Commentary on Lord Of The Flies Essay

Lord of the Flies

The book Lord of the Flies is a novel about a group a British boys whose plane crashes on an island and forces them to fight for survival. The theme of Goldings story is an attempt to trace the defects of society back to the defects of human nature.

Fancy thinking the Beast was something you could hunt and kill! said the head. You knew didnt you? Im part of you? Close, close, close! Im the reason its no go? Why things are what they are? These words were said by the smiling face of the Lord of the Flies, the pig head that Jack left for the Beast. These words were said to Simon. Simon was the only boy that had to fear on the island. When he found the head he seemed to put everything together. Simon had just rationalized the Beast. The Beast was not a monster flying among the forest, but an inner nature in each and every one of the boys. Simon then as an episode and is weakened by it, but yet he pushes on to see what all the boys have been afraid of. After, he makes his way to the beach to find the other boys dancing and singing underneath the stormy sky. Simon tries to yell out to the boys about what he had discovered, as he is struggling to walk. Jack sees him as the beast and the boys attack. Simon was killed that night and no one had anything to say about it.

In this novel Ralph symbolizes order and civilization. Jack symbolizes more of the disorder and being in control. The Beast came out the most in Jack and with that he converted the other boys over to his side on Castle Rock. This left Ralph, piggy, and SamnEric. After SamnEric are captured and Piggy is killed by the boy who used to be called Roger, Ralph was left to be hunted and have is head stuck on a sharpened stick. When Ralph reaches the Navy General on the beach he bursts into tears realizing that he is rescued. Ralph no longer recognizes the civilized British boys he once knew, he only sees these savages with dirty bodies and painted faces. Those boys experienced the doing of the Beast.

I feel this book is trying to let people know that there is truly a beast in all of us. It shows you that under certain circumstances you would be willing to do anything. Golding cross references with WW2 by showing the similarities with the war and the conflicts on the island. Piggy made the comment that he though they need grown-ups and they were acting like a bunch of kids. when in fact the adults were doing the same things in the war as the children were doing on the island.