Lord Of The Flies Comparison Essay

Words: 699
Pages: 3

Comparison is the Thief of JoyTheodore Roosevelt once said, “Comparison is the thief of joy.” Even though people might not realize it, humans compare themselves to others every day. Comparison of one another stimulates a “keeping up with the Joneses” effect. The nature of man is to compare himself to others. This creates a society that is insecure about themselves and wants what they can’t have. Throughout Lord of the Flies, Jack compared himself to Ralph. In Jack’s eyes, Ralph had it all because he was chief. In “Social Me” William James explains how people like to get themselves “noticed, and noticed favorably, by our kind”(James 39). Jack wanted to be noticed, so he changed himself many times until he gained recognition and power. “He capered toward Bill, and the mask was a thing on its own behind which Jack hid, liberated from shame and self-consciousness”(Golding 67). Since Jack changed himself, he became a savage creature. When he became a savage creature he destroyed the small society of the island by turning them against …show more content…
Schools do this too by placing students into classes with people of similar intelligence. In Lord of the Flies, intelligence is seen inferior to physical strength. Piggy is not favored among the other kids because Jack didn’t like him. “There ain't nothing we can do. We ought to be more careful. I'm scared… You're always scared. Yah ---- Fatty!”(Golding 45). Jack felt the need to belittle Piggy in order to bring himself up. In putting Piggy down, Jack revealed his insecurities because Jack would not have criticized Piggy if he did not feel threatened by Piggy. In “Harrison Bergeron” people who were smarter had to have handicaps to make them less intelligent. Harrison “is a genius and an athlete, is under-handicapped, and should be regarded as extremely dangerous”(Vonnegut). Instead of geniuses being celebrated they are seen as extremely dangerous. A society without