Lord of the Flies.

Alain Flammang 2e B 04.05.2007

Lord of the Flies

1. INTRODUCTION

In the year 2001, our drama group Namasté played Aipotu Paradise Lost. This play was about the story of the Lord of the flies and I have found it really interesting. So I have decided to read again the book (I had read it for the play)

and to do the book report about it.

The book, I read last term was Animal Farm.

2. SUMMARY

Some boys crashed down with their plane on an island. A war is going on in the outside world. The boys are Ralph, who becomes the leader, Piggy, Jack and his choir, Simon, the twins Sam and Eric and many little boys (six to seven years). Rules are set down. Jack wants to go hunting to have meet to eat.

Some time later Ralph calls a new assembly and he says that they are completely alone on the island without adults. Then a little tells that he has seen a beast on the island, but the others only think that there is no such thing. Afterwards they make a signal fire to be rescued. They grab Piggy's specs and focus the sunlight to ignite their fire.

Jack and hi choir are trying to hunt while Simon, Piggy and Ralph are building shelters. Ralph complain that nobody helps them especially Jack. They have an argue.

During a swim Ralph sees a ship. He hopes that it will see their signal fire, but it has been out. He is very angry, because Jack has had the charge to look after it. But he has hunted a pig and he has caught it. He takes Piggy classes to make a fire to grill the pig. Unfortunately a glass of Piggy’s glasses is broken. They eat together the meat.

At another assembly, Ralph tells that works are not done and rules are not followed. The little children fear more and more the beast. But Simon assures them that there is no beast. Jack wants to overtake Ralph as chief but he fails.

Sam and Eric see man from a shot-down fighter plane parachutes down from the sky. He is already dead. Everybody thinks that it has been the beast.

Jack, Ralph, and a group of hunters set out to get the beast. They first check Castle Rock, where they had never been before. Although they find nothing, Jack thinks ...

This is a preview of the whole essay

Sam and Eric see man from a shot-down fighter plane parachutes down from the sky. He is already dead. Everybody thinks that it has been the beast.

Jack, Ralph, and a group of hunters set out to get the beast. They first check Castle Rock, where they had never been before. Although they find nothing, Jack thinks the place would be a great fort.

Then they see the beast hanging in a tree (man with the parachute) and they are very frightened.

Jack calls an assembly, and insists that the Beast is a major threat that should be hunted. He says that Ralph should not be leader anymore and he asks the others to come with him. Except for Ralph, Piggy, Simon, Sam and Eric, most of the older boys have gone off with Jack.

Jack and his hunters kill a sow and they put its head on a stick as a gift for the beast. Jack finally realizes that they'll need fire to cook the meat, so they raid Ralph's camp and steal a flaming log. Simon finds the Pig's head, and starts talking to the thing, although it is mostly in his imagination. He calls it the Lord of the Flies. Then he collapses.

A violent storm is raging on the island, while Simon finally wakes up from his faint. He staggers towards the beach to tell the other boys what he has been told by the head. Jack and his hunters thing that he is the beast and kill him.

Ralph and Piggy discuss the murder of Simon; the rest of the boys pledge their loyalty to Jack. Piggy claims that the whole affair was an accident, and that they just got all caught up. Jack meanwhile is guarding his fort on Castle Rock and they come to steal Piggy’s glasses.

They go to Jacks fort to reclaim the glasses and that they should maintain order and peace. Roger kills Piggy by throwing a big boulder at him. Jack assures Ralph that it will happen to him next. Ralph begins to run away.

They want to hunt Ralph, but they cannot get him, so they set the entire area on fire in desperation.

Ralph runs to the beach where he almost crashed into a Naval officer standing at the beach, who was attracted by all the fire and smoke. He assumes that their stay on the island must have been all "fun and games," but is surprised at the spears and face paint on many of the boys. Some are crying, many are confused. The officer is told that two boys were killed, and everyone is taken to a Navy cruiser.

(691 words)

3. ANALYSIS

A) Characters

Ralph: He is a twelve year old boy with blond hair, and is the most charming boy of the group. He is chosen as leader due to his many positive virtues. He has a conflict with Jack all the way through the story. Ralph tries to keep order whereas Jack does not worry about it.

Piggy: He is a short and fat boy. He wears glasses which are ued to start fires. He is suffers from asthma. He helps Ralph a lot to keep peace as much as he can. At the end he is killed by Roger.

Jack: He is a twelve years old and has red hair. At the beginning, he is the leader of his choir group, who become hunters. At the end he overtakes Ralph as chief.

Simon: He is younger than the three other boys. But he is older than other little ones. He is very good and nice , and helps Ralph when he is needed. Simon is killed by Jacks hunters.

Roger: He is a small boy with dirty, black hair. He represents pure evil and wrongness, even more than Jack. He has thrown the rock that killed Piggy. Roger is Jack's most loyal helper.

Sam and Eric: They are twins and they do everything together. First they are on Ralph’s site, but later they join Jack’s tribe.

(226 words)

4. PERSONAL APPRECIATION

I enjoyed reading this book very much. It was really easy to understand as I had read some time ago.

This book was in some kind similar to Animal Farm. Here you can also see how « power » changes people. Jack who turned mad as he made himself to the leader of the group.

(55 words)

5. BIOGRAPHICAL NOTE OF THE AUTHOR

William Gerald Golding was born in Cornwall in 1911. He studied physics and English literature at Marlboro and Oxford University of England. From the first years of his life, he faced the atrocities of war. He also took part in the Second World War by joining the British Navy at 1940. The war, as a physical result, changed a lot Golding's view of life. Golding could not believe in man's innocence any longer. He found that even the children are not innocent. But sometimes, when a man is facing a difficult situation (as an example, a surviving need) then he will propably show his other nature, the dark and guilty nature. After the war (1945-1962), he worked as a teacher in Salisbury. These years he started to act as a writer. He published the books "Lord of the Flies" (1954), "The Inheritors" (1955), "Pincher Martin" (1956) and "Free Fall" (1959). The ideas of W.Golding's view of human nature can be found in almost any of Golding's books. Particularly, in his first and most famous book, "Lord of the flies". This book finally published in 1954 and it did not become a success at once. Today, it's considering as one of the best books of English literature. It also became a film with great success. William Golding was awarded with the BOOKER Mc CONNEL Prize, the greatest British Literature Prize. Finally in 1983, he was awarded with the NOBEL Prize for his whole offer to the Worldwide Literature. His last book, "The double tongue" (1993). Unfortunately, this book has never been finished. William Golding, died in Wiltshire, England in 1993. W.Golding's last book, finally published in 1995, but even it's just a rough draft, it affords to be a great novel.