BOOK

REPORT
CHOSEN NOVEL (BOOK):
“LORD OF THE FLIES”

SUBMITTED BY:
GR.&SECTION:

SUBMITTED TO:

BOOK TITLE: THE LORD OF THE FLIES

PAGE: 1-224

PUBLISHER: FABER AND FABER

PUBLICATION DATE: SEPTEMBER 17, 1954

AUTHOR: WILLIAM GOLDING

COVER ARTIST: ANTHONY GROSS

COPY RIGHT: CURRENT US LAW EXTENDS THE COPYRIGHT PROTECTION FOR 70 YEARS FROM
THE DATE OF THE AUTHORS DEATH. IF WE ARE STILL UNDER THE COPYRIGHT LAWS THAT WERE
IN EFFECT UNTIL 1978, THE LORD OF THE FLIES WOULD BE ENTERING THE PUBLIC DOMAIN ON
JANUARY 1, 2011.

CHARACTERS WITH DESCRIPTION:

Ralph The elected leader of the boys and the main protagonist. He is neither the smartest nor
the strongest but has a kind of quiet charisma and good looks. He tries to keep the boys
focused on domestic order and the rules of civilization but loses his authority and almost his life
to Jack's seizure of power.

Piggy Subject of the group's ridicule for his weight, asthma, and general lack of physical
prowess or stamina. He provides the brains of the group, as well as the spectacles
necessary to start the fire. Loyal to Ralph and all he represents, Piggy's death leaves
Ralph alone, pitted in social isolation against Jack's tribe.

Jack The leader of the choir/hunters. Already militant as a choir leader, Jack leads his
group of choirboys-turned-hunters in mutiny against Ralph's leadership by playing on
the boys' baser instincts. Jack favors hunting and its savage reward of meat over the
civilized domesticity and hope for rescue that Ralph tries to maintain.

SimonThe visionary of the group. Given to fainting spells and spending time alone in
the jungle, he is considered odd by the other boys. Only Simon understands the true
nature of the beast they fear, and only Simon has the courage to investigate the eerie
creature sighted on the mountain. Before he can reveal what he has learned, he is killed
in a tribal ritual gone too far.

Roger A sly, secretive boy who displays, early on, a cruelty toward the weak and
vulnerable. Once joining Jack's tribe, he becomes the hangman, causing Piggy's death,
torturing Samneric (Sam and Eric) until they join the tribe, and preparing a stick on
which to mount Ralph's head.

Samneric (Sam and Eric) The twin boys who are in charge of keeping the signal fire
going. Until they are captured by the tribe, they remain loyal to Ralph. They speak as
one, often finishing each other's sentences, so that the other boys pronounce their two
names as one word.

Littluns The littlest boys, around ages six and up. They remain with Ralph during the
mutiny.

Maurice A bigun who becomes one of Jack's key supporters, accompanying him on the
raids on Ralph's camp.

Robert A bigun who plays the role of the pig in one of the tribal dances that reenact a
hunt. He is hurt when the dance turns into a fierce beating.

Percival Wemys Madison A littlun who has a nervous breakdown and is often picked
on by the other littluns. He introduces the idea that the beast might arrive from the sea.

Johnny One of the smaller littluns who has a mean streak nonetheless.

Henry The biggest of the littluns. He is made the object of a mean-spirited prank by

Roger.

SETTINGS: LORD OF THE FLIES TAKES PLACE ON AN UNNAMED, UNINHABITED TROPICAL

ISLAND IN THE PACIFIC OCEAN DURING A FICTIONAL WORLD WIDE WAR AROUND THE YEAR
1950.

PLOT: William Golding's 1954 novel Lord of the Flies tells the story of a group of young boys
who find themselves alone on a deserted island. They develop rules and a system of
organization, but without any adults to serve as a 'civilizing' impulse, the children eventually
become violent and brutal.

SUMMARY:

Lord of the Flies explores the dark side of humanity, the savagery that underlies even
the most civilized human beings. William Golding intended this novel as a tragic parody
of children's adventure tales, illustrating humankind's intrinsic evil nature. He presents
the reader with a chronology of events leading a group of young boys from hope to
disaster as they attempt to survive their uncivilized, unsupervised, isolated environment
until rescued.

