Lord
of the Flies is about savagery, a group of schoolboys ends up on a desert
island without adults, after their plane crashes they tried to govern
themselves and to maintain order and civility, but they ultimately fail
descending into violence and brutality at the beginning of the book, Ralph and
piggy me on a desert island in the Pacific, they were on a plane with a group
of boys who are being evacuated from England because of a war, but the plane
was attacked and crashed on the island while they were in the air, they heard
that an atomic bomb exploded in England, so we know that a nuclear war is
taking place, they find a conch shell and Ralph blows into it like a trumpet,
the sound calls all the other boys who are on the plane, out of the
jungle
no adults have survived the crash just boys between the ages of 6 and 12, Ralph
is the oldest and biggest boy in the island, and he’s 12 eventually a whole
choir comes out of the jungle led by a boy named Jack, the boys decide to vote
for a chief and they all pick Ralph, he’s beautiful and seems like a natural
leader especially since he called them with the cog, Jack is not happy about
being voted down though, in fact he’s humiliated, Ralph likes him and wants to
be friends, so he says Jackson charge of the choir, and the choir will be
hunters.
Ralph
takes Simon and Jack up to the top of the mountain, and they find out that
they’re on an island, they also find out there are pigs on the island that they
can hunt, so the first one they see gets away, Ralph calls another assembly
with the conch, he tells everyone that they’re on an island and they’re alone
no one knows where they are, but it’s a good Island with food and water and
pigs that they can hunt, he makes a rule that when they have meetings the
person holding the conch gets to speak and the becomes an important symbol in
the book representing civilization in order unfortunately the positive picture,
Ralph tries to paint gets somewhat spoiled when one of the youngest boys is
given the conch, he asked what Ralph is going to do about the snake thing or
beastie that the boy thinks is on the island, Ralph says there is no beastie,
but Jack says the hunt for it when they go hunting, this moment is really the
root of all the problems in the book, because this fear of a beast doesn’t go
away, the boys can either deal with it Ralph’s way which is to conquer the
fear, through reason saying there isn’t a beast or Jack’s way which is to say
we’re part of a tribe we’re hunters together we’re strong enough to hunt and kill
the Beast.
Rao
says that they need to light a small fire on the mountain to make smoke, so if
a ship passes they’ll be rescued before he can organize anything, the boys rush
off to the top of the mountain and make a huge bonfire, they use piggy spectacles
to light it the fire gets out of control and burns a big patch of jungle
including what they would have used as firewood, piggy accuses the boys of
acting like kids, rebuking them for being out of control, he points out that
the boy with the mulberry birthmark was playing down where the jungle fire
started, and now he’s disappeared no one ever sees him again, Jack spends his
time hunting for pigs and even after the other hunters get tired and drift off
to swim in play, he keeps hunting though he doesn’t catch anything, Ralph
organizes the other boys into building shelters, but everyone except Simon
drifts off to play in Swim – leaving Ralph to struggle with the last shelter,
Jack and Ralph get into an argument because both of them are trying to do something
important, both are frustrated and not getting enough help and neither can make
the other understand they agree that the shelters are important because the
younger kids are all afraid of the beasts, and the shelters are like a home
that will make them less scared.
A
boy named Roger follows the little one named Henry off down the beach, and
starts throwing rocks at him, he’s making sure not to hit Henry, but it’s clear
that the idea of hurting or even killing Henry is exciting to Roger, so now we
see another problem on the island at least one of the boys is a sociopath by
nature, and since there are no adults to enforce rules it’s only a matter of
time or circumstances before Roger realizes, he can kill Jack figures out a way
to paint his face because he thinks the pigs are running away from him because
they see his pink face in the bushes, once he puts on the paint though, he
feels liberated from any self-consciousness, he does a war dance and rounds up
the rest of the hunters telling them they’ll form a line to trap one of the
pigs, Jack does manage to kill a pig but while he and the hunters are hunting
they let the signal fire burn out down at the beach.
