Bibliography
The book I read is called ‘Lord of the Flies’ and it is written by William Golding. He dedicated it to his mother and father. The book counts 225 pages and was first published in 1954 by Faber and Faber limited. The story was filmed by Peter Brook in 1963.
The story/contents
A plane crashes on an uninhabited, tropical island. Strangely enough, all survivors are kids. All adults have either died, or were never even on the plane. There are a lot of boys, no girls. Some of them are very little, six years old for instance. There are also boys who are eleven or twelve years old. They take up the lead. The story starts with Ralph and Piggy on the beach; they talk about the crash and wonder whether they are the only ones who survived, if there really were no adults etc. Ralph suddenly sees a very big shell, a conch, Piggy tells Ralph. Ralph decides to go out and get the beautiful shell. Piggy comes up with the idea to blow the horn to call for other survivors. Ralph blows the conch and many, many boys come crawling out of the jungle. They gather up and listen to what Ralph has to say. Ralph thinks that there ought to be rules for everybody to keep to, and there should come a fire to create smoke so that passing-by ships will see it and they will all be rescued. He also says that there ought to be a leader. Then Jack appears with his choir, he is a very arrogant boy and states that he wants to be the leader. Piggy points out that Ralph found the conch and called the meeting. There is a vote and Ralph is chosen for a leader, Jack is angry and jealous. To gain Jack’s trust, Ralph suggests that Jack’s choir can be the hunters, and he could lead them. Jack agrees. Ralph makes up some rules, like that you can only talk in an assembly if you’ve got the conch and that a fire must be made on top of the mountain. When a fire on the beach grows to be a big forest-fire, a little boy gets killed. From this point on Ralph wants to stick to the rules very thoroughly, unfortunately no-one takes him that serious. Three of the big boys build some huts together, the others are too busy with fooling around, swimming and trying to catch some pigs. At one point a little boy gets really scared, he believes that there’s a horrible beast on the island and all little boys believe him, they are all scared, no matter what the big boys tell them. When Sam and Eric (a twin) are assigned to watch and maintain the fire, a dead parachutist drops onto the island, the two boys that are scared as hell don’t understand that it’s just a parachutist and they run down, very scared and tell everyone that they’ve been attacked by the beast. Nobody dares go up the mountain again, eventually a small group of boys do and they do not discover the beast. The rivalry between Jack and Ralph grows stronger every day; they continue having arguments about hunting. Ralph says that it’s not that important because there is enough fruit on the island but Jack wants to be important to the group, so this makes him very angry. Jack gets so agitated that he asks the group of children if they still want Ralph for a leader, they do. Jack decides to leave the group and eventually, a whole bunch of little and big boys go with him because he promises a whole lot of fun and good food for them. But Jack doesn’t have some important things to be able to survive, like the access to fire. So they sneak up on Ralph, Piggy and the boys who stayed behind and just steal the fire from them. Jack goes hunting for pigs with his group, a pig's head is put up on a stick and the boys all dance and celebrate. The pigs head is now the ‘Lord of the Flies’. Simon meets the beast and understands that it is only a dead parachutist, he runs down to the beach where the party is in full motion, he wants to tell the boys that there really is no beast but the boys are so caught up in the dance and the party that they think that Simon is the beast and they kill him. Ralph and Piggy saw all of this happening and they are disgusted with themselves, that they just let it happen and didn’t lift a finger. All of the boys now stayed with Jack. Ralph, Piggy, Sam and Eric are just with the four of them now. Jack and his group of vicious hunters steal Piggy’s glasses, Ralph tries to get them back but with doing this, Piggy is killed. Sam and Eric got so scared that they, too, joined Jack. Ralph is all alone now. He is hurt and he is being hunt on. Sam and Eric kind of try to help him but then they tell jack where he is and the hunters hunt him down, Ralph races to the beach and runs into a navy officer. At once, everything is back to normal. Their little game is over and they are suddenly little boys again. Just a bunch of filthy kids who really need a bath and a proper meal, a bunch of kids who have just been playing a “game”. They get on the ship and leave the island.
Characters
Ralph: Ralph is twelve years old and gets onto the island as a spoiled, annoying and arrogant boy, but he develops himself during the story, he tries to do the best for the group of boys when he is chosen as a leader. He doesn’t like Piggy at all in the beginning, but he slowly begins to see Piggy’s intelligence and his reason. He is also very handsome, with his firm body and his pretty blond hair. As the story progresses, he turns out to be one of the few boys that chooses the ‘right’ side. (Together with Piggy and Simon). Ralph stands for democracy and order in the story, he tries to explain the boys that certain things are very important, but only a few boys acknowledge his rules and really stick to them.
