Introduction
Lord of the Flies is an allegorical novel. Written by William Golding, it appeals to your sympathy and arouses compassion. This novel captures your attention and makes your imagination work as the story is described in vivid colors. No wonder ‘Lord of the Flies’ is required reading in many schools and colleges nowadays, as it deserves its rank ‘bestseller’.
The plot of the novel
There are several strands to the plot of this novel. A group of boys, being strand on a tropical island, tried to govern themselves. This kind of effort turned out to be not a good idea. As the auction proceeds, the reader follows the heartbreaking events of the book. Boys of 6 to 12 ages, struggle to survive on an island.
The novel itself represents the middle fifties. It embodies society’s laws and its morals at those times.
The leadership race is observed. Ralph, an athletic and charismatic boy, elected as a leader, faces resistance from Jack Merridew. Though, while observing the island, the boys found a trapped piglet, which Jack hesitated to kill. It was a potential food they could have got, but because of Jack’s cowardness and fear, the bag escaped. It cracked Jack’s leadership position.
There is another character, opposite to those, listed above. Piggy is a boy, who has been mistreated constantly. No one noticed anything else except his overweight, thick glasses, and asthma. Piggy symbolizes a vulnerable child just like the wild pigs are, being hunted for. Though, the most precious and important ideas came to Piggy’s head. Such as fire and shelter making. Piggy is also a victim of the story, as he is the only one to wear glasses. Those disgusting, thick glasses, that no one liked at first, turned out to be almost the most valuable thing on the island. Due to them, boys made a signal fire, so that any passing-by ship could see it and pick up the boys. This serves as proof that boys have not completely lost their minds and became wild.
The signal fire symbolizes the desire of boys to be rescued. As the fire goes low or stop, it seems like they are fully losing hope. The fire goes out of control and scorches half of the island. The boy with a birthmark on his face disappears during the fire and never comes back again.
Life on an island gradually becomes disorganized. Chaos invades when a ship passes by without knowing the boys were there because the fire went out.
The leadership race gets worse between Jack and Ralf. Ralph represents democracy, whereas Jack is an exact example of a tyrant.
As the military planes have a dogfight over the island, one of the pilots’ parachutes out of his plane. Sam and Eric consider him to be the ‘beast’ and cause mass panic among the boys. After the investigation expedition fails, Jack calls for another election but does not get any vote. He leaves Ralph’s tribe and creates his own.
Boys hunt down a pig and place its head on a stick as an ‘offering’ to the ‘beast’. Simon, walking by the ‘Lord of the Flies’, hears the head speaking to him. It foreshadows Simon’s fate. Discovering that the ‘beast’ is a dead pilot, he hurries down the mountain to tell everybody the news. But the boys spear him to death.
Jacks’ tribe steals Piggy’s glasses to survive. Piggy demands the glasses back but is killed by Roger. The situation becomes more tensed when Jack fails to kill Ralph. While doing this the boys set up a forest fire which is seen by a naval vessel passing by. One of the officers comes ashore to rescue Ralph and the rest of the boys. The irony is that Ralph has been the one who kept on reminding others of the fire. This time the rescue fire was lit to kill him.
The main idea
The main idea of the book reveals human nature. The question is: ‘what is more important – a leader’s position or a precious life?’