Ralph
see smoke far off from a ship, but by the time he and Simon and piggy run up to
the mountains where the fire was it’s too late, and the ship disappearing,
Ralph confronts Jack about this failure and while Jack gets respect from the
other boys for getting the meat, he’s humiliated again, Jack can’t do anything
to Ralph but he smacks piggy and breaks his glasses, Ralph calls a meeting to
try to set things straight since the boys are not doing the things they said
they do like keeping the fire going or working on the shelters, he tries to lay
down some rules, but then he opens a debate so they can discuss why they’re
breaking apart as a group, he says it’s because people are becoming frightened,
and he wants the boys to discuss why they’re frightened and agree that there’s
no reason to be but instead Jack takes the conch, and says the other boys are
frightened because they’re sissies, and crybabies piggy disagrees and says that
they’re actually afraid of each other Percival, one of the little uns suggests
that the Beast comes from the water which terrifies everyone, someone else says
it’s a ghost and then they have a vote on ghosts and it turns out most of them
believe in ghosts, piggy yells at the other boys for being stupid, and Jack
tells him to shut up and fights with him over the conch jack tells Ralph to
shut up too saying he’s not a good chief, and to hell with all the rules
anyway.
Hhe
says he’s not afraid of the Beast because he’s strong and can hunt, and then he
leads off most of the other boys chanting and singing, Ralph wants to give up
being chief because he’s lost all control, but piggy and Simon tell him to stay
chief because Jack would be a terrible chief, he hates Ralph and he would hurt
piggy that night while everyone’s asleep, there’s an air battle high up in the
sky and a dead man in a parachute falls onto the island near the mountain top,
Sam and Eric who are sleeping by the signal fire see the parachute, but think
it’s the Beast and run off to tell the others, Ralph and Jack and the older
boys go to look for the Beast in the one place, they haven’t ever explored
castle rock at the far end of the island, they don’t find any beasts there so
they turn around and head for the mountain as they’re on their way to the
mountain, they stopped to do some hunting, and Ralph gets a taste of how fun it
is afterward the boys do this dance where one of them pretends to be the pig,
and the others chant and pretend to attack him, which gets pretty violent when
they finally get to the mountain it’s dark but Jack insists they keep going.
Jack
Roger and Ralph climb up in the dark see the Beast, and on interrobang to camp
back at the beach Jack tries to get the other boys to vote Ralph out his chief,
but none of them do Jack leaves humiliated saying he’s not going to play with
them any longer, he says anyone who wants to hunt can come with him the boys
build a new fire on the beach instead of the mountain, but later many of the
older boys sneak away to join Jack Jack and his hunters paint themselves with
war paint, and kill a sow Jack and Roger put the head on a stake that they
stick in the ground Jack and his tribe raid Ralph’s group to take fire, they
invite the boys there to come to a feast and tell them they can ask to join the
tribe, Simon who often goes off by himself sees the head of the sow, he has an
epileptic fit but before he does the head says that it’s the Beast also called
the Lord of the Flies, the head laughs at him and says the Beast is inside the
boys, not something they can hunt and kill, then Simon passes out Simon goes to
the mountain and sees what the Dead parachuter really is.
He
hurries off to tell the others there’s no beasts, Ralph and piggy show up at
Jack’s feast all the other boys except Simon have already come there, and most
have joined Jack’s tribe Jack lets Ralph and piggy eat Jack makes all the boys
do their pig hunting dance, while they chant kill the Beast, cut his throat,
spill his blood in the middle of this Simon comes out of the forest to tell
them about the man in the parachute, and the boys all kill him even Ralph, the
next day Ralph and piggy and Sam and Eric all tried to pretend that they
weren’t part of what happened to Simon that night, Jack and his hunters raid
Ralph and piggy and Sam and Eric to steal Piggy’s glasses, so they can make
fire, Ralph and piggy and Sam and Eric have one last meeting with the Conch
sitting by the burned out signal fire piggy holds the conch, and says he wants
to go and demand his glasses back since that is what’s right they go to the
Castle.
Rock
and the boys there won’t let them come in Jack comes back from the jungle after
hunting, and has Sam and Eric seized and tied up Jack and Ralph fight, but
piggy comes up holding the conch and asked the boys whether it’s better to
believe in rules, and agreement and getting rescued or in hunting and breaking
things up, while he’s talking roger dislodges the huge stone that shatters the
conch and kills piggy, Jack throws his spear at Ralph who runs away, Jack and
Roger prepares to torture Sam and Eric while Jack and the tribe are having a
feast, Ralph talks to Sam and Eric who are now on Lookout, they tell Ralph that
he’s going to be hunted the next day and that Roger sharpened a stake at both
ends during the hunt, Ralph hides in the bushes but Sam and Eric tell Jack
where he’s hiding, Jack lights the bushes on fire and the tribe forms a line to
sweep across the island and find Ralph ultimately, Jack sets the whole island
on fire and Ralph runs out to the beach where a British naval officer has just
arrived investigating all the smoke, Ralph tries to explain to the officer what
happened and start sweeping the other boys weep too.