Book report lord of the flies

BOOK REPORT

Lord of the flies

Introduction

I’ve chosen to read the book written in 1954 by William Golding, Lord of the flies. It’s a fictional novel where the author tries to show that we need civilised order in every society so that humans can live together without fighting or needed primal instinct.

Summary of the story

The book is telling the story of a group of english schoolboys lost on an island. Whilst they were coming back to England, their plane crashed near a desert island. Lost by themselves, they will try step by step to organise the camp, finding some food, making a fire… Naturally, as we can see in every society, a leader has been chosen very soon. Two boys, Ralph and Jack, volunteered. Ralph has been elected, which will create tension between both later.

At the beginning, everything was going well. Some of the children were playing games, some were fishing or hunting, and Ralph succeeded to start a fire.

The turning point of the novel is when, after a few days, Jack failed to keep the fire lit, which was their only chance to be rescued (due to the smoke of the fire). A fight between these two potential leaders broke out. Comforted by the pig he just killed and by his hunger for power, Jack refused to listen to Ralph’s comments, and create his gang. The boys separate themselves in two, some stayed loyal to Ralph, when some others chose to go with Jack.

After that, life on the island become harder and harder. Step by step, all the boys will join Jack’s team, leaving Ralph, Simon and Piggy alone. Filled with hatred, and persuaded of the presence of a monster on the island, Jack and his followers became aggressive. They went as far as killing simon wildly. Ralph and Piggy still refusing to join the others and to accept the inhumanity of Jack, continued to be pursued. They will kill Piggy, and almost Ralph at the very end of the book. Ralph will be saved at the last minute by an officer, who just arrived to rescue them.

My interpretation

This novel is very hard. It shows the cruelty that human is capable of. We can see in the boys the good and the evil. It’s not a happy ending novel as we are witnessing the death of those who were supposed to represent the good.

All the book takes place on the island. We don’t know how long the boys stayed by themselves in this desert area, but a lot’s of days and nights have passed.

It is interesting to notice that the characters of the story are all highly-educated English boys. We can see theirs good manners at the beginning, helping each other, following moral command… But soon, their animal instinct took over.

The two main characters are Ralph (the novel’s protagonist) and Jack (the novel’s antagonist).

The protagonist is helped by Simon and Piggy, the 2 boys who won’t give him up. They are a symbol of civilization, peace, moral, mutual assistance…

On the other side, Jack is a symbol of supremacy, violence, savagery, anarchy… We are witnessing a war between good and evil.

Conclusion

I didn’t enjoy reading this novel. It’s a very provocative book,

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