Nurture vs. Nature

Jhazzelle Majarucon

Nurture vs. Nature

What controls human behavior? This question may have a lot of answers to it, but most people believe that humans have self-control. Some may say that it is all because of the genes; the things that a person is born with. However, not only do others believe in that but, some considers the environment as one of the factors that influences human behavior. Humans also interact and socialize with other people which builds up conflict, agreement, disagreement, and confusion. That causes change and the development of one’s mind. The environment influences the way people live, act, and deal with things. A change in behavior may occur as the environment changes.

In the beginning of the novel, “The Lord of The Flies” by William Golding, the children whose plane crashed on an isolated island showed their innocence and their child-like personalities. But, as the situation gets harder and harder each day they realized that due to the absence of the adults or any assistance, things were a lot harder. This caused most of them to transition from being modest to savage. In chapter 4 of the book, Jack, the chief of his own tribe, had a new strategy for hunting where he wanted to look like something else. So, he painted this mask on his face using a charcoal stick to conceal his features as it showed change in his personality. “The mask was a thing on its own, behind which Jack hid, liberated from shame and self-consciousness.” (64) At this point of the story, it showed that the freedom offered to Jack by the island allowed him to express the darker sides of his personality that he hid from the beliefs of his past environment. The mask hides Jack away because it turned him into an aggressive and savage version of himself. The mask allowed Jack and the other children to conceal their identities as they were free from becoming a “new person”. Not only did the mask conceal Jack’s identity, but it gave him more power which made others scared and intimidated of Jack.

Rituals began to form on the island with the children as it happened on a daily basis. The rituals may have benefitted them for survival and coordination, but, these rituals had a serious effect on their minds and behaviors. The children turned out to be savages throughout the course of the book as they do things more as their way of entertainment. The island gave them too much freedom which allowed them to show the dark sides of themselves. “Kill the pig! Cut his throat! Kill the pig! Bash him in!” (114) This was the chant that they would use either at the last moment of a hunt or in celebration of their successful hunt. The words clearly shows the act of violence in the children and how they connect violence with entertainment. At this point of the story, they were chanting for the excitement of having a fresh flesh from the pig as it showed their satisfaction of killing a pig. Based on their experiences on the island the children’s mindsets have changed in a way that violence wasn’t feared among them. But because they see violence as entertainment they still tend to have the mindset of a child. If they were a grown up, violence would be done in a serious manner and not in a jokingly manner like the children in the book. I think that Golding tried to show the difference between the mindset of a child versus the mindset of an adult based off of an unfamiliar situation in the wilderness while showing the relationship between the people and their environment.

In the real world,  children are more likely to be influenced by their surroundings because of their “nature” which is the gene and “nurture”, the way the person was raised growing up. According to Judith Rich Harris, a psychology researcher who is also the author of The Nurture Assumption, heredity and environment are two things that shapes a child. She described the difference between “nurture” and  “nature”. She says that using nurture as a synonym for environment is based off of the assumption about what influences a child’s growth, apart from genes, is how the child was brought up along with its surroundings. “The environment is just as important as the genes. The things children experience while they are growing up are just as important as the things they are born with.” (nytimes.com) She is saying that not everything is genetic; human minds are shaped by how they were raised and what they are surrounded by. Not only do genes make people who they are but the surroundings impact a person’s individuality.  This relates back to my thesis statement and my examples from the paragraphs above because it shows the importance of the environment in shaping individuals just like how the island shaped the actions and thoughts of the children.

Another example in the real world that relates to my above examples from the book is from the source, environment.yale.edu talking about “How personality traits are associated with environmental engagement”. Scientists and psychologists have done studies about different personalities that correlates to environment engagement. They knew that to change a person’s behavior towards the environment, they had to understand the personality of the person. “Personality informs people’s beliefs, values, and attitudes, and scientists have found that personality factors can influence our likelihood to engage in environmentally sensitive practices.” (environment.yale.edu) What the author is trying to say is that the change in behavior in an environment is all because of the psychological factors that affect a person’s attitude. Personalities does affect the environment just like how the environment affects a person. One can’t take away someone’s personality because it is already built into that person’s system, but it can always be altered by the environment. No matter how much a person’s behavior is affected by its surroundings its individual-level personality traits will always remain.

In conclusion, there are a lot of ways that a person’s behavior can be changed or developed. The children in the book had created new personalities to themselves because the island gave them a lot of freedom to express themselves and liberate their real identity. The change in environment resulted in the change of behavior. We are always built with our own traits but it can always be altered by our environment and the people around us. In short, it’s not always about the genes or the things we were born with; our surroundings moves and shapes us and it will determine what a person’s future self will be tomorrow. To end all this, I conclude that the environment does affect us as individuals and a person continues to develop itself in the surrounding that it is in.

Works Cited:

Golding, William. Lord of The Flies

New York: Perigee, 2006

Harris, Judith Rich. "The Nurture Assumption." Nytimes. The New York Times Company, 1998. Web. 7 Apr. 2016. https://www.nytimes.com/books/first/h/harris-nurture.html

Thomas, Liz. "How Personality Traits Are Associated with Environmental Engagement." Environment.yale. Yale School of Forestry & Environmental Studies, 31 Mar. 2014. Web. 7 Apr. 2016. https://environment.yale.edu/yer/article/how-personality-traits-are-associated-with-environmental-engagement