In the midst of a nuclear war, a group of British boys find themselves stranded without
adult supervision on a tropical island. The group is roughly divided into the "littluns,"
boys around the age of six, and the "biguns," who are between the ages of ten and
twelve. Initially, the boys attempt to form a culture similar to the one they left behind.
They elect a leader, Ralph, who, with the advice and support of Piggy(the intellectual of
the group), strives to establish rules for housing and sanitation. Ralph also makes a
signal fire the group's first priority, hoping that a passing ship will see the smoke signal
and rescue them. A major challenge to Ralph's leadership is Jack, who also wants to
lead. Jack commands a group of choirboys-turned-hunters who sacrifice the duty of
tending the fire so that they can participate in the hunts. Jack draws the other boys
slowly away from Ralph's influence because of their natural attraction to and inclination
toward the adventurous hunting activities symbolizing violence and evil.

The conflict between Jack and Ralph — and the forces of savagery and civilization that
they represent — is exacerbated by the boys' literal fear of a mythical beast roaming the
island. One night, an aerial battle occurs above the island, and a casualty of the battle
floats down with his opened parachute, ultimately coming to rest on the mountaintop.
Breezes occasionally inflate the parachute, making the body appear to sit up and then
sink forward again. This sight panics the boys as they mistake the dead body for the
beast they fear. In a reaction to this panic, Jack forms a splinter group that is eventually
joined by all but a few of the boys. The boys who join Jack are enticed by the protection
Jack's ferocity seems to provide, as well as by the prospect of playing the role of
savages: putting on camouflaging face paint, hunting, and performing ritualistic tribal
dances. Eventually, Jack's group actually slaughters a sow and, as an offering to the
beast, puts the sow's head on a stick.

Of all the boys, only the mystic Simon has the courage to discover the true identity of
the beast sighted on the mountain. After witnessing the death of the sow and the gift
made of her head to the beast, Simon begins to hallucinate, and the staked sow's head
becomes the Lord of the Flies, imparting to Simon what he has already suspected: The
beast is not an animal on the loose but is hidden in each boy's psyche. Weakened by
his horrific vision, Simon loses consciousness.

Recovering later that evening, he struggles to the mountaintop and finds that the beast
is only a dead pilot/soldier. Attempting to bring the news to the other boys, he stumbles
into the tribal frenzy of their dance. Perceiving him as the beast, the boys beat him to
death.

Soon only three of the older boys, including Piggy, are still in Ralph's camp. Jack's
group steals Piggy's glasses to start its cooking fires, leaving Ralph unable to maintain
his signal fire. When Ralph and his small group approach Jack's tribe to request the
return of the glasses, one of Jack's hunters releases a huge boulder on Piggy, killing
him. The tribe captures the other two biguns prisoners, leaving Ralph on his own.

The tribe undertakes a manhunt to track down and kill Ralph, and they start a fire to
smoke him out of one of his hiding places, creating an island-wide forest fire. A passing
ship sees the smoke from the fire, and a British naval officer arrives on the beach just in
time to save Ralph from certain death at the hands of the schoolboys turned savages.

EXPOSITION:
The exposition of the book was that a plane crashes on a pacific island and there are no adults
on the island and all the kids met at the beginning of the novel.

INTERNAL CONFLICT:
The conflicts are that Jack feels like inside that he should start his own tribe and in Ralphs mind
he feels sometimes that he should step down from being Chief of the tribe.

EXTERNAL CONFLICT:
The conflicts are that Jack and Ralph are always fighting with regard to each other.

RISING ACTION:
The rising action in the book is when the fire goes out and ralph gets mad at jack who then
starts fighting with Ralph alot.

CLIMAX:
The climax of the book is when Jack kills Simon.

FALLING ACTION:
The falling action in the novel is when piggy died and the tribe started to go after Ralph to kill
him.

RESOLUTION:
The resolution is when Ralph and the boys got saved by the naval officer.

IMPRESSION AND CONCLUSION:

IN THE NOVEL THAT I READ, ALL I CAN SAY IS THAT THE STORY WAS ALL ABOUT
ORGANIZATION, ASSEMBLY, LAW AND POWER THAT’S WHY IT SYMBOLIZES AS THE CONCH
SHELL. THE BOYS IN THE NOVEL ARE ALL DYNAMIC CHARACTERS BECAUSE OF THE GREEDINESS
OF POWER. THAT’S WHY THEY FIGHT TOWARDS EACH OTHER JUST TO HAVE THAT POWER TO
INFLUENCE OTHERS. RALPH IS THE PROTAGONIST IN THE STORY, HE IS THE MAIN CHARACTER
WHICH HE ONLY WANTS IS TO TRY TO KEEP THE BOYS CIVILIZED AND PLANS WAYS TO GET
THEM RESCUED. BUT ON THE OTHER HAND JACK IS THE ANTAGONIST CAUSE HE WAS GREEDY
FOR THE POSITION, SINCE HE WANTS TO BE THE CHIEF; HE BREAKS AWAY FROM RALPH TO
FORM HIS OWN TRIBE.