Author's Message

Lord of the Flies Vs. Our Society

Jack represented violence and man's carnal nature.

Piggy represented reason and rescue.

Ralph represented government and the old life in England.

Simon represented the spiritual.

        William Golding believed that deep down, everyone was evil. The evil and social injustices portrayed in this novel were based on Golding's personal experiences from World War II.  Many of the injustices portrayed in Lord of the Flies were based on society back the. After the war, he began teaching again and wrote Lord of the Flies. Golding took these boys and put them on this uninhibited island with no parents, rules or laws. The boys set up a system, by assigning jobs and maintaining a signal fire and thus creating their own little society. It was bound to fail because in the end, they could not control their natural impulses. While the group of boys in the novel were brought up in a civilized manner, after a few weeks on their own, the have descended to savagery. This is the main dystopian aspect of the story which is that no matter how much we try to achieve democracy and equality, there is no "perfect" society.
       
       The conch was the most important symbol that Golding used in the novel. Originally, whoever held the conch, they had the right to speak. In the novel, it represented their society as freedom. When Ralph and Piggy had first found the conch, it a beautiful shell. When blown, all the boys would respond to it. This was when their civilization was still intact. Then as is started to fall apart, the colour of the conch starts to fade. When Piggy tried to voice his opinions, he was ignored, regardless of the fact that he had the conch. In many societies, people can not voice their thoughts and express themselves. They are judged by what they say and their opinions. Women in many countries do not have a voice. They are controlled by the male figure in their life, unable to speak or act their mind. They don't have that right and Golding described that injustice with the conch. The fact that while it may seem like the boys had a perfect system, they began to corrupt it and it was no longer a democracy.

       In our world, Ralph and Jack would represent the different political parties and the "littluns" would be the scared, and confused general public. In times of crisis or fear, the general public do not know how to react, or how to deal with the major issues. During wars, natural disaster, or economic depression, the public are almost helpless and it is up the people in charge or government to do something. In the novel, the boys built their miniature society to mimic the larger society in which they came from. Despite the fact that their society is how they ended up on the island. Their society had ended up in nuclear warfare and that was the reason why they had to evacuate.

     Jack sought out power. From the beginning he wanted to be chief but was overruled by the other boys. Instead, he was made leader of the hunters. Nevertheless, that was not enough for him, he took every opportunity to sway the power that Ralph had over the boys over to him. Ralph was a natural leader and always tried to think in a positive manner while as the novel progressed, Jack only became more barbaric and cruel. In the end, Jack used fear and violence to gain control. In our society, dictators have used the same strategy to gain power over a group of people. Power and freedom, do not mix together. There was no way that the boys could have any democracy if Jack could control them. Ironically though, the signal fire that ended up saving Ralph was not the one he had tried so hard to maintain in order to maximize their survival chances. Instead, it was the fire that Jack had created in the middle of the Jungle. Here Golding implied that perhaps, that civilization and savageness are not so different from one another. In fact, they have more in common than one would think.

      While Golding wrote this book right after World War II when mass amounts of 'evil' was committed. many of the social injustices in Lord of the Flies are still present in our current societies. They are different nowadays, but they are still there. Hundreds of crimes are committed everyday and there are many corrupted government systems but while the issues them selves, will be resolved, new ones will always arise. Civilization will only disguise and mask our savage impulses, not remove them.

       The message the author is trying to deliver is very direct and effective. Every aspect of the story seems to have a hidden message and that is what makes this story so fascinating. The characters all have strong personalities that shadow and represent different parts of humanity. The message is still clear to the reader and it really gives us a different view on society. The part I found very effective was the fact that Golding used children to tell the story. This makes the impact of the message even stronger because children are born innocent. When they are young, they know of nothing except what the adult figures in their life tell them. They learn their ways from society. None of the boys were older than 13 but still they were capable of murder and cruelty towards each other. So to see the development of their behaviour through out the book was disturbing, but it helped me understand the author's message.

The Dystopian Society of Lord of the Flies

       Lord of the flies began as a utopia. The boys were in this new environment without any adults and rules hence they could do whatever they liked. There was food, water, and all that they needed to survive. Although  they thought that they would be rescued soon, they made rules and elected a chief. The rules of their society were fairly simple. The chief, Ralph, held assemblies where everyone could voice their thoughts, and problems were discussed. Only the person who held the conch could speak at the assemblies.

