In both Lord of the Flies and "My Kinsman, Major Molineux" the storylines consists of innocent children taken away from the society that raised them and placed in a state with no civilized authority. The children fail miserably even though their backgrounds should have provided a better defense against the instinctual desires of all mankind. Why does it seem that civilization, culture, and breeding yield to man's inherit characteristics when life becomes strenuous? Imperfection and sin are the true masters of men's hearts and emotions not their pasts, education, or upbringing.
             Civilized authority is the cornerstone upon which the government and society are based upon.It was the conch in Lord of the Flies(). It was the daylight in "My Kinsman, Major Molineux". Both books show the same result without it: the devolution of society. No society can function properly without some form of authority. This is shown in Lord of the Flies after the death of Piggy and the breaking of the conch, representing the destruction of rationality and civilized authority. What came after this event was absolute chaos with total destruction(). When the sunlight of reason went out in "My Kinsman, Major Molineux" fear ruled Robins choices and lead to him threatening a man out of this fear and eventually joining the mob().
             The children in both of these books were not life's under belly, but the peak of perfection within it". In Lord of the Flies the children on the Island came from British prep schools and in the beginning seemed to have been honorable, honest, and well civilized. Robin, a British boy also, in "My Kinsman, Major Molineux" was on a journey to live with his rich uncle and learn his ways." I thought it high time to begin in the world. So my mother and sister put me in handsome trim, and my father gave me half the remnant of his last year's sala...