Honors 10th
LOTF Essay
12/10/18
Human Aggression in Today’s Society
Humans often have aggressive feelings towards one another, but where do these feelings come from? There are many factors that can lead to human aggression such as your background and certain life experiences. Feeling a rush of anger is called impulsive aggression. This type of aggression is usually in response to someone else’s actions. This is how road rage incidents can happen, aggression coming in the heat of the moment. Aggression can not be directly linked to a pattern in the human body. There are many different types of aggression, such as physical mental and verbal aggression. Acting out in aggression is not the go-to emotion in humans, but it is a feeling everyone experiences.
Physical and mental health can cause how often someone experiences aggressive feelings. People that are diagnosed with ADHD, bipolar disorder and PTSD can be more likely to have aggressive feelings. In this case, it is uncontrollable for the person with the mental health condition, but there are many more contributing factors on how and why people experience human aggression. Human aggression affects people in different ways depending on their background. This includes personal experiences and relationships with others, along with their work or school. All of these stressors can often lead to an outburst in the form of human aggression. When occasional outburst become habitual, the aggressive behavior can become a issue. Outbursts of human aggression can lead to physical or emotional harm to others from physical and verbal abuse. When there becomes a pattern in these types of behaviors, it can lead to broken relationships and conflict.
Teens can act in an aggressive manner when responding to stress and peer pressure. In society today, teens can often feel stressed over school, friends and social media. All of this stress can lead to a unhealthy build up and release in an aggressive outbreak. Teens today are often persuaded and feel pressured by their peers. If one tries to stand up and refuse to give in, they are often made fun of and mocked. Choosing the right, but unpopular choice can add even more stress to the teen. Teens that struggle with substance abuse often become hostile and aggressive when confronting about the abuse. When talking about a sensitive topic such as substance abuse, teens are more likely to act out in an aggressive way.
In Lord of the Flies, the stranded teens are left to lead themselves, which is unfamiliar to everyone on the island. The anxiety affects the teens in different ways, they are faced with options. The two leaders, Ralph and Jack have different flee or fight methods to survive the island. Without real leadership on the island, many of the boys are overcome with stress and anxiety which leads to the aggressive behavior. This is shown when the “beast” Simon is slain. Verbal aggression is show on page 152 when the boys chant “Kill the beast! Cut his throat! Spill his blood!” repeatedly. The lost contact with humanity has turned Jack’s tribe into a group of savages. Ralph shows regret and remorse on page 157 saying “Don’t you understand, Piggy? The things we did—.” Piggy however, shows denial saying on page 157 “It was an accident, that’s what it was. An accident.” The boys acts out in aggression from the build up of the stress put on them at such a young age.
The boys in Lord of the Flies experience aggression just as everyone does, but in much more extreme circumstances. It is believed that professional fighters are not great at what they do because they are aggressive, it is because the fighter know how to strategically use this aggression to their advantage. The lack of control in the young teens in Lord of the Flies leads to such outbreaks that ultimately lead to the breakdown of the alliance between everyone. Humans can exert aggression to often express their anger, or displeasure but in Jack’s case, his aggression is used to assert his dominance as leader. This is known as instrumental aggression, as Jack’s long term goals is to gain control as leader of the boys.
The way the boys handled stress and aggression ultimately ended up causing conflict with each other. The boys lashed out from the uncontrollable emotions they had to deal with. The boys acted in unthinkable ways while delaying with extreme circumstances due to overwhelming stress. These acts of aggression can be attributed to the lack of supervision and the new found freedom. Everyone deals with these emotions at sometimes, but it is more important to focus on why this happens and how to control the aggressive behavior that all humans face.
https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/busting-myths-about-human-nature/201204/bad-the-bone-are-humans-naturally-aggressive
https://www.verywellmind.com/what-is-aggression-2794818
https://www.healthline.com/health/aggressive-behavior#causes