      

       What turned their society into a dystopia was a series of events that slowly made their society crumple. It started with greed and then followed with the urge to hunt and kill. It was the slow transition in the boys, combined with the fear of the "beast” that completely destroyed Ralph's well-kept society. When Jack, leader of the hunters, created his own tribe, he used the boys' weaknesses against them by telling them that he can hunt the beast. Even though they felt safe that Jack could kill the beast, they were still scared. Why? Because Jack became the beast, he abused them and tortured them to control them with fear.

       Jack went on his first pig hunt in chapter three and even sharpened a stick to create a makeshift spear. When Ralph confronted Jack about choosing to go hunting over building the shelters, they got into a heated argument. Jack said that they needed meat, not shelters, while Ralph believed that Jack was simply using hunting as an excuse to not do the other work. This was when the power struggle between Ralph and Jack became more noticeable.

       As the days went on, Jack became more and more obsessed with wanting to kill and even began to paint his face with clay and charcoal. In chapter 4, Jack went on a pig hunt joined by a couple of other boys. This caused the signal fire to go out and a passing ship to ignore the island. When they originally lit the fire, they were hoping to be rescued, meaning that they still wanted to return to civilization. However it now seemed that Jack would rather kill than get rescued. This was the beginning of how the boys ended up turning from a democracy like civilisation into complete chaos.

       While the daily tasks were being neglected, so was the power of the conch. The conch was the symbol of order and law in their society. Every time, it was blown, the boys would answer this call and gather down by the beach. Whoever held the conch, could speak while everyone else was quiet and attentive. However on more than one occasion, when Piggy had the conch, he was ignored. Piggy, overweight and weak, was quickly made an outcast by the other boys. He was even punched in the face by Jack because even though Piggy had the conch, he wouldn't shut up when Jack told him to. In chapter 5 the issue of a "beast" is brought back up at one of the assemblies. Jack immediately declared that if there was a beast, he and his hunters would kill it. After that,  the meeting, became complete chaos as the boys followed Jack and ran off dancing and chanting with him. While Piggy and Simon encouraged Ralph to blow the conch to get the boys to return, Ralph refused as he fears that if he does, they would simply ignore it.

       The first time Ralph went on a pig chase was in chapter 7. Although Ralph was usually against hunting, he got caught up in the excitement of the chase just like all the other boys. He threw his spear at the boar only managing to graze its snout but nonetheless was just as proud. The boar managed to get away but the boys are still re-enacting the events among themselves long after the chase. Robert was the boar in the re-enactment with all the boys dancing and chanting around him jabbing the end of their spears at him. The boys began to beat him and they nearly kill Robert before they seemed to remember that this was a human they were hitting, not a pig.  Robert suggested that next time they should use a real boar in the re-enactment but Jack said that they could just use a "littlun". So far, none of the boys had actually considered killing one another until Jack brought it up. Although, he didn't carry out his plan, the fact that he had though to kill a child for such purposes is horrifying enough. The moment when the boys, Ralph included, went on that hunt, the part of them where the urge to just become savages surfaced.

     The twins, "samneric" (Sam and Eric) claimed to have seen the "beast" back in chapter 6 at the top of the mountain where the signal fire. However they did not realize that the "beast" was actually a fallen paratrooper. Since they were both asleep at the time, they had not seen the soldier fall from the sky and instead they only saw a dark figure looming in the shadows. When Ralph, Jack and Roger went to the top of the mountain to see if there really wass a beast, they had gone in the night. Therefore, they also failed to see that there wass no beast and like "sameneric" they mistook the dead soldier for the "beast"

       Jack held an assembly thinking that Ralph should be replaced by him. The other boys refused to vote Ralph out of leadership so Jack, furious, ran away and created his own tribe where he was Chief. Without Ralph or Piggy to stop him from doing anything, him and a couple of other boys who have joined him go hunting. This was where the ''Lord of the Flies'' was created when they impaled the head of a sow they killed on a stick and stuck in in the ground. They had intended it as an ''offering'' to the beast.That night, more boys sneaked away to Jack's camp as they were unable to resist the offer of meat at the feast. 

