LOTF: The evil in all of us

 

    I do not know why I always get unlucky and pick books with hidden meanings, but here I am again. For my fourth blog post book this year, I read Lord of the Flies by William Golding. This post will include a general summary of the book, my opinions on it, as well as an explanation of the hidden meaning in this book.

 

  

    Plot

 

    Lord of the Flies takes place during a large war. A group of boys are shot down in a plane leaving Britain and are stranded on a tropical island. Two boys, Ralph and Piggy find a conch shell on the beach and use it to call the other boys. Together, they vote Ralph their leader as well as vote Jack, an older boy, in charge of hunting pigs for the group. 

    The first decision Ralph makes as leader is to light a fire, this way if a boat passes by it will see the smoke and rescue them. He puts Jack, and the group of boys he came with called 'the hunters' in charge of keeping the fire going. Instead, Jack and the hunters choose to go hunting, and when a boat passes by, it ignores the island since there is smoke indicating survivors.

    However, this is not their only problem. The little boys known as 'littluns' have been having nightmares about a beast living on the island, and when a pilot gets shot down during the night, two boys mistake his parachute as a monster and alert the group. 

    The older boys known as 'biguns' set out on an expedition in order to hunt down the beast. They too see the parachute, mistaking it for a beast and in turn run away. The boys hold a meeting, and Jack accuses Ralph of being a coward, but everybody refuses to vote him out of power

    Upset, Jack and the hunters run away and form their own colony. They decide to go hunting again, and kill a large pig, sticking its head on a pole and calling it 'The lord of the flies'. While this is happening, a boy by the name of Simon has a vision as if the lord of the flies was talking to him. He realizes that the beast is not a physical thing, but rather inside each boy. He goes to tell his realizations to Jack and the hunters, but they have been consumed by this so called beast, and kill him while chanting "Kill the pig. Cut her throat. Spill her blood." 

    Ralph and Piggy attempt to confront Jack about this, but a boulder is rolled down upon Piggy, killing him and spears are thrown at Ralph. They begin to chase him down, driven wild by the beast. Fortunately, as Ralph runs away, he finds a naval officer on the beach who then rescues all the boys, even the hunters who begin to cry as they realize what they have done.

    Meaning

    I am unhappy to admit I had to get help for this one. I ended up looking at the back of the book which so kindly provided an explanation and deeper meaning for the chaos that just unfolded. Each of the four "main" characters represent an idea in our society: Ralph represents civilization and democracy, attempting to keep the peace. Piggy represents intellect and rationality showing the progressive decay of rational influence. Jack represents the spark of wildness and anarchy in all of us, the will to be free and do as you want (even if it is violent). Finally, Simon represents innnocence, never doing any bad, just being a messenger and a friend. I never would have gotten this on my own, but it makes sense. Golding tries to represent how society would break down on its own, how we each are a little evil on the inside.

    Review

    This book was... interesting. I took a long time reading it, not only because the font was small but because I did not really understand what was happening a lot of the time and the book felt like a never ending spiral with relations getting worse each paragraph. What started as a bright island survival novel became a pessimistic view of society as a whole. Overall, 7/10, but I do not recommend it as a casual read.

-Joseph