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What are the consequences of verbal abuse in the novel Lord of the Flies by William Golding?
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In Lord of the Flies, verbal abuse has significant consequences, fostering distrust and division among the boys. Piggy, often mocked for his weight and asthma, becomes isolated, which discourages others from sharing their vulnerabilities. Ralph, despite his fairness, also partakes in this abuse, highlighting its pervasive nature. Simon's encounter with the verbally abusive Lord of the Flies foreshadows his death, illustrating how unchecked verbal aggression contributes to the group's moral descent and eventual violence.
Piggy is the victim of most of the verbal abuse, written off as incompetent because of his size. Ralph, the protagonist of the novel and the one who can most be relied upon to treat people fairly (with the exception of Simon, who exits in peace with everyone), falls under the easy default of verbally abusing Piggy too. In the very beginning, Piggy confides in Ralph that he doesn't want to be called the nickname he's so used to. But as soon as Ralph joins the group of boys, he's quick to throw Piggy under the bus: "He's not Fatty, his real name's Piggy!" This causes a "storm of laughter" among the boys, with even the tiniest joining in. The effect of this, therefore, is that it creates a divide and sense of distrust within the group.
The boys also taunt Piggy about his asthma: "Sucks to your...
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ass-mar!" they often tell him. Piggy suffers from very a real health problem on an island with no medication to control it. The effect this creates is demeaning of the struggles he, and by extension the other boys, faces. Each boy is fighting a battle, whether it is with loneliness, inner demons, or insecurities. Treating Piggy's struggle with such verbal abuse makes it much less likely (or impossible) for other boys to share their own struggles as they seek to remain part of the group.
In chapter 8, Simon faces the Lord of the Flies (which symbolically represents a couple of things but is most literally a projection of his dehydration at this point), who is verbally abusive to him. Simon is removed from the antics of the group for the duration of the book, providing a sense of calming wisdom. However, here the Lord of the Flies calls him "ignorant" and "silly." He tells Simon that he can't escape and that they will meet "down there." Simon leaves and ends up walking into his own death after this exchange. The taunts of the Lord of the Flies leads him to his end.
The boys' increasing slip into a world without rules means that they strip off their social constraints of speech, and the verbal abuse that results proves quite harmful, even leading to several deaths.