Lord of the Flies

The name of the book that I have read is "Lord of the Flies".

This book was written by one of the most important English writers of our century: William Golding.

"Lord of the Flies" is composed of about two hundred and forty es that are divided in twelve chapters.

The main characters of this book are all boys and they are: Ralph (a very thin and tall boy), Jack (tall,thin and bony), Piggy (a short and very fat boy), Roger, Sam and Eric (twins) and Simon.

I like very much this book because I can say that although Golding, like many authors, utilizies his personal history, he is unique in the way that he uses the actual to build a structure of meaning.

Infact the symbolism in "Lord of Flies" is often more important than the action.

Even though the literal story is in itself interesting, his characters, images and settings go beyond the merely literal, to represent universal truths about human nature and society.

For this reason I can say that in this book Golding tries to respond to the question of how violence and disorder are to be controlled in the modern world.

Even though this story doesn't contain an explicit solution to this question, the implied answer is that man, who contains inside himself the seeds of evil, also possesses the faculty of reason to control anarchistic impulses.

However I must say that at the end of the story the meaning of his symbolism is optimistic.

As I said, Golding utilizies his personal history to write "Lord of the Flies", so I think that is very important to speak about some episodes of his life.

Infact Golding decided to devote his career to literature, but when the World War II started, he joined with the British navy in nineteen-forty, so he partecipated in many important battles.

Only during this war Golding lost the idea that all humans have an innocente nature.

After the war he became a school teacher in Salisbury. England.

All the novels that he wrote after this period are, in some respect, near to actuality.

There is also a realism in his accurate description of all the physical details of all his characters.

I like very much Golding because I think that he is very able to speak about the mechanics of human behavior, in particular about the psychology of fear.

After the reading of the story, I also can say that Golding was inspired very much by his accurate observation and recording, as schoolboy and teacher, of the behavior of boys and we can see this in this book.

"Lord of the Flies" starts with the description of a nuclear war started in all the world. A e, that is flying with some English children, crashes in the middle of an island in the Pacific and appearantly the pilot dies leaving only children on the island.

From this point all the story has a very minor role in its understanding.

After we meet the two first characters: Ralph and Piggy.

Ralph is the main characters of the story and he is described as a very tall and hin boy.

Piggy, istead of Ralph, is described as a short and very fat boy.

I can say that the ure of Ralph represents a rational leadership, the ure of Piggy represents the reason.

The key episode of the first chapter is when Ralph fishes a shell out from a little pond and Piggy says him that he can use it as a horn.

Piggy also says that he would show Ralph how, but for his asthma he can't blow into it.

So Ralph blows into the shell and everyoneon th island hears the sound of shell and comes towards the sound.

From this point I can say that the shell represents the law and the order.

Many boys come to Ralph and the more important are Simon, Jack, Sam end Eric.

Simona represents rationality, Jack represents anarchy and the two twins Sam and Eric represents loyalty.

Some days after, a child says that he has seen a beast somewhere in the forest.

From this point the "beast" is seen as a real object on the island that frightens the younger boys.

After this episode, Jack and Ralph do a meeting to see who should be voted as leader of group.

Ralph wins and from this point the clash of Jack and Ralph represents the clash of savagry and rationality.

Infact Ralph decides that is necessary to do a large fire on the mountain, so that if a ship passes by, it will rescue them. Jack instead of Ralph decides to get meat.

After this, the key episode in the second chapter is when Ralph see a ship on the horizon, but he discovers that no smoke is coming from the fire on the mountain.

Only after this bad episode Jack starts hating Piggy and Ralph more, because they are very upset with him.

The first sign of violence in the book is when Jack hts against Piggy and breaks one of his glasses' lenses.

While Sam and Eric are tending to the fire at night, they both fell asleep.

At the same time a man parachuted out of his e and dies before he hits the island.

Everytime the wind blew from a certain angle, the man's parachute opens  up he looks as an alive man.

For this reason , when Sam and Eric see the dead man, they think that he is the beast and they say this to all the others boys.

So Simon,who represents rationality, decides to climb the mountain and make sure it is actually there.

I think that, in this episode, the dead body flying in the parachute represents the end of adult supervision of the boys on the island.

In the meantime Jack successfully convinces a lot of children to join with him in a tribe of savages, that have tha faice paint-on.

Afetr a lot of episodes, Simon finally discovers that the beast on the mountain is just a dead man with a parachute, so he goes back down to tell this to the rest of boys.

But when Simon walks out of the forest, all the Jack's tribe think that he is the beast and they kill him.

After this terrible episode, Jack and his tribe decide that they need fire to roast pig's meat, so  they come to steal Piggy's glasses.

I think that this further represent's the degeneration of their society.

Piggy is very upset and so he decides to go with Ralph to the Jack's castle rock and force him to give back his glasses, because it's the right thing to do.

So Piggy with friend goes to the castle rock and, at the end, Jack ties up Sam and Eric, later forces them to join with his tribe of savages.

After Piggy dies by falling from a very tall pert of the castle rock.

There's a very big symbolism in this episode, infact the braking of the shell means that the law and the order on the island are destroyed from that moment.

So when Piggy dies, Ralph loses his big frined and his law and order.

After some episode, Jack conduct a man-hunt with all his tribe, but Ralph is very able to run and, finally, he runs into a novel officer who rescues all them.

Even though he represents the authority that the boys have shown they needed on the island, he also simbolizes the weakness, destructiveness and hypocrisy of the society from that he comes.

After the reading of this adventure story, I can say that "Lord of the Flies" is more than an adventure story.

Infact the conflicts on the island are the ever present antagonism of human society.

The problems in the island are the problems of the world.

The evil thriving in the individual boy is the evil that threatens mankind.

Two movements in the novel represents the two forces that govern society.

The first is the tendency to ordrliness represented in the parliament rules of the boy's meeting and in their attempts to build a signal fire.

The seocnd is the movement towards chaos as the fire gets out of hand or is forgotten and as the boys participate in orgies of hunting, primitive dance and even human sacrifice.

The second force is the stronger, without the traditional protection of society and without superior intellectual guidance, the boys swing towards anarchy