By Henry Thompson
Imagine this: you’re going about your average school day when suddenly, completely out of the blue, all faculty and staff simply disappear from campus without a trace, and you and everyone else receive the announcement that you have to remain on school grounds. How would it play out? Who would come out on top?
This completely realistic scenario is, to a certain extent, a modern-day replication of the critically acclaimed piece of literature and infamous schoolbook, Lord of the Flies. And while many would choose to keep such pessimistic stories restricted to their academic confines, it is this exact situation that I decided to propose to the members of our Lovett community.
I figured that the best place to start was with our local experts: the ninth-grade English teachers who teach the book, Mrs. Morris and Mrs. Davis.
When prompted, Mrs. Davis acknowledged the book’s more pessimistic outlook and its roots in science and psychology, saying that “one of the things that we study is Maslow’s hierarchy of needs. And when there’s that breakdown, when you don’t have the basic necessities such as shelter, water, food, warmth, any of that, things get pretty dicey.”
Despite this, she opted to take a more optimistic approach, believing (or at least hoping) that the Lovett community is capable of remaining more organized and civil as a result of our out-of-the-box thinking and diplomatic skills of many of the students.
As we discussed the specifics, Mrs. Davis gave a more detailed description of what she thought might happen. First of all, who would come out on top? (or less dramatically, who would be in charge?) She believed that the lower grades would come to rely on the most experienced members of the community.
However, she went on to admit that despite her belief that Lovett students would be diplomatic about the matter, this form of government would likely be unstable and that “once you become hungry and thirsty and scared, I think a lot of things start to change. And if that leader isn’t providing something pretty immediate, I think we would see different factions created.”
One notable aspect of the book is that all the children on the island are boys. But what would happen if they were all girls? Surprisingly, Mrs. Davis actually had some real-world experience with this, having taught both all-girls and all-boys classes in the past. In the case of the boys, she noticed that they quickly became very competitive; however, she also found that they did a great job collaborating to achieve a common goal.
In the case of the girls, Mrs. Davis explained that while they spent a lot more time being socially involved, their ability to lead completely fell apart. Who knows, maybe a group with both genders would result in a highly social and collaborative survival supergroup.
Even though she doubted many aspects of Lovett’s ability to succeed, Mrs. Davis kept an overall very positive outlook throughout the whole interview. Contrasting this, my interview with Mrs. Morris, while equally as analytical, was far more akin to The Lord of the Flies’ pessimistic outlook.
This quickly became clear as she opened the conversation with the saddeningly true point that “at Lovett, the concept of what happens in the book happens in quieter, more civilized ways,” explaining that reading a book in class can actually provide an interesting way to draw parallels to our lives as members of the Lovett school and the issues that we often face.
Curious to see if this perspective had any affect on the rest of her ideas, I then posed the same leadership question I had asked Mrs. Davis, and her response confirmed my suspicions. She explained that, even though she hoped it would not be the case, she felt that it was most likely that a position of power would fall to someone who may…not be the kindest. Why? “I think sometimes the loudest and the cruelest end up being in charge,” she said. I think that people listen to the thing that relieves their fears, and sometimes that’s the loudest and most forceful.”
This idea of fear being an important factor to consider was something Mrs. Morris had brought up earlier when she explained the reasoning for her more pessimistic belief system in this scenario, stating that “it could play out that way in a moment of desperation and fear. Fear can make us do really awful things.”
Later, when I proposed the idea of an all-girl group, she yet again took an opposite route from Mrs. Davis, believing that the girls would be notably more successful in leadership than the all-boys group. However, similar to Mrs. Davis, Mrs. Morris also admitted that there were still obvious weaknesses with her chosen group, describing that “I think it would be different, I think the cruelty would be different.”
After these very informative interviews with teachers, I sought to find a more student-level opinion that could provide just as interesting answers, something I quickly found in freshman Ren Sonoda.
Ren quickly got to the point, answering who he thought might lead before I even had a chance to ask him the question. In his opinion, there would either be no one in charge (utter chaos), or that the leadership would be similar to Mrs. Davis’ depiction of governance, something he explained with the smart point that “I would assume the seniors. They’re basically adults at that point.”
Later in the discussion, he also proposed the idea of grade-based factions, where a leader might be chosen based on who could seize it the fastest. After even longer thinking on it, he also proposed that leadership could end up being determined by skill; For example, he thought that “we would definitely need somebody with computer engineering skills” and as a result, they may end up in charge.
Upon further conversation, it was clear that Ren had interpreted the prompt in a very unique way, as he quickly gravitated to the role technology would play in a more modern adaptation. Citing “the PA system, probably electronics, a laptop, a phone communication” as his list of important objects to control, going on to compare them to various symbols in the book, such as the signal fire and conch shell.
At the end of it all, it seems that what many have just passed off as your average ninth-grade reading may just be one of the most applicable and introspective pieces of literature if you are seeking a deeper look into Lovett’s social structure. Of course, given how badly things turn out for many of the characters, hopefully the book won’t be used as an instruction manual (unless it’s instructions on what not to do).
