Theme Of Individuality Loss In The Novel Lord Of The Flies And Movie Gattaca

In William Golding’s book the Lord of the Flies, the story centers around a group of boys who survive a plane crash on a deserted island. The boys struggled through many hardships such as nominating a leader and getting necessities. While this is all happening, the boys are coping with their shifting personalities.

The boys all wanted to be perfect and It has significant effects on the group. In Gattaca, there is a very similar theme because there is a sense of perfection in this dystopian society that isn’t perfect. There are going to be people who are different from everyone else and the movie and the book does a fantastic job of describing that. Finally, the overall theme of both pieces is in an ideal society there should be more differences in people rather than similarities to create a perfect world.

In the book The Lord Of The Flies, there was a clear message about the boys losing their individuality. After Jack parts ways with Ralph and makes his tribe he becomes increasingly violent and hostile to the other boys. The longer that Jack was in charge of his tribe, you saw his personality alter into an authoritarian personality. As a leader, Jack would constantly take control of all decisions and force his followers to blindly follow his orders. By blindly following Jack, the other members lost all sense of their individuality and solely tried to please Jack.

The loss of individuality is such an important factor in both the movie and the book because it is the main theme throughout both. In Gattaca, they are in a futuristic society where everyone must conform to the norms. No one is their person. At the space station, everyone must follow the same routine every day. For example, at the security checks at the company, everyone must complete a very complex routine daily to make sure no Invalids are trespassing. This correlates to the loss of individuality because in this futuristic society they group people into two categories: Valid and Invalids. Segregating humans based solely on abilities is morally and ethically wrong. This strips people of their individuality.

Adding to this, I believe it was easy for Vincent to pretend to be someone else because there was no diversity of people. Everyone was forced to be similar. Yes, Jaron was physically stronger than Vincent and didn’t have a heart condition, but Vincent was able to cheat and lie and get to go into space because of the decreasing amount of individuality in that society. Finally, in Gattaca because everyone acted the same, dressed the same, and interacted with others in a certain way to me, it was a blatant sign of lack of individuality because no one stuck out from the others, everyone was very plain and simple.

There was a common underlying theme throughout the two pieces, the survival of the fittest. In Gattaca, Vincent has to pretend to be somebody else to achieve his dream of going into space. This is because, in that futuristic society, only the strongest people who will live a long life were able to go into space. Since Vincent had a heart defect and was not very strong they were just going to take away any possibility of him being able to achieve his dream. They would only let the strongest succeed. The Lord of the Flies has a similar survival of the fittest theme. The boys are just trying to survive on the island. At the beginning of the book, Jack and Ralph come together and try to make the best of everything and try to work together. This later proved to be an issue because Jack considered himself stronger and thinks that he will survive longer than Ralph because he doesn’t agree with Ralph's plans.

In both the world of Gattaca and Lord of the Flies, there is a very strong message of people yielding to conformity, or trying to fit in. Firstly, in Lord of the Flies, after Jack assumes his position as leader of his tribe, the other boys start to join and they start to yield to conformity. They slowly start to lose their identity. They were merely trying to fit in because they were terrified of what Jack would do to them. This was a direct correlation to humans in our world because it is showing how people will start to change how they act or what they say to fit in with others.

In Gattaca, the main character Vincent is a perfect example of someone who yielded to conformity to fit into a certain role. Vincent was unable to be accepted into the space program for who he was. He changed everything about himself from the way he dressed to how he talked and even his height. Vincent was a perfect example of how people in our society today will take drastic measures to fit in with others no matter the consequences.

The movie Gattaca and the book the Lord of the Flies did a perfect job of explaining how yielding to conformity or changing how we act can be very dangerous. As you saw in Gattaca, the longer Vincent was lying and not being himself, the more stress and pressure he was under to keep the lie. In Lord of the Flies, you saw how all the boys who joined Jack’s tribe had shifted their personality to satisfy Jack. They turned into murderers and horrible people. The boys stop acting like humans when they were around Jack. They completely changed. Both the director of Gattaca and the author of Lord of the Flies portrayed how dangerous yielding to conformity can be.

In conclusion, the movie and the book have common themes of conflict, personal struggles, and confusion. There were strict punishments for people who tried to be outside the norm. As well, there is an overall theme of a need for discipline and punishment. When the boys were on the island without parental advisor chaos ensued. As well, the similar theme between the two pieces was to explain how everyone being similar is harmful rather than helpful. What the world needs is more unique people to help shape our changing world.