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Lord of the Flies

The original UK Lord of the Flies book cover
Author	William Golding
Cover artist	Pentagram
Language	English
Genre	Allegorical novel
Publisher	Faber and Faber
Publication date	September 17th, 1954
Publication place	United Kingdom
Media type	Print (Paperback & Hardback)
Pages	248 pp (first edition, paperback)
ISBN	ISBN 0-571-05686-5 (first edition, paperback) Parameter error in {{ISBNT}}: invalid character
OCLC	47677622

Lord of the Flies is an allegorical novel by Nobel Prize-winning author William Golding. It discusses how culture created by man fails, using as an example a group of British schoolboys stuck on a deserted island who try to govern themselves, but with disastrous results. Its stances on the already controversial subjects of human nature and individual welfare versus the common good earned it position 68 on the American Library Association’s list of the one hundred most frequently challenged books of 1990–1999. In 2005, the novel was chosen by TIME magazine as one of the one hundred best English-language novels from 1923 to 2005.

Published in 1954, Lord of the Flies was Golding’s first novel, and although it was not a great success at the time—selling fewer than three thousand copies in the United States during 1955 before going out of print—it soon went on to become a bestseller, and by the early 1960s was required reading in many schools and colleges. It was adapted to film in 1963 by Peter Brook, and again in 1990 by Harry Hook.

The title is said to be a reference to the Hebrew name of Beelzebub (בעל זבוב, Ba’al-zvuv, “god of the fly”, “host of the fly”, or literally “Lord of Flies”), a name sometimes used as a synonym for Satan. The title of the book, in turn, has itself become a metaphor for a power struggle in a chaotic situation.

Background

The book was written during the first years of the Cold War and the atomic age; the events seem to arise in the midst of World War II. The boys whose actions form the superficial subject of the book are from a school in Great Britain. Some are ordinary students, while others arrive as a coherent body under an established leader (a choir). The book portrays their descent into savagery, contrasting with other books that had lauded the inevitable ascendancy of a higher form of human nature, as in The Coral Island (1857) by R. M. Ballantyne and by Two Years’ Vacation, published by Jules Verne in 1888. Left to themselves in a paradisiacal country, far from modern civilization, the well-educated children regress to a primitive state.

At an allegorical level, the central theme is the conflicting impulses toward civilization—live by rules, peacefully and in harmony—and towards the will to power. Different subjects include the tension between groupthink and individuality, between rational and emotional reactions, and between morality and immorality. How these play out, and how different people feel the influences of these, forms a major subtext of Lord of the Flies.

Plot summary

At the beginning of an atomic war (following WWII), a British plane crashes on an isolated island. The only survivors are all male children below age thirteen. Two boys, the fair-haired Ralph and an overweight, bespectacled boy reluctantly nicknamed "Piggy" find a conch shell which Ralph uses as a horn to assemble the other children. Two dominant boys emerge during the meeting: Ralph, and Jack Merridew, a redhead who is the head of a choir group that was among the survivors. Ralph is voted chief, losing only the votes of Jack's fellow choirboys. Ralph asserts two goals: have fun, and work toward rescue by maintaining a constant fire signal. They create the fire with Piggy's glasses, and, for a time, the boys work together while erecting shelters, gathering food and water, and keeping the fire going.

Jack organizes his choir group into the group's "hunters", who are responsible for hunting for meat and maintaining the fire. Ralph, Jack, and a black-haired boy named Simon soon become the supreme trio among the children. Piggy, the most sensible of the bunch, is quickly outcast by his fellow "biguns" (the older boys) and becomes an unwilling source of mirth for the other children. Simon, in addition to supervising the project of constructing shelters, feels an instinctive need to protect the "littluns" (the younger boys).

The original semblance of order imposed by Ralph quickly deteriorates as the majority of the boys turn lazy and idle. At one point, Jack summons all of his hunters to hunt down a wild pig, even the ones who were supposed to be maintaining the fire. A ship passes the island while the choirboys are hunting, but with no one to maintain the smoke signal, the children are not discovered. Although the chase of the pig turns out to be the group's first successful hunt, Ralph is infuriated that they have missed a potential rescue. Around the same time, many of the "littluns" begin to believe that the island is inhabited by a monster, referred to as "the beast". Ralph convenes them to refute the beast's existence, but the meeting turns riotous. Jack gains control of the discussion by boldly promising to kill the beast. Later, Ralph envisages relinquishing his position, though Piggy discourages him from doing so while the two of them and Simon yearn hopefully for some guidance from the adult world.

