7/28/2019 A Book Report on the Lord of the Flies
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The novel Lord of the Flies by William Golding, an adventure and
suspense story,is written in 1857. The story sets on an deserted
Pacific coral island. A group of school boys are marooned on this
island after a plane crash on a trip to Australia.The story begins
with a large number of school boys on an uninhabited tropical
island and two of the elder boys who have leadership qualities
compete to achievea semblance of order so as to survive. Ralph, who
has found a conch and blows it to summon all the boys to a meeting,
is concerned about the well being of everyone, while Jack is more
concerned with making rules and punishing offenders. However, only
one firm rule is established by Ralph and that is only the person
holding the conch will be permitted to speak at meetings. The two
leaders soon discover that they do not like each other because of
their difference priorities and the conflict begins between them.
It causes the group to split into two, withJack=s followers being
in the majority.Ralph is concerned with building shelters,
arranging work and on being rescued but Jack only wants to roam the
jungle and hunt. The failure to establish rules soon creates
confusion and inappropriate behavior encouraged by Jack. Ralph=s
only supporter is Piggy, a fat asthmatic boys who nobody likes
because he is alwayslecturing and criticizing everyone=s behavior.
Jack bullies him constantly andthe other boys make fun of him. Jack
and his followers spend most of their timehunting for wild pigs so
Ralph=s efforts to organize the group fail. By now, most of the
older boys are beginning to act like savages, hunting wild pigs,
going
into a frenzy when they succeed and celebrate their kill with
wild dancing around a fire.One night during an air-battle, a body
of a parachutist lands on the island andhas become tangled on some
rocks on the mountain. A rumor of a Abeast@ on theirisland
discovers that the beast the parachutist but unfortunately never
has theopportunity to tell the others. He is mistaken for the beast
and is accidentallykilled during a wild celebration feast that
takes place after a successful huntby Jack and his followers. Later
on, Ralph=s last follower is also killed but not by accident.Ralph
has lost all his followers and is pursued by the others who want to
kill him. Will he survive? And who is the Lord of the Flies?The
story, full of suspense and horror, captures my imagination and my
interestthroughout. The author=s message of what mankind must guard
against if the human
race is to survive is depicted through the boys= rapid
transformation from school boys to savages. In the novel, Ralph
represents democratic societies while hetries to hold a civil
society together where every man is allowed personal freedom of
thought and actions and Jack represents dictators in the world who
seek to establish a society wherein a person is told that only if
he contributes to making his country the most powerful on Earth may
be important as an individual.Lord of the Flies is a novel
exploring the disintegration of a society.
