Summary
Young boys from 6-16 land on a mysterious island and find themselves without adults.Two of the most talked about boys, Ralph and Piggy, must lead the group to survival. Out of the gate Ralph becomes very prominent by giving orders, while Piggy goes with the majority. One of the other boys, Jack, becomes the alpha as Ralph is too orderly for the boys. The boys start to develop bonds, and at the same time break them. Ralph’s perspective on the situation is to develop order and Jack’s perspective is to hunt and kill to survive. These points of view crash and burn, causing war between the boys. The boys end up getting rescued, but what happens on the island is more important than getting off the island.
Symbolism
There were many examples of symbolism in Lord of the Flies, but one of the most prominent was the conch. The conch was used to call meetings and to discuss things with all of the boys. It was also used in the meetings; the person holding it was allowed to speak. The conch was the way all of the boys came together at the end of the book, but things fell apart very quickly. When the boys started to become independent the conch was called and there were not as many people that met. When the war begins at the end of the book, someone drops the conch and everything breaks.
The other item that showed a lot of symbolism was the fire. The fire was first lit when the boy’s decided to send a smoke signal to people possibly looking for them. There were boys in charge of tending the fire, they were Jack’s boys. Jack’s philosophy through the book was to hunt to survive, which is good, but also bad. When a boat passes the island, Ralph tells the boys to start the fire so the boat can see them. All of Jack’s boys were off hunting, so they could not start the fire. People start fighting and this breaks a lot of the boy’s relationship with Ralph. When the fire is burning, order is in place, when the fire is down, people start fighting.
Character Development
Some of the characters in Lord of the Flies did develop, but a lot of did not. Jack is a prime example of a character that did change. He was very naive in the beginning, but grew to be very dark and commanding. All of the boys were not mentally sane at the end of the book, because of the circumstances they were under. I feel this was why Jack changed, he became dark because all he could think of was survival, such as killing things so he could live. Piggy also developed in the opposite way. He was first very head strong and wanted to have input on the group. As the book progressed he was pushed around and got the feeling that he was not going to be able to have a big role in the group.
Society
Lord of the Flies was very relatable to how our society is run. This was my thought when I first started the book and looked for it through all of my reading. When our world is running the right way, when we have order and everyone is working together we have order. When people do not do what they are supposed to do, when we are fighting, we have chaos. This is the same in the book because when people fight and do not work, there is chaos.
Setting
There were 2 very specific settings where the boys stayed during their visit on the island, the beach and the jungle. The beach was the first place that we as readers were introduced to. The beach I first assumed would be a very pretty white sand beach, but when you listen to Ralph’s description is is much different that we would assume, “Then he leapt back on the terrace, pulled of his shirt, and stood there among the skull-like coconuts with green shadows from the palms and forest sliding over his skin. He undid the snake-clasp of his belt, lugged off his shorts and pants, and stood there naked, looking at the dazzling beach and the water.”. This quote I believe shows how the characters perceive the different settings. The forest is very dark and most of the boys are scared to go in it, before there is proof that there is not a beast living in it. The beach is very pretty and almost a safehaven for the characters.
Reality
Lord of the Flies could obviously happen in real life, people turning on each other, and surviving in a new place. The parts that are not very realistic are very important to the book. We were never told how the characters got to the island or how there were no adults with them. Piggy and Ralph briefly talked about it in the beginning saying the pilot dropped them on the island and then crashed into the sea. My first thought was how could you not recognise anyone from the plane, you must have had someone sitting next to you on the plane and know what the look like. The other controversial part of the book was that the book ended with a naval officer came on the island saying they saw the blazing fire from the forest, which was caused by the war. I wanted to book to end in a logical way, this was just a way to end the book. There was not resolution to any of the characters problems. The was just stopped and the book stopped. This made me very frustrated because when books end like this, they just stop. It was a very bad choice for this book because you want to see the characters make peace, the last impression you get from these characters is panic and fighting from the war.
Conclusion
Overall, this book had many good lessons and characters. This book was ultimately Golding's view of what our future could be like; he wrote this book so that we could learn what not to do in the future. I really enjoyed this book’s concept, but disliked how the book was not very realistic. We can definitely learn from what the boy’s went through and apply it to our own lives. The book was very enjoyable and I would recommend it to anyone who likes adventure that has lessons through it that can apply to you.
by Allison B. (submitted by Mrs. Whelan)
