‘Lord of the flies’ is a much admired novel, written by William Golding. William Golding is a well known novelist who was awarded noble prize and is recipient of several other awards for his contribution in the literature. Goldwin was ranked third among 50 greatest English novelists. This paper intends to discuss William Goldwin’s best novel, ‘Lord of the Flies’ along with discussing other related aspects of the novel.
‘Lord of the flies’ is a tale of a group of boys who were left high and dry as their pilotless plane lands on an island during a war. Boys were without any adult supervision and decided to work together in order to survive on the unknown and isolated island. The story moves ahead and with the entry of an undetected beast, things get worsened. Goldwin through this action story gives an account of the darkness that subsists in the minds of humankind. Author suggests that an evil exists in every human being and oozes out when humans are left unsupervised.
The story revolves around its main characters Ralph, Jack, Simon, Piggy, Roger, Sam and Eric. Ralph, a twelve year old boy was elected as the leader of the group and tries to keep discipline, and cooperation. He has been portrayed as the protagonist and represents the civilized characteristic of the humanity. Simon is an enlightened member of the group who possesses a true sagacity of ethical values. He is a courageous boy who revealed the mystery of the beast and provides elderly care to junior members of the group. His death has been portrayed as crucifixion of Christ.
Piggy works as the main thinker and brain of the group but is physically weak and suffers from a couple of ailments. He is the right hand of Ralph and his death leaves Ralph shattered and alone. Sam and Eric are followers of Ralph and declined requests of jack to join his group. Jack has been portrayed as antagonist of the novel and represents the evil instinct that exists inside all the humans and comes out when it gets a favorable chance. Roger is a sadistic who believes in pestering junior and weak boys. He is the first who joined the group of jack and assists him in his evil wishes.
Chapter one of the novel describes the dialogues between Ralph and piggy. It is revealed that due to a nuclear war school boys were placed at a safer place in order to save them. Ralph was very excited as there was no any adult to intervene in their life. They noticed some other boys emerging from the forest and then they formed a group in order to survive. Ralph was elected as their leader and he assigned tasks to other boys according to their ability. In chapter two, the group discusses several rules and jack lights the fire that spreads and becomes uncontrolled.
In chapter three, jack goes to hunt while Ralph tries to construct some strong structures for their security with the help of Simon. Jack returns unsuccessful and exchanged some heated arguments with Ralph on the issue what should be on priority. In chapter four, jack with Maurice and roger returns with a dead pig while Ralph enjoys with his group and on seeing a boat, tries to get help but their signal was not working and the boat was gone. In chapter five, the issue of beast was discussed and boys were divided in two groups lead by Ralph and roger. In chapter six, a dead body with a parachute lands on the island and boys are afraid of an unseen danger. Ralph thinks to decide to explore the whole island.
In chapter seven boys go on a hunt in the leadership of jack. In chapter eight Simon decides to reveal story of the beast. In chapter nine, Simon goes on the mountain to understand the mystery of fiery things and finds that a storm is on the way while boys are playing on the beach. In order to tell the boys about his finding, he rushes towards them. Jack is dancing with his followers like tribes. When Simon reaches to them, he was killed by the tribes. Chapter ten describes jack’s increasing influence and establishes him as the evil. In chapter eleven, a fight takes place between Ralph and jack. Stones were pelted on the piggy and he was succumbed to death. Ralph was targeted by jack with a spear but escaped somehow though sustained injuries. In chapter twelve of the book, Ralph becomes alone and goes into the territory that is under influence of jack. He was warned by Samnerick that a conspiracy is hatched to kill him and he should hide somewhere. Tribes chase Ralph to kill him and chase him, Ralph runs towards the island and his life was saved by a military officer who after seeing the smoke signal landed on the island.
After having observed the above mentioned analysis of the book, ‘lord of the flies’ it is good to say that Goldwin has portrayed the evil and civilized aspects of human beings in a very interesting and thrilling way.
Works Cited
Freeman, Walter A. Lord of the Flies. USA: Research & Education Assn, 1995.
Golding, Sir William. Lord of the Flies: A Novel. New York: Penguin, 1982.
Golding, William. William Golding's Lord of the Flies: Text, Notes & Criticism. New York: Penguin, 1983.