After twins Sam and Eric report possibly seeing the beast atop a mountain christened "Castle Rock", Ralph and Jack investigate; they encounter the corpse and the open parachute of a fighter pilot who has landed on the island and mistake it as "the beast" asleep. Jack assembles the children with the conch and confirms the beast's existence to them. The meeting results in a schism, splitting the children into two groups. Ralph's group focuses on preserving the signal fire. Jack becomes the chief of his own tribe, which focuses on hunting while exploiting the iron-clad belief in the beast. As Jack and the hunters have already slain their first pig, they offer promises of meat, fun, and protection from the beast. Jack's tribe gradually becomes more animalistic, applying face paint to liberate their inner savages while they hunt. The face paint becomes a motif which recurs throughout the story, with more intensity toward the end.

Simon, a part of Ralph's tribe, who had "cracked" and went off looking for the beast by himself, finds the head of the hunters' dead pig on a stick, left as an offering to the beast. Simon envisions the pig head, swarming with scavenging flies, as the "Lord of the Flies" and believes that it is talking to him. Simon hears the pig identifying itself as the real "Beast" and disclosing the truth about itself—that the boys themselves "created" the beast, and that the real beast was inside them all. Simon also locates the dead parachutist who had been mistaken for the beast, and is the sole member of the group to recognise that it is a cadaver instead of a sleeping monster. Simon eventually arrives at the peak of a tribal ritual at Jack's tribe and attempts to the explain the truth about the beast. However, Jack's tribe, still reeling in bloodlust from their most recent kill, blindly attack and murder Simon, whom they mistake for the beast.

Jack's tribe then raid Ralph's camp to steal Piggy's glasses for making a cooking fire. Ralph's tribe journey to Jack's tribe at Castle Rock to try to get back Piggy's glasses. In the ensuing confrontation, Piggy is murdered and the conch is shattered. Sam and Eric are captured and tortured into joining Jack's tribe. Ralph is forced to flee.

The following morning, Jack leads his tribe on a manhunt for Ralph. During the pursuit, an unnamed savage sets the island foliage ablaze, which has until then been the only source of food and shelter for the boys. Stricken by terror and exhaustion, Ralph expects to be discovered and slain. However, the fire which the unnamed savage has started attracts the attention of a nearby warship.

A naval officer lands on the island near where Ralph is lying, and his sudden appearance brings the children's fighting to an abrupt halt. Upon learning of the boys' activities, the officer remarks that he would have expected better from British boys, believing them only to be playing a game. In the final scene, although now certain that he will be rescued after all, Ralph cries.

Allegorical relationships

The relationships displayed in the novel have not yet been fully examined. However, there are a few clues that can be drawn from the novel.

Ralph

When he and the others arrive on the island, he quickly establishes himself as the chief of the group, although not by any harsh, overt or physical action, but by being elected. Ralph has many leadership skills that Piggy does not and he knows when to and when not to talk (which separates him from Piggy again). Ralph suggests that a fire be lit, hoping that it will increase their chance of being saved; however, towards the end of the book he forgets the initial reason for maintaining the fire. This is representative of the debilitating effects corruption has even on the brightest mind. Ralph always means well, but frequently forgets his motives for doing so, and requires Piggy's constant reminders to reinforce the purpose of the fire. Still, in the midst of all the island's chaos, it should be noted that Ralph has a tendency to be polite and logical in the tensest of moments; for example, when the children are obliged to investigate Castle Rock, Ralph takes the lead despite being horribly afraid of the "beast". When Simon expresses his doubts about the existence of such a creature, Ralph responds "politely, as if agreeing about the weather." Ralph embodies good intentions in the implementation of reason, but ultimately fails to execute these plans soundly.

Piggy

Piggy, whose real name is never revealed, is Ralph's chief adviser and "true, wise friend." He represents the role of intelligence, reason and civilization. His identity with civilization is symbolized in many ways, including the fact that his hair never lengthens even as the others' does, and his refusal to accept the existence of ghosts or the beast. Even at the beginning, the limited influence of civilization is symbolized by the limitations of Piggy's own body: his obesity, his often debilitating asthma, and his thick spectacles. His deteriorating sway is further represented as his glasses are first broken, then later stolen by Jack, leaving him all but completely helpless. He makes a final appeal for order and reason, and is horribly killed for his efforts. With his gruesome death, simultaneous with the destruction of the conch, reason and civility are gone completely, and the descent into savagery is consummate.