Jack: Jack is the head of the boys choir, he is a very arrogant boy yet he is not handsome, like Ralph. He is fair-haired but very tall, thin and bony. He has light-blue eyes. At first he just seems a little arrogant, like Ralph, but he develops himself to be a total cruel boy, with no common sense at all. He actually is very jealous of Ralph, that he was elected for a leader and not him, Jack Merridew. You see this throughout the whole story, with every argument the two boys have and eventually with the hunting-down of Ralph. Jack would probably have killed Ralph if that navy officer wouldn’t have been on the beach. I think that Jack is the personification of evil and savagery in this story.
Piggy: Piggy is probably the smartest boy of the whole group, he immediately thinks of the things that are most important for the group and he tries to tell that to Ralph and the other boys, but no-one listens to him at first. This because he is kind of fat and ugly, he wears glasses and he has asthma. Eventually Piggy convinces Ralph of his insights and he becomes the ‘advisor’ of Ralph. His father is dead, what happened to his mother isn’t that clear but he used to live with his aunt who had a sweetshop. Piggy isn’t even his real name, he told Ralph in confidence that boys used to tease him with that name and that he really doesn’t like it, but Ralph just calls him Piggy in one of the assemblies and everybody picks up on that. He rationalises everything that passes him and he let’s his common sense do the thinking, not his feelings. Although he is picked on by everybody but Ralph and Simon, he is of a big importance to the group of boys because he has glasses and with them creating a fire is made possible. Piggy also chooses the right side when the group splits up and this actually gets him killed. Jack and Roger push a huge rock off of a cliff and it hits Piggy. He passes away.
Sam and Eric: Sam and Eric are twins, they do everything together. They too stay on the good side for a long time, but they eventually get so scared of Jack and his group, that they join them. They have a good heart, but they aren’t really courageous because they join Jack in fear of their own lives and they tell Roger where Ralph is hiding because of fear too.
Roger: Roger is Jack’s right hand, he fixes all Jack’s dirty jobs and he hates Ralph and Piggy from the bottom of his heart. He really likes being cruel to people, just like Jack. I guess that he, too, stands for evil.
Simon: Simon doesn’t really fit in any group; he is older than the little kids and younger than the big boys. He is kind of lonely. He doesn’t really do much on the island but his intentions are good and he, too, chooses the right side. He meets the Lord of the Flies (the pig’s head), who warns him not to interrupt the boys with their fun, otherwise they would come after him. Simon keeps to this and stays on the background, until one day he meets the ‘beast’ and realises that it isn’t a beast at all. He then runs to the beach to tell the partying boys that the beast does not exist and that it’s just a dead parachutist but they think that he is the beast and they kill him.
Lord of the Flies: The Lord of the Flies is a pig’s head on a stick which Jack made as an offer to the beast. To Simon it represents the spirit of the island, who commands him and tells him things. You could actually conclude that it is the spirit of the island, or the boys. Because it is very ugly, vicious and it just wants the boys to have fun.
Time & Place
The story takes place while or right after a (fictitious) nuclear war. I know this because there is spoken about an atomic bomb. This isn’t important to the storyline at all, but it is the reason why the boys ended up on that island. They were being evacuated and the plane crashed. Well, at least that’s what I think. Maybe the author had a whole other reason for the boys to be on that island but I think that this is probably the best explanation as to why and how they got there. The story takes place on an uninhabited tropical island somewhere in the ocean. This is very important for the story because it’s the reason why the boys completely have to look after themselves. I find it hard to guess where the island might have been on earth. Probably in the South pacific, but I don’t know for sure. It is very warm on the island, and from time to time there is heavy rainfall, but it is never cold, so it is probably somewhere near the equator as well. As to where the boys are on the island, well, this fluctuates. They are mostly on the beach, sometimes on top of the mountain to maintain the fire and the hunters are often in the woods. But the story mostly takes place on the beach.
Structure
I think that I have made the structure of the book or story quite clear in my summary. I will leave it at that.
Point of view
The story is told by an all-knowing person, or rather the omniscient narrator. He sometimes enters the mind of a kid, but most of the time he only describes what is happening on the island. I like this way of writing, because it allows you to judge the people on your own and form your own opinion about everyone. Your opinion isn’t being blurred by an obviously prejudiced point of view from one the characters.
Title/subtitle
The title of this book is very easy to explain. The Lord of the Flies is a pig’s head on a stick, with flies crawling all over it and feeding themselves from it. You can view the Lord of the Flies as the subconsciousness of Simon, because it warns him not to interrupt the fun of the boys or he will be hunted. You could even see it as the personification of evil. It was made with nothing but cruel intentions, by cruel and vicious boys who just lost their common sense with no parents around.
