Commentary on Lord Of The Flies Essay

Lord of the Flies

The book Lord of the Flies by William Golding is about a group of boys on a deserted island. On their way to their destination, the plane was shot down during the war. When the plane crashed the boys found themselves on an island with no adults. As the boys greeted each other and realized there were no adults with them on this island, they decided to have a chief. The purpose of this position was to keep order and make sure things were done. All the boys voted Ralph, one of the older boys, to be chief. But Jack, another older boy, thought he should be chief. Ralph gave Jack and his crew the job of keeping the fire and hunting for food, or the small, wild pigs on the island. Some of the younger boys said they were having bad dreams and they saw a beast. The others laughed and ignored it. As time passed Jack wanted to have fun and eat their meat. So he begins his own tribe. Piggy, Simon, Sam, Eric, and a few little ones stay with Ralph. Jack began to enforce punishment on his side of the island. One night while they were having their feast and singing, Simon was in the forest. When the boys spotted him they thought he was the beast, so they attacked, killing him. Ralph and Piggy knew it was Simon but neither said anything. Jack steals Piggys glasses so they could have a fire. When Ralph and Piggy go to Jack to get the glasses back, Piggy is knocked off the cliff, falling forty feet. Ralph runs away as fast as he could. He knew he had to hide from Jack and his hunters because they would kill him if he was caught. After running and hiding for hours, Ralph runs into a naval officer. They were finally rescued.

One conflict on the island was who was going to be chief, Ralph or Jack. The boys voted Ralph but Jack thought he was the one who should be chief. Jack began making decisions and trying to take over. But as time passed he decided to make a tribe of his own. Most of the boys joined him. Only four of the boys stayed with Ralph, and a few little boys. So throughout this book the conflict between the two boys continued.

The fall of Piggy. Piggy was the only boy on the island that had any common sense. He had so many great ideas. He knew how things should have been handled but no one would listen to him. It was his idea to make a sundial but no one listened. They laughed and said yeah and a television. He told Ralph that he wished there were adults on the island because they know how to handle things and get stuff done. I think Ralph took Piggys death kind of hard because he knew Piggy was right about everything. And by the end of the book all the boys realize that too.