Thursday, March 25, 2010

I need to write a thesis statement comparing Lord of the Flies and Julius Caesar. Any suggestions?

While the two works of literature vary greatly in topic, time frame, etc. there are commonalities between them.  One interesting topic to tackle would be the role of "mob mentality" in the violent actions that take place.  


Mob or herd mentality is the idea that people are influenced by their peers to perform certain acts, perhaps even acts that they would not perform on their own.  Certainly, a noble statesman like Brutus would not conceive of murdering the emperor; however, as part of the group, he does just that.  Likewise, Roger in Lord of the Flies had likely not contemplated murdering another boy before arriving on the island.  However, the group treatment of boys like Piggy leads him to do just that, rolling a large boulder at Piggy that knocks Piggy off a cliff and kills him.

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