Blog #198: “Lord of the Flies” (1963) and How we Handle Society Breakdowns as an Autisti
- Jeffrey Snyder
- Mar 9, 2022
- 4 min read
In keeping with the continuing theme of Autism/Neurodiversity and representation in films, I want to cover what happens when our views of a perfect society within a community can crumble into the following:
I am referring, of course, to the 1963 film adaptation of “Lord of the Flies.”
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Hugh Edwards as Piggy and James Aubrey as Ralph in “Lord of the Flies” (1963)
Originally written by William Golding, “Lord of the Flies” is about a group of 30 English Schoolboys who are evacuated from England during the Second World War and end up on a deserted island after their plane crashes. The novel starts out civilized, but then quickly dissolves into chaos as the story progresses.
Let’s look at the two main characters of the story, Ralph (James Aubrey) and Jack (Tom Chapin). Each character is a representation of good and evil with Ralph representing a society that has law and order while Jack is a representation of breaking the rules and causing trouble. This is especially true when it comes to autism/neurodiverse circles.
Of course, what connects Ralph and Jack is the fact that they each have very strong mindsets for the environment that they live in. Autistic/Neurodiverse individuals each are in a competition of sorts for a battle of inner wills.
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James Aubrey as Ralph in “Lord of the Flies” (1963)
Beginning with Ralph, Ralph is a boy that comes to define both being a role model and a natural born leader like a lot of autistic/neurodiverse individuals within the community. Everyone looks up to him because he is a wise and caring leader who is holding everyone together to the best of his ability.
Not to say that he is a qualified saint, of course. But Ralph comes to represent that while he does have good intentions for himself and those around him, he learns that all good things either must come to an end or they don’t work out the way we want to. Even the most popular and powerful community leaders aren’t perfect and that is no different within the autism/neurodiversity community.
Which, of course, causes his emotional breakdown at the end to be all the more significant in the sense that nobody can save the world, something that I have had to learn multiple times in my life. Yes, I am one of many role models within the autism/neurodiversity and disability communities, but I am never going to be perfect.
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Now, sometimes it’s with each other, other times its within us, but those battle of inner wills can often relate to a matter of self-control and that’s what goes on with the main antagonist, Jack.
At the beginning of the novel, he seems to be in a tight position with leading the school choir, longing to be free of both his physical and mental chains that are holding him. He is also someone who is always trying to seek attention to himself, something that a lot of neurodiverse individuals will try to do around others.
Jack also is a representation of what happens when we don’t take specific things very well, which is true when it comes to the building of the community amongst the boys on the island. When we don’t get something we want or something doesn’t go our way, we end up not taking it well sometimes. This, among other events during the novel, end up turning him and his supporters into monsters.
Jack is also a representation of what happens when our imaginations run wild. As a neurodiverse individual, my imagination can certainly run wild with fantasies of people, places and things that can never exist in reality.
His ideals that a “beast” is running amok on the island are very dangerous ideals that can often result in dire consequences in the case of Simon, one of the choir boys who ends up getting brutally killed by the boys when they mistake him for the “beast.”
The same goes for Ralph’s second-in-command, Piggy, who wants nothing more to survive only to end up flattened like a pancake just because Jack and his corrupted followers were too deluded to listen to what he had to say.
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In conclusion, “Lord of the Flies” was a novel that I may have read during my sophomore year of high school, but it has come to open my eyes more from a neurodiverse perspective of what happens when our seemingly perfect world comes crashing down around us. My world has come crashing down a few times, but I rebuild it every time it comes down.
This holds true in today’s polarizing society with a pandemic, social unrest and a growing conflict in Eastern Europe. Many of our perfect worlds come crashing down and while both worlds came crashing down in “Lord of the Flies,” eventually they will come back up for all involved, but they may never be the same given the time period the novel takes place in which is World War II.
Could there be a similar situation for people like the 30 schoolboys in the novel? It’s possible, but only time will tell. Until then, I encourage schools to continue sharing this story with students because the lessons here don’t apply to just neurodiverse and special education students, but neurotypical and general education students as well.
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Catch you all later!!
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