of leadership and is essential to simplifying human interactions such as governing and instructing. Essentially, compliance among people serves to make relations easier when checked. However, if unchecked, compliance ultimately manifests itself as a detrimental trait of man. Thus, in some instances, disobedience is needed to check blind obedience. For example, over the course of United States History, African Americans have been treated as inferiors to the Caucasians. As slaves, most blacks conformed to society and obeyed those who created the rules. This compliance endured for many years, until the oppressed blacks became insubordinate and broke the habit of conforming to the establishments created by society. It was inherently wrong to treat an African American, another human as an inferior. Thus, with the civil disobedience movement in the latter half of the 1900s, the African Americans demonstrated that unchecked compliance is a fatal flaw to mankind while showing that disobedience is, in some instances, the answer to correcting the problems pertaining to obedience. E.L. Epstein said in his Notes on Lord of the Flies that the theme of Lord of the Flies is an attempt to trace the defects of society back to the defects of human nature. A timeless defect of human nature has been blind obedience as humans have lost their conscience and individuality in allowing themselves to be governed by others. This innate human flaw being clear, the defects of society are linked to the defects of human nature in that blind obedience as a habit in a society is traced to individual conformity. Ultimately, unchecked obedience still proves itself to be an issue today as individuals fall prey to others imposing their wills on them. Thus, to remedy this flaw, society needs to curb blind obedience through disobedience and nonconformity.