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Grade Level:       Type of Work           Subject/Topic is on:
 [ ]6-8                 [ ]Class Notes    [Essay on Lord of the    ]
 [ ]9-10                [ ]Cliff Notes    [Flies                   ]
 [x]11-12               [x]Essay/Report   [                        ]
 [ ]College             [ ]Misc           [                        ]

 Dizzed: o4/95  # of Words:1730  School: ?              State: ?
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                                                      Nov 4, 1991
                        Lord of the Flies

     "The two boys faced each other. There was the brilliant world of
hunting, tactics, fierce exhilaration, skill; and there was world of
longing and baffled common-sense." A quote showing the two main contrasts
of the story. Savageness, and civilization. This, is the Lord of the Flies,
a book written by William Golding. The Lord of the Flies has some
interesting and deep thoughts, pertaining to the theme, plot, characters,
and setting in this novel. William Golding did not just start writing a
book; he took his time and worked out every little matter, to make sure the
book was entertaining, and most of all, did not bore the reader.

     The Lord of the Flies begins with about 20 pre-adolescent boys who are
on an airplane, and the airplane crashes on an uninhabited coral island in
the Pacific. The airplane crew has been killed, and the boys are left on
their own. They start to collect themselves into a society of food
gatherers under an elected chief, Ralph. Ralph is about 12 years old, and
has a very sensible, and logical personality. At first, the boys create
duties to follow, and they live amicably in peace.

     Soon however, differences arise as to their priorities. The smaller
children (know as littl'uns) lose interest in their tasks; the older boys
want to spend more time hunting than carrying out more routine duties, such
as keeping the signal fire on the top of the mountain going, and building
shelters. A rumor spreads that a "beast" of some sort is lurking in the
forest, and the children have nightmares.

     Jack, (A ruthless, power-hungry person), promising to fulfil the
children's desire for a reversion to the ways of primitivism, is chosen as
the new leader, and the society splits into two sections: those who want to
hunt and soon become savages, and those who believe in rational conduct,
and a civiliized manner. Ralph, the rational leader, soon finds himself as
the outcast with Piggy, (a fat, non-athletic, logical type, boy).

     Simon, one of the more rational boys, finds out the secret of the
"beast", and sees that it is only a dead parachuted pilot. He goes to the
hunting group, and before he can say anything, they kill him by accident.
Piggy is later killed by Jack when he accused Jack of stealling his
glasses, which Jack did do.

     At the end of the story, Ralph finds himself all alone, and Jack sees
the opportunity to track him down and rid himself of his nemisis. Jack
gives orders to his savage group to hunt down Ralph, and Ralph finds this
out. Just as Ralph is about to be killed by the "savages", a naval officer
arrives with a rescue party.

     The 'world' of the Lord of the Flies is projected as a very realistic
and plausible story to comprehend. If the reader found this specific world
filled with people who do not talk or act in the ways that he or she is
used to, he or she may decide that the characters are unbelievable, and
unreal. In Lord of the Flies, Golding has shown that the characters are
quite believable, and that their experiences are at least possible. The
characters talk with a bit of broken and slang-like English, and have the
characteristics and personalities of normal pre-adolescents. A few quotes
from the novel to demonstrate the realistic talking of kids, and not heros
from fairy tales, are these: "Look i'm gonna say this now...." or, "when
are we goin' to light the fire again?" This shows the realism of the novel.
The boys are also not impossibly brave, but only as brave as they want to
be. They are no cleaner than boys can be with no soap available, and they
like to play, but not work. They are not very responsible, and almost all
are afraid of the dark.

     The plot is also very reasonable, except that there is no nuclear war
going on in the world. But that does not make the story implausible, for
there could easily be one.

     There are a myriad of strengths contained in this novel. The main
points are basically the structure of the plot, theme, and setting. A
remote jungle seems to be a very effective setting to establish the main
theme about savages. It focusses on simple things, and  would be much more
effective than a great city-scape. Golding uses the jungle so he can focus
on such fundamental themes as the conflict of good vs. evil.