The Conch

When first blown, it convokes the children to an assembly, where Ralph is elected leader. They also agree that only the boy holding the conch may speak at meetings to forestall arguments and chaos, and that it should be passed around to those who wish to voice their opinion. The conch symbolizes democracy and, like Ralph, civility and order within the group. It is, however, eventually smashed into thousands of pieces by the same rock which has killed Piggy. Therefore, the conch's destruction can be perceived as the death of order on the island.

Jack Merridew

Jack epitomizes the worst aspects of human nature when not controlled or tempered by society. Like Ralph, Jack is a natural leader. However, unlike Ralph, Jack appeals to more basic desires in the children and relies on his status as leader of the choirboys (presumably ordained by the adults). Although his way of behaving is neither disruptive nor violent at the beginning of the book, he does at that time express an ungovernable desire to hunt and kill a pig. As the story progresses, this desire grows more and more irrational, to the point where he abandons the fire (and causes the boys to miss a potential rescue) simply in order to hunt. This sparks tension between Jack and Ralph which leads to a clear dividing line between the two appearing, on one hand Jack is the irrational one, whereas on the other hand, Ralph represents rationality. Eventually, in the later part of the book when Ralph's leadership is more undermined, Jack’s true evil nature is exposed. He leads most of the boys away from Ralph, and forms a separate group, based not on democracy but obedience and where violence and torture are carried out. The tale ends with Jack leading many of the boys in a frenzied attempt to kill Ralph, which is only prevented by the abrupt and unexpected arrival of a naval officer.

Roger

Roger, at first, is a simple "bigun" who's having fun during his stay on the island. Along with Maurice, he attacks a group of small children and destroy their sand castle. Maurice feels guilt for kicking sand into a child's eye, while Roger throws stones at the fleeing children. But the book states that Roger clearly threw the stones to miss, and felt the presence of civilization and society preventing him from harming the children. Later, once he feels that all aspects of western society are gone, he is left alone to his animal urges. He kills Piggy with a stone that was no longer aimed to miss. He represents man's pure, animal evil, that is only restrained by the rules of society, and could be interpreted by some people as the entire theme of the book embodied in one person.

Simon

Simon is a character who represents peace and tranquility, with some references to Jesus Christ. He is very in-tune with the island, and often experiences extraordinary sensations when listening to its sounds. He also has an extreme aversion to the pig's head, the "Lord of the Flies," which derides and taunts Simon in a hallucination. After this experience, Simon emerges from the forest to tell the others that the "beast" is actually a deceased parachutist caught on the mountain, only to be brutally killed by Jack's people, who ironically mistake him for the beast. The final words that the Lord of the Flies had said to Simon vaguely predicted that his death was about to occur in this manner.

Naval Officer

Arriving moments before Ralph's seemingly impending death, the Naval Officer acts as a form of deus ex machina, a character introduced into a play or book to resolve the entanglements of the plot. The Officer is surprised and disappointed to learn that the boys' society has collapsed into chaos, stating that he would have expected "a better show" from the British children. The arrival of the officer triggers an interesting phenomenon; Ralph's, and to a larger extent, Jack's authority is completely dissolved by the officer's arrival. Upon the officer asking who is "in charge", the struggle of the book is rendered instantly obsolete: "'Who's boss here?' 'I am,' said Ralph loudly." Jack, who was previously characterized as a powerful leader is reduced to: "A little boy who wore the remains of an extraordinary black cap on his red hair and who carried the remains of a pair of spectacles at his waist," somewhat abruptly demonstrating the illusion of authority and control.

The Beast

The Beast is first mentioned by a littlun and the notion is immediately dismissed by Ralph. The Beast is thought to be within the water and described by the littluns as such. Soon after the rumors of the Beast begin to flourish, the corpse of a fighter pilot, ejected from his aircraft, falls to the island. His parachute becomes entangled in the jungle foliage in such a way that sporadic gusts of wind cause the chute to billow and the body move as if still alive. Sam and Eric discover the parachutist in the dark and believe that it is the beast. Ralph, Jack and Roger search for the Beast and encounter it within the mountains as well. The reality of the Beast is now firmly established in the boys' minds. Simon discovers the parachutist and realizes that it is really only the corpse of a man. Jack's tribe feeds the Beast with the sow's head on a stick. This act symbolizes Jack's willingness to accept to the temptation of evil. Simon is the first child on the island to realize that the Beast is created by the boys' imagination. Simon's realization of this shows that he is naturally good at heart. But after Simon meets the pig's head, he, being very dehydrated, hallucinates and is, in a metaphoric sense, the beast. On his way to tell the others his discovery, he is beaten to death during the other boys' tribal pig dance.