       Simon was the only person who realized that there was no "beast". That the only reason the boys thought there was one was because they chose to believe there was one. However just as he is about to tell all the boys, he is killed by Jack's tribe. They see Simon but they thought that it was the beast, so they attack him with their bare hands and teeth. Simon tried to tell them that its just him but the boys could not come out of their trance. Simon tripped, and fell over the rocks and the boys who land on him, ended up killing him. When Simon died in such a brutal way, it just showed how chaotic things had become. The only proof that there was no beast was gone. Ralph and Piggy had lost all control over the situation and Jack could now rule with absolute power.

       When the conch was crushed by Roger, who was the least understanding of the concept of civilization, it marked the 'end' of any equality. Piggy who was the "adult-type figure" on the island, the rational one, the one with the intellect was crushed by a boulder, also released by Roger. Ralph was chased by Jack's "tribe" and only barely manages to escape a violent death. Any trace of boys who grew up in social well-being is gone. They have managed to completely forget all the rules of society in which they were raised in. Instead they have succumbed to their violent nature.

Lord of the Flies Review

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         This book, first published in 1954, was William Golding's first and probably most well known novel. It was one of the first dystopian novel oriented around children, that seem to be very popular nowadays, such as Hunger Games or Divergent. The journey of a group of boys as they try to remain civilised while stranded on an unsupervised island is both adventurous and tragic. With a twist in the middle that adds a whole new dimension to the plot, this book will  completely captivate you. Golding takes this seemingly, a children's adventure tale and explores the darker side of humanity in everyone.

      The novel takes place on an unnamed island somewhere in the Pacific Ocean in the the middle of an unspecified nuclear war. A British plane crashes on the uninhibited island and the only survivors are boys all under the age of 13. The boys are united by the sound of a conch blown by Ralph. Without any adult supervision on the island, they decide that the only to survive  they will have to build shelters, gather food, and keep a fire going to signal any nearby ship for rescue.  The boys are split into the "biguns", the older boys around the age of 10-12 and the "littluns" which are around the age of six. While the "bigguns'' try to build shelters and keep the fire going while the "littluns" are suppose to collect any edible foods, they mainly go off to play. A group of hunters are created from a boys choir while led by their leader, Jack Merridew, they explore the island and hunt for meat. While Ralph was elected as chief with the support of everyone except the choir, it is clear that Jack wants to be leader. Jack wants to hunt for meat while Ralph's main priority is to keep the fire going. This causes a lot of disputes between them and in the end results in Jack luring other boys from their jobs, sacrificing the task of keeping the fire going and even missing a chance at rescue to go on a pig hunt. While Jack starts to turn more and more boys against Ralph, the rest of them  become more and more restless tension and fear is among everyone. The littluns dream of this "beast" that not even the bigguns can reassure them. However  the more they talk of the beast, the more they are eager to kill it.

    Golding manages to show the transition as the boys turn from civilised British school boys to almost primitive beings with great skill. The development of each character is well planned out and that just makes their lost of inoccence even more intriguing. The fact that all of the boys were under 12 is what makes them so inoccent because they have not fully grown and they are not adults, but they have minds of their own. While the story at times can be confusing, the symbols and hidden meanings in this novel only makes it more fascinating.  This book isn't some light read for the beach but its a riveting book with a truly unique plot that will interest many teens and adults.

New Cover!

          This new cover of Golding's classic tail Lord of the Flies is published 59 years after the original release of this book. The conch on this cover is broken and the lord of the flies is disguised by the blazing flames behind it. The conch was a symbol of order, discipline and civilization on an island of boys none older than 12. The conch was once whole just as how the boys' civilization was once picture perfect in everyones minds. However as the internal struggle for power and fears begin to take over, the boys turn more and more savage. As the conch loses its meaning and the power it once held, the rules of this civilization also begins to crumble. The beast in this cover is cleverly hidden in the flames and at first glance, it is unrecognizable but the second time, it is clearly there. Once you see it, you will never be able to forget its presence Such as in the novel, the boys who believe in a "beast" roaming the island can never forget their fear but there is beast inside all of the boys that is growing and soon, it will consume them.