The novel Lord of
the Flies by William Golding, an adventure and suspense story, is written in
1857. The story sets on an deserted
Pacific coral island. A group of school boys are marooned on this island after
a plane crash on a trip to Australia.
The story begins
with a large number of school boys on an uninhabited tropical island and two of
the elder boys who have leadership qualities compete to achieve a semblance of
order so as to survive. Ralph, who has found a conch and blows it to summon all
the boys to a meeting, is concerned about the well being of everyone, while
Jack is more concerned with making rules and punishing offenders. However, only
one firm rule is established by Ralph and that is only the person holding the
conch will be permitted to speak at meetings. The two leaders soon discover
that they do not like each other because of their difference priorities and the
conflict begins between them. It causes the group to split into two, with
Jack=s followers being in the majority.
Ralph is
concerned with building shelters, arranging work and on being rescued but Jack
only wants to roam the jungle and hunt. The failure to establish rules soon
creates confusion and inappropriate behavior encouraged by Jack. Ralph=s only
supporter is Piggy, a fat asthmatic boys who nobody likes because he is always
lecturing and criticizing everyone=s behavior. Jack bullies him constantly and
the other boys make fun of him. Jack and his followers spend most of their time
hunting for wild pigs so Ralph=s efforts to organize the group fail. By now,
most of the older boys are beginning to act like savages, hunting wild pigs,
going into a frenzy when they succeed and celebrate their kill with wild
dancing around a fire.
One night during
an air-battle, a body of a parachutist lands on the island and has become
tangled on some rocks on the mountain. A rumor of a Abeast@ on their island
discovers that the beast the parachutist but unfortunately never has the
opportunity to tell the others. He is mistaken for the beast and is
accidentally killed during a wild celebration feast that takes place after a
successful hunt by Jack and his followers. Later on, Ralph=s last follower is
also killed but not by accident.
Ralph has lost
all his followers and is pursued by the others who want to kill him. Will he
survive? And who is the Lord of the Flies?
The story, full
of suspense and horror, captures my imagination and my interest throughout. The
author=s message of what mankind must guard against if the human race is to
survive is depicted through the boys= rapid transformation from school boys to
savages. In the novel, Ralph represents democratic societies while he tries to
hold a civil society together where every man is allowed personal freedom of
thought and actions and Jack represents dictators in the world who seek to
establish a society wherein a person is told that only if he contributes to
making his country the most powerful on Earth may be important as an
individual.
Lord of the Flies
is a novel exploring the disintegration of a society.
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