The Lord of the Flies

Namesake of the novel, the Lord of the Flies is literally a pig's head that has been cut off by Jack, put on a stick sharpened at both ends, stuck in the ground, and offered to the "beast." Created out of fear, the Lord of the Flies used to be a mother sow who, though at one time clean, loving, and innocent, has now become a manically smiling, bleeding last image of evil. This transformation clearly represents the transformation that Jack and the boys have undergone during their time in the island. In addition, the name "Lord of the Flies" is the literal English translation of Beelzebub, a demonic figure that is often considered synonymous with Satan. The Lord of the Flies is a physical manifestation of the evil that is in the boys, and the evil that Golding believed exists in all of us.

Film adaptations

There have been two film adaptations:

• Lord of the Flies (1963), directed by Peter Brook
• Lord of the Flies (1990), directed by Harry Hook

Influence

Many writers have borrowed plot elements from Lord of the Flies.

Printed works

Stephen King has stated that the Castle Rock in Lord of the Flies was the inspiration for the town of the same name that has appeared in a number of his novels. The book itself also appears prominently in his novels Hearts in Atlantis and Cujo. King's fictional town in turn inspired the name of Rob Reiner's production company, Castle Rock Entertainment.

The novel The Butterfly Revolution by William Butler is described on its front cover as being a "classic in the tradition of Lord of the Flies."

Television

The "Das Bus" episode of The Simpsons is also based on this book. The episode Kamp Krusty has several elements from Lord of the Flies as well (a pig's head on a spear, kids using primitive weapons and wearing war paint and a burning effigy).

The TV Series Lost draws many of its initial plot devices and themes from Lord of the Flies, most notably being based on a plane crash on a desert island, the existence of a 'beast' and the emerging tensions between two leaders, one of whom happens to be named "Jack". The overweight Hurley occasionally serves as the voice of reason, much like the novel's Piggy.

Music

• The English heavy metal band Iron Maiden composed a song about the novel, with the title "Lord of the Flies".
• The final song, "Shadows and Tall Trees," on U2's debut album, takes its title from the novel's chapter of the same name. Additionally, some printings of the book's cover are similar to the cover of the album.

See also

• Heart of Darkness

References

1. "100 most frequently challenged books: 1990–1999". American Library Association. 2009. Retrieved 2009-08-16.
2. Grossman, Lev (2005). "The Complete List: TIME Magazine – ALL-TIME 100 Novels". TIME. Retrieved 2009-08-16. {{cite web}}: Unknown parameter |coauthors= ignored (|author= suggested) (help)
3. Fenlon, John Francis. "Catholic Encyclopedia: Beelzebub". Catholic Encyclopedia, Vol. 2. New York: Robert Appleton Company, 1907. www.newadvent.org. Retrieved 2009-08-16.
4. ^ "Lord of the Flies: Themes, Motifs & Symbols". Literature Study Guides. SparkNotes. Retrieved 2 February 2010.
5. "Lord of the Flies: Plot Overview". Literature Study Guides. SparkNotes. Retrieved 2 February 2010.
6. ^ "Lord of the Flies: Analysis of Major Characters". Literature Study Guides. SparkNotes. Retrieved 2 February 2010.
7. "Stephen King (1947-)". Authors' Calendar. 2003. Retrieved 2007-03-27.
8. "The Butterfly Revolution". Trashfiction.co.uk. Retrieved 2 February 2010.
9. Bailie, Stuart (1992-06-13). "Rock and Roll Should Be This Big!". NME. Retrieved 2007-11-28.

External links

• Novelguide - Lord of the Flies
• The Lord of the Flies: A Study Guide
• Criterion Collection essay by Peter Brook
• Slashdoc: Lord of the Flies Literary analysis of the novel
• Nobelprize.org: Play the Lord of the Flies Game
• Lord of the Flies characters and plot
• Lord of the Flies Reviews
• Chapter 1: The Sound of the Shell of the novel Lord of the Flies by William Golding

• Articles with specifically marked weasel-worded phrases from September 2009
• Novels by William Golding
• Allegory
• 1954 novels
• Debut novels
• Young adult novels
• Novels adapted into films