Lord of the Flies Essay

Tearyn Roberts
Mrs. Bauman
3B
May 30, 2019
 82% of children have experienced emotional trauma in their lives (Iribarren). This shows
that being negatively impacted stems from an emotional trauma. When people are emotionally
scarred, they tend to react negatively. Having no structure can cause savage tendencies.
Emotional trauma cause one to react negatively when there is a lack of structure.

Research shows that emotional trauma can impact a person negatively. According to
Javier Iribarren, emotional trauma is formed from stress which triggers memories brought by
emotions (Source 1). “[His] tears began to flow and sobs shook him.” shows readers that the
trauma the boys go through affects them tremendously (Golding 79). They tried to create their
own society with rules and boundaries, but they were all too immature resulting in the death of 2.
To add onto that, when there is no one to enforce power, a society can fall apart. According to
Javier Iribarren, structure is important because without it, people tendencies would change for
the worse (Source 1). Golding shows that the society is breaking down when “Roger gathered a
handful of stones and began to throw them.” (Golding 128). Further proving to reader that they
are experiencing emotional trauma by having psychotic tendencies. Chapter 4 as a whole shows
how characters when from normal to savages due to no structure. Since they are all influenced be
one another, it affected everyone showing psychotic tendencies.

Research tells us that trauma happens when situations are perceived negatively.
According to Jitender Sareen when your involved in something traumatic, the effects are great
which caused characters to react negatively (Source 2). Golding showed readers that the
characters in Lord of the Flies had psychotic tendencies due to the situations they were put in
throughout the story. For example, the death of Piggy and Simon on the hands of the living show
their changes mindset. Golding proved to readers that they were negatively impacted through
hallucinations “There isn’t anyone to help you” (Golding 102). Research shows us that emotional
trauma causes psychotic tendencies. According to Jitender Sareen, psychopaths’ problems come
from past occurrences (Source 2). This connects with Lord of the Flies because in the book, the
boys were stranded causing them to go crazy.
In conclusion, emotional trauma cause one to react negatively when there is a lack of
structure. Emotional trauma can cause psychotic tendencies and stress scarring them forever.
Iribarren, Javier, et al. “Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder: Evidence-Based Research for the Third
Millennium.” Evidence-Based Complementary and Alternative Medicine : ECAM, Oxford
University Press, Dec. 2005, www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC1297500/.

Sareen, Jitender. “Posttraumatic Stress Disorder in Adults: Impact, Comorbidity, Risk Factors,
and Treatment.” Canadian Journal of Psychiatry. Revue Canadienne De Psychiatrie, The
Canadian Psychiatric Association, Sept. 2014,
www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4168808/.