Lord of the flies door William Golding

Summary: The book is about a group of school boys, who have crashed with an airplane on an island. The boys are all divided over the island. In the beginning Piggy meets Ralph. Piggy is fat and has asthma and glasses. Ralph is, in contrast of Piggy, a good looking boy. They make a way through the jungle to the beach, where they find a platform. Piggy finds a conch, and persuades Ralph to blow the conch, to summons all the boys. First only little boys arrive, but later also older boys. Also a group of boys arrive wearing all the same uniform. It is a choir of a public school, the head of the choir is Jack Merridew. All the boys hold a meeting, where they choose a leader. Jack wants to be the leader, because he is the head of the choir and he can sing the best. Then Roger proposes that they vote. The majority votes for Ralph. Jack doesn’t like that, and Ralph lets him be the boss over the choir. The boys don’t know for sure if it is an uninhabited island, so Ralph, Jack and Simon are going to walk to the top of the mountain. They find out that it is an uninhabited island. Because they want to be saved of the island, they make a fire with the glasses of Piggy. After that, they divided the tasks among them. They appoint a fire guard that will make the fire keep on burning. The choir boys will become the hunters. The other boys will search for fruit and make a shelter. After a few days little was accomplished, there was only one good shelter and most children preferred playing instead of doing there duties. Only the hunters like to hunt and they where doing that the most of the time. On one day there a boat was sailing past the Island. Ralph and Piggy sees that, but they also see that the fire doesn’t burn anymore. Than Jack comes with a pig on the beach. Ralph becomes angry on him that he let the fire go out, Ralph says sorry but still thinks that hunting is more important than the fire. The eat the pig. Lot of the littluns (little children) are afraid for the beast, however the bigguns (older children) say that the beast doesn’t exist, they still are afraid. Also Jack wants to become the leader of the group. Than sees the twins (Sam and Eric) a dead parachutist and they think that it is the beast. They warm the other, and Ralph and Jack and the rest of the choir are going to find the beast. They are going to search by Castle Rock, because they have never been there. They don’t find there a beast and they’re going to search on other place. Jack’s hunting instinct is coming out him and they are doing a game where one is the pig and the other hunt on them. When a boy Robert was the pig they forget that it is a game and the really hurt him. During the hunt they climb up the mountain, there they see the dead parachutist (which they think that it is a beast) and they flee back to the beach. They don’t know what to do, they want to kill it, but they are afraid. Jack wants to become leader again and he goes in the forest and says that everyone who wants him as a leader must follow him. Only Ralph, Piggy, Simon, Sam and Eric stay behind. Because of the beast, Ralph and the rest decide that the move the fire to the beach. Jack and his group are doing more cruel things, like putting a pigs head on a stock for the beast. Simon sees the pig’s head with flies, and begins to talk to it. In Simons mind the pig answers him, and says that in every boy a beast is. Jack also realizes that they need fire so they steel equipment from Ralph. Simon finds out that the beast on the mountain only a dead parachutist is; he goes to the fire to tell the others. By the fire Jack and his club are dancing Piggy and Ralph are also there. When Simon runs down, he screen beast, beast. The people by the fire think that it is the beast and they kill Simon, later the see that it was Simon, it was an accident. Jack makes his camp at castle rock. He becomes crueller, and he hurt a boy to show that he is the leader. Jack raid Ralph, Piggy, Sam and Eric. They take Piggy glasses. Piggy can’t see a thing more. Ralph group are going to take Piggy glasses back, but that went wrong. The twins are tied. Then they destroyed the conch and Piggy is thrown of the rock, and he is dead. Ralph flees. Ralph hides, he is going to meet the twins. They say that there is a hunt on him tomorrow. Ralph tells them his hiding place. Under pressure the twins tell it too Jack. Jack tries to kill Ralph, but that fails. They set his hiding place on fire, and Ralph must flee. The run after him, and they fight. Ralph runs to the beach, where he meets a marine. The officer is shocked of the hand made weapons and the two deaths. Persons: Ralph: He is the brave hero-figure, he believes in democracy and fair play for everyone. He is a good looking boy and he knows what to do. When he was chose to be the leader instead of Jack he immediately gave Jack the charge of the choir and let him choose what they want to do. In the begin Ralph is innocent and he makes mistakes because he is unaware of the evil. Ralph really wants to be saved and he also wants to help a lot. Piggy: He is the smartest of al boys, true, and loyal boy, who advised Ralph what to do. He has handicaps to, which makes him socialize unacceptable for the other boys. Some handicaps are psychical; he is fat, myopic and suffers from asthma. Other handicaps are social, he has no sense of humour, he is a continual mockery, and he is not practical. Piggy can be seen as a person who thinks ratio. Jack: Is the person that is fast going back to the primitive thoughts. He has a natural authority about others and the ability to influence boys. He wants a lot of rules, not for the sake of order, but that he can punish them who break them, like a dictator. Jack can be compared with the devil, which lures men away from good. Simon: is a saint-like figure, he is the one that find out that the beast is not something that the boys can kill or hurt, but that it is part of them. And that the beast on the top of the mountain just a dead parachutist. When he wants to tell it to the rest he is killed by Jack group. He likes to help people a lot. But he is also very introvert, he need to go sometimes to his secret hiding place. He is the only one of Jack choir group, who doesn’t join it. Roger: is the sadist, he only takes pleasure out hurting people and force his will upon others. He is Jack right hand and the executioner of the group of Jack.
Time: You don’t know exactly when the story happened; you only can guess that it is fifty years back, because now you don’t have so many public schools. It took long before they where found so that means that it most be a long time ago. Place: The Place where story plays is an uninhabited island. That is important for the story, because in an uninhabited island there are no rules or grown up, so than can such things happen. Point of view: The story is told by the author, so you know the thought of more people. You mostly see the story from Ralph point of view. Sometimes also from Jack, Simon of Piggy. That is important for the story because otherwise you miss things of the story. Structure: The story is chronological, that is good, because it is a difficult story, and it would be much more difficult if it was not chronological. There is not an open end. Title: The title is ‘Lord of the Flies’. The Lord of the Flies comes back in the book as a pig on a stock as food for the beast. The Lord of the Flies let Simon see that the beast is part of every boy. What an important thing is of the book. Lord of the flies is a translation of the word Beelzebub, one of the devil names. Meaning: The story shows that in every man a ‘beast’ is. It also shows how important it is to rules, because without rules there will something happen like in the book. The boys show a perfect reflection of the society. That this could happen in the book is mostly because the boys are all public school boys. On the Public school they haven’t learn good to think by them self and then such thing can happen
My opinion: I found a difficult book, especially where the surroundings were described, because the writer used there many difficult words. But the important parts of the story, such as the dialog, where easy to understand. I liked the story a lot and I found it very good write.