Dedication/motto
I wanted to read this book for a long time because my former English teacher always recommended it to me, saying that it was a great book to read. So I followed his advice and read it. At first I thought, my god, why have I chosen this book? I found it very boring and long-winded, but after a while I started to appreciate the detailed descriptions of everything that happened on the island and what the boys were doing. It took me a while, but at the end I really liked the book, I would definitely recommend it to other people.
The book I read is called ‘Lord of the Flies’ and it is written by William Golding. He dedicated it to his mother and father. The book counts 225 pages and was first published in 1954 by Faber and Faber limited. The story was filmed by Peter Brook in 1963.
The story/contents
A plane crashes on an uninhabited, tropical island. Strangely enough, all survivors are kids. All adults have either died, or were never even on the plane. There are a lot of boys, no girls. Some of them are very little, six years old for instance. There are also boys who are eleven or twelve years old. They take up the lead. The story starts with Ralph and Piggy on the beach; they talk about the crash and wonder whether they are the only ones who survived, if there really were no adults etc. Ralph suddenly sees a very big shell, a conch, Piggy tells Ralph. Ralph decides to go out and get the beautiful shell. Piggy comes up with the idea to blow the horn to call for other survivors. Ralph blows the conch and many, many boys come crawling out of the jungle. They gather up and listen to what Ralph has to say. Ralph thinks that there ought to be rules for everybody to keep to, and there should come a fire to create smoke so that passing-by ships will see it and they will all be rescued. He also says that there ought to be a leader. Then Jack appears with his choir, he is a very arrogant boy and states that he wants to be the leader. Piggy points out that Ralph found the conch and called the meeting. There is a vote and Ralph is chosen for a leader, Jack is angry and jealous. To gain Jack’s trust, Ralph suggests that Jack’s choir can be the hunters, and he could lead them. Jack agrees. Ralph makes up some rules, like that you can only talk in an assembly if you’ve got the conch and that a fire must be made on top of the mountain. When a fire on the beach grows to be a big forest-fire, a little boy gets killed. From this point on Ralph wants to stick to the rules very thoroughly, unfortunately no-one takes him that serious. Three of the big boys build some huts together, the others are too busy with fooling around, swimming and trying to catch some pigs. At one point a little boy gets really scared, he believes that there’s a horrible beast on the island and all little boys believe him, they are all scared, no matter what the big boys tell them. When Sam and Eric (a twin) are assigned to watch and maintain the fire, a dead parachutist drops onto the island, the two boys that are scared as hell don’t understand that it’s just a parachutist and they run down, very scared and tell everyone that they’ve been attacked by the beast. Nobody dares go up the mountain again, eventually a small group of boys do and they do not discover the beast. The rivalry between Jack and Ralph grows stronger every day; they continue having arguments about hunting. Ralph says that it’s not that important because there is enough fruit on the island but Jack wants to be important to the group, so this makes him very angry. Jack gets so agitated that he asks the group of children if they still want Ralph for a leader, they do. Jack decides to leave the group and eventually, a whole bunch of little and big boys go with him because he promises a whole lot of fun and good food for them. But Jack doesn’t have some important things to be able to survive, like the access to fire. So they sneak up on Ralph, Piggy and the boys who stayed behind and just steal the fire from them. Jack goes hunting for pigs with his group, a pig's head is put up on a stick and the boys all dance and celebrate. The pigs head is now the ‘Lord of the Flies’. Simon meets the beast and understands that it is only a dead parachutist, he runs down to the beach where the party is in full motion, he wants to tell the boys that there really is no beast but the boys are so caught up in the dance and the party that they think that Simon is the beast and they kill him. Ralph and Piggy saw all of this happening and they are disgusted with themselves, that they just let it happen and didn’t lift a finger. All of the boys now stayed with Jack. Ralph, Piggy, Sam and Eric are just with the four of them now. Jack and his group of vicious hunters steal Piggy’s glasses, Ralph tries to get them back but with doing this, Piggy is killed. Sam and Eric got so scared that they, too, joined Jack. Ralph is all alone now. He is hurt and he is being hunt on. Sam and Eric kind of try to help him but then they tell jack where he is and the hunters hunt him down, Ralph races to the beach and runs into a navy officer. At once, everything is back to normal. Their little game is over and they are suddenly little boys again. Just a bunch of filthy kids who really need a bath and a proper meal, a bunch of kids who have just been playing a “game”. They get on the ship and leave the island.
Characters
Ralph: Ralph is twelve years old and gets onto the island as a spoiled, annoying and arrogant boy, but he develops himself during the story, he tries to do the best for the group of boys when he is chosen as a leader. He doesn’t like Piggy at all in the beginning, but he slowly begins to see Piggy’s intelligence and his reason. He is also very handsome, with his firm body and his pretty blond hair. As the story progresses, he turns out to be one of the few boys that chooses the ‘right’ side. (Together with Piggy and Simon). Ralph stands for democracy and order in the story, he tries to explain the boys that certain things are very important, but only a few boys acknowledge his rules and really stick to them.
