Moral Development In Lord Of The Flies

The Lord of Moral Development Kohlberg’s Theory of Moral Development states that people progress through their moral reasoning in a series of stages. Kohlberg preformed many tests on younger children and older children to test their morals. He discovered that as the children progressed through age, they also progressed morally. The Lord of the Flies has many examples of this theory from obedience and punishment to social order and authority. The Lord of the Flies has many young children and older children to demonstrate the difference between more developed children and less developed children. Kohlberg’s theory is evident in The Lord of the Flies because the character’s actions demonstrate the progression through morals and development, as

Children are taught at an early age that their consequences lead to punishments and receive minor consequences, they need to learn to be obedient. When Ralph calls meetings it is an example of obedience within the group. When the calls meetings, he uses the conch: “By the time Ralph finished blowing the conch the platform was crowded” (32). The kids know that each time a meeting is called, they will be told what to do. The conch blowing reminds them of a school bell from when they were in civilization. The group feeling remorse because of what they did on the island is an example of punishment to themselves. At the end of the book, when Ralph and all the younger kids met the officer and began crying: “His voice rose under the smoke before the burning wreckage of the island; and infected by that emotion, the other little boys began to shake and sob too” (202). Since the group killed two of their people, they are beginning to realize what they did. They start feeling large amounts of guilt to punish themselves for what they did. Kohlberg’s theory states that each person develops a sense of obedience and punishment orientation through their lives. The Lord of the Flies signifies obedience and punishment through the character’s leadership roles and their

Self-interest is stated as “whatever the individual believes is in their best interest”. The story is described as a survival novel. Self-interest is easily shown in a book like The Lord of the Flies. An example of this is when Simon tries to interfere with the group’s chanting to make them understand they are hurting themselves more than the “beastie” is. Simon knows that it is best for the group to try to stay civilized or their entire order would go up in flames, literally. The fact that they killed Simon shows their last hope of staying together and being linked with society: “Fancy thinking the Beast was something you could hunt and kill… You knew didn’t you? I’m part of you” (143). The “Lord of the Flies” talked to Simon while he was disorientated. It knew that Simon could tell there was evil in the group. This is why Simon got killed off so quickly. Another example is when Ralph believes that the group should all be building shelters instead of hunting for meat. Ralph thought that it was in the groups best interest to get shelter before they went looking for food. He got angry with Jack for hunting instead of building the shelters: “You remember the meeting? How everyone was going to work hard until the shelters were finished… We need shelters” (50, 51). Simon and Ralph worked on the shelters alone, making them shaky and unstable. Ralph gets overly angry at Jack for not