| Product: |
Lord of the Flies - William Golding |
| Date: |
22/02/01 (67 review reads) |
| Rating: |
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Advantages: Underlying meaning; great; believable
Disadvantages: Cynicism
This book is strange. Stranger than strange. It tells the story of a group of English boys who are shipwrecked on an island without any adults to keep them in the right. The boys were in the passenger tube of a plane that was evacuating the boys from England, as it is set in a war in the future. The plane is shot down, but the pilot ejects the passenger tube so the boys survive.
The novel is a parody of 'Coral Island', a book written one hundred years before Lord of the Flies. 'Coral Island' tells the story of three boys, Peterkin, Jack and Ralph, who are stranded after the ship they were sailing, sank and the rest of the crew were swept out to sea. They take things rationally and calmly, and make a fire and hunt for pigs for meat. Jack made a boat that they used to go fishing. They live happily for several months until two tribes of cannibals arrive, who are at war with one another. When a woman and child are attacked, Jack has had enough and intervenes. As God is on his side, he wins. The tribes leave, and some pirates arrive at the island. They capture Ralph and sail to another island. Here, Ralph learns that the cannibal tribe's chief's daughter is refusing to participate in an arranged marriage, and that she'll be eaten if she does not comply. Instead of her, the pirates get eaten and Ralph, on his own, sails back to rescue Jack and Peterkin. They decide to rescue the chief's daughter but the chief captures them. But a missionary comes along and converts the chief to Christianity, and the boys are whisked off.
'Lord of the Flies' starts off in a similar names. Ralph (the same name as in 'Coral Island') is elected chief. The boys start by making a fire but it quickly goes out of control and they burn the forest, accidentally killing a young boy. Soon, Jack (also the same name as in 'Coral Island') becomes more opposed to Ralph and as tensions run high and the boys turn savage. Jack splits
apart from the group to start his own tribe that is concerned solely with hunting for pigs, an activity not supported by Ralph because the hunters neglected their other duties. The boys kill Simon, a Christ-like character, as they are in a frenzy because they were dancing around a fire and shouting war-like chants. They believed he was the 'beast', the physical character of evilness. However, Simon had discovered the evilness was inside them, not as an external entity. Eventually, Ralph is an outcast, but a naval officer who had seen the fire saves him from near-death.
The story shows the underlying message that each person has evilness inside them, tempered into hiding by civilisation, but that it may surface, especially in boys, when civilisation loses hold.
The book was surprisingly good - I hate reading books for school because you cannot get into the real story as you read it in parts and each thing mentioned has an underlying meaning. However, this book was different - it is the only book I've read in English with such a deep meaning that I enjoyed. Seriously recommended!
THOMAS
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