     Golding also uses suspense in this story, with the beast as a shady
character, plot twists, and unanswered questions at the beginning like,
"Will they be able to make contact with other human beings?", or "Will they
be able to keep the group and human rationality together?" Another very
good example of suspense is when the pig's head (the Lord of the Flies)
begins talking with Simon. It makes the reader wonder if the speech given
by the Lord of the Flies is actually of diabolical origin, or is it just  a
figment of Simon's imagination? It could be either.

     These next strengths will be dealing with the commentaries on the
themes, and plot developments in the story.

     Slowly during the story, two parties begin to form. One being the
hunting one, and one being the rational one. This was a good way to show
how the human civilization is slowly braking up. Soon, as the primitivism
of the boys becomes more prevalent, Jack turns on a fellow human. As the
story develops, the symptoms begin to show more and more, until the party
becomes savages, and want to hunt down the last rational person, Ralph.

     Also, the development of the reversion to primitivism slowly creeps up
on each individual in the story. At first, Roger, a 12 year old boy, could
not throw stones at another human being, for he was restrained by the
habits of civilized behavior. Later on, he throws a boulder on top of
Piggy, and kills him. Golding says that "It was some pulse within his soul,
like the destructive power of prehistoric man who kills his victims with
primitive weapons. This was a fantastic way to portray the change from
civilization to primitivism.

     Another good point that Golding established is that he didn't create
the two forces to be equal forces. Ralph was physically stronger, but was
no match for Jack's violent personality, and group. The evil force was made
to be predominant over a good force. This presents an unexpected event,
because the reader would think that the "good guys" always come out
stronger.

     Golding also shows the characters' motivation to get of the island.
This is described when Ralph says, "Look at us! How many are we? And yet we
can't keep a fire going to make smoke. Don't you understand? Can't you see
we ought to--- we ought to die before we let that fire go out?!"

     Golding's style of writing this book was exceptionally good, and most
of all, different. He writes the book in a way that the reader understands
it, and that the reader can actually visualize what is going on. His use of
satire also illustrates good style, and makes the book more entertaining
for the reader. He uses satire with creating the character, Piggy, and by
criticizing the faults of each character during every chapter, he is using
satire. Golding also used solid descriptions that were very effective
towards the reader. The best one would be when Simon dies, 'Somewhere over
the darkened curve of the world, the sun and moon were pulling; and the
film of water on the earth was held. Softly, like a silver shape beneath
the steadfast constellations, Simon's dead corpse moved out towards the
open sea.'

     The ending of the story was very suitable for the story's plot. Some
people may have thought that this ending might have been too abrubt, but
actually, it was supposed to symbolize a sort of scenario such as a country
in the state of anarchy. There is utter chaos and disorder, but once the
government steps back in, every senseless act is underlooked, and the
people start over in a more civlized manor. Another scenario it may be a
fight at school. The children who are very naive and primative, are
fighting; but when a teacher or elder steps in, the students finally
realize what they have done, and they calm down to more mature people. This
represents the dog chase at the end of the story. Once an elder steps in,
the 'abrupt' realize what they are doing, and they stop immediately.

     There may only be one real weakness the is towards this book. It is
that this book is a fictional tale, but it is written in such a realistic
way, that some people tend to criticize the book for it's fictional parts
that may be a bit unbelievable. This problem is come acrossed so minutely
in the story, that many people will even overlook it. An example might be
the part when Jack and the savages are chasing Ralph, and then right when
Ralph is about to be good, he is bailed out by the naval officer. This may
be a little unreal, but it does make the story more exciting.

     There are actually a few themes and meanings of this story. One
smaller meaning may be the terms of fear, and what it does to people. But
the primary meaning of The Lord of the Flies is its description of the
nature of man. This is an attempt to trace the defects of society back to
the defects of human nature. The moral is that the backbone of a society
depends on the ethical nature of the individuals who founded it, and not
any government, or politics. The whole book is symbolic in nature, except
at the end where adult life appears, dignified, and capable of leading a
civilized group.

     This theme is probably one of the most important ones in life,
teaching humans as a civilization, that they must not let their irrational
side, that man cannot control,  take over the rational side. There can be
no happy solution to the problems of man's society because the natural
defects of human nature shape the future after their own imperfections...

                             The End
