In my English class for this quarter, we read the novel Lord of the Flies and analyzed how a group of kids fleeing from war would act if they were stranded on an island. As time went by, tensions grew on the island and most of the kids became savage like. Characters like Ralph and Piggy managed to remain civil throughout, but the other kids found a thirst for blood as evil within them revealed itself. In comparison, we watched the movie Castaway starring Tom Hanks after finishing Lord of the Flies which showed a different perspective on how life would be on a stranded island. In this story, Chuck Noland, Tom Hanks’ character, drifted to a lifeless island after a plane crash. He had to live off the limited resources from the island and packages that came to shore. He remains sane throughout his stay, with an exception in a  reference inferring that he had a plan to kill himself at one point.

Both stories are different in their own ways, but I believe the movie Castaway creates a more realistic situation. I think this because the number one priority should not be for power, but for survival and escape. In Lord of the Flies, the sense of emergency and danger is lost pretty quickly with the boys. When they first arrive they try to be civilized because they are “English boys” and it was what they are taught off. Ralph tries to maintain order by having assemblies and splitting the group of boys into two different jobs. The top priorities are to keep the signal fire going in case a ship passes by and to hunt the pigs on the island for food. As time goes on tensions rise arguing whether the top priority should be in keeping the fire going or gathering food. The group ends up splitting up with most boys going with Jack’s group. Jack’s group adapts to the island and become savages shown with face paint and their ruthless killings in pigs and eventually a couple of other kids including Piggy, being one of the last innocent boys. This novel is supposed to show that society keeps everyone civil and without it everyone would be evil. The boys are on the island for only a month before they go insane. It does not seem realistic as the boys completely forget who they are and seem to lose common sense. In Castaway Chuck Noland gets stranded on an Island for 5 years. He tries to stay as civilized as possible with only adapting when he has to. An example of this is knocking a tooth out because it had turned into a root canal. He remains knowledgable by using a wall in his cave to write down calculations of chance and number of days he has been on the island. He also always has a picture of his girlfriend as motivation to keep on living, hoping he will see her again. The knock on his sanity would be about Wilson, A volleyball he befriends, but I believe he did not befriend Wilson because he went crazy, but because he just needed something to talk to even if it was just a volleyball. Once a door of a porta potty comes to shore, he realizes he could build a raft and use it as a sail. He then goes out to shore and is able to get out to sea, eventually coming across a cargo ship. If you are wondering how he sailed a boat, earlier it showed trophies for sailing competitions.

In Lord of the Flies, they lose humanity and for them to not be motivated at the end to leave the island except for Ralph and Piggy does not seem realistic at all. Also, the evil that takes over the boys does not seem to realistic because that is just not how humanity works. The argument the author had made was that the madness demonstrated within the group of boys is how everyone truly is. It would have made more sense if the madness was a product of the world they escaped from. Castaway shows a more realistic situation with someone being stranded on an island.