Piggy: Piggy is probably the smartest boy of the whole group, he immediately thinks of the things that are most important for the group and he tries to tell that to Ralph and the other boys, but no-one listens to him at first. This because he is kind of fat and ugly, he wears glasses and he has asthma. Eventually Piggy convinces Ralph of his insights and he becomes the ‘advisor’ of Ralph. His father is dead, what happened to his mother isn’t that clear but he used to live with his aunt who had a sweetshop. Piggy isn’t even his real name, he told Ralph in confidence that boys used to tease him with that name and that he really doesn’t like it, but Ralph just calls him Piggy in one of the assemblies and everybody picks up on that. He rationalises everything that passes him and he let’s his common sense do the thinking, not his feelings. Although he is picked on by everybody but Ralph and Simon, he is of a big importance to the group of boys because he has glasses and with them creating a fire is made possible. Piggy also chooses the right side when the group splits up and this actually gets him killed. Jack and Roger push a huge rock off of a cliff and it hits Piggy. He passes away.
Sam and Eric: Sam and Eric are twins, they do everything together. They too stay on the good side for a long time, but they eventually get so scared of Jack and his group, that they join them. They have a good heart, but they aren’t really courageous because they join Jack in fear of their own lives and they tell Roger where Ralph is hiding because of fear too.
Roger: Roger is Jack’s right hand, he fixes all Jack’s dirty jobs and he hates Ralph and Piggy from the bottom of his heart. He really likes being cruel to people, just like Jack. I guess that he, too, stands for evil.
Simon: Simon doesn’t really fit in any group; he is older than the little kids and younger than the big boys. He is kind of lonely. He doesn’t really do much on the island but his intentions are good and he, too, chooses the right side. He meets the Lord of the Flies (the pig’s head), who warns him not to interrupt the boys with their fun, otherwise they would come after him. Simon keeps to this and stays on the background, until one day he meets the ‘beast’ and realises that it isn’t a beast at all. He then runs to the beach to tell the partying boys that the beast does not exist and that it’s just a dead parachutist but they think that he is the beast and they kill him.
Lord of the Flies: The Lord of the Flies is a pig’s head on a stick which Jack made as an offer to the beast. To Simon it represents the spirit of the island, who commands him and tells him things. You could actually conclude that it is the spirit of the island, or the boys. Because it is very ugly, vicious and it just wants the boys to have fun.
Time & Place
The story takes place while or right after a (fictitious) nuclear war. I know this because there is spoken about an atomic bomb. This isn’t important to the storyline at all, but it is the reason why the boys ended up on that island. They were being evacuated and the plane crashed. Well, at least that’s what I think. Maybe the author had a whole other reason for the boys to be on that island but I think that this is probably the best explanation as to why and how they got there. The story takes place on an uninhabited tropical island somewhere in the ocean. This is very important for the story because it’s the reason why the boys completely have to look after themselves. I find it hard to guess where the island might have been on earth. Probably in the South pacific, but I don’t know for sure. It is very warm on the island, and from time to time there is heavy rainfall, but it is never cold, so it is probably somewhere near the equator as well. As to where the boys are on the island, well, this fluctuates. They are mostly on the beach, sometimes on top of the mountain to maintain the fire and the hunters are often in the woods. But the story mostly takes place on the beach.
Structure
I think that I have made the structure of the book or story quite clear in my summary. I will leave it at that.
The story is told by an all-knowing person, or rather the omniscient narrator. He sometimes enters the mind of a kid, but most of the time he only describes what is happening on the island. I like this way of writing, because it allows you to judge the people on your own and form your own opinion about everyone. Your opinion isn’t being blurred by an obviously prejudiced point of view from one the characters.
Title/subtitle
The title of this book is very easy to explain. The Lord of the Flies is a pig’s head on a stick, with flies crawling all over it and feeding themselves from it. You can view the Lord of the Flies as the subconsciousness of Simon, because it warns him not to interrupt the fun of the boys or he will be hunted. You could even see it as the personification of evil. It was made with nothing but cruel intentions, by cruel and vicious boys who just lost their common sense with no parents around.
Dedication/motto
I wanted to read this book for a long time because my former English teacher always recommended it to me, saying that it was a great book to read. So I followed his advice and read it. At first I thought, my god, why have I chosen this book? I found it very boring and long-winded, but after a while I started to appreciate the detailed descriptions of everything that happened on the island and what the boys were doing. It took me a while, but at the end I really liked the book, I would definitely recommend it to other people.
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