Lord of the Flies

Lord of the Flies

William Golding

I. England

II. Protagonist- Ralph is a rational boy who was elected the leader by the other boys. He tries to keep them civilized and plans to get them rescued.

Antagonist- Jack is Ralph's rival. He wants to be chief, so he gathers a group of boys and forms his own tribe. The boys are taught to b hunters and they act like wild animals.

III. A plane carrying a group of schoolboys has crashed on an island. Ironically, the boys were escaping a nuclear war and being flown to freedom. Upon reaching this island they are overwhelmed by the fact that there are no adults and no rules. Ralph, a boy of twelve, is encountered with several male survivors. Him and the others decided to go in search of any other potential survivors. A boy named Jack and his troop then meets them. The two different groups don't really seem to like one another and they are very different in matters of life. The boys are then faced with many obstacles and try to learn how to deal with it. At this point Jack does not like the way Ralph handles things and forms his own tribe.

Ralph as the leader, does not feel that he has much control over the boys and that is why Jack formed his own tribe of hunters. Only two of the boys stayed and showed support to Ralph. Because of all the chaos Ralph no longer wants to be the chief and he knows that he can not change the way the other boys think or act. He doesn't know what to do at this point and feels that he can't make anyone civilized. Piggy and Simon are the two boys who stayed back with Ralph and because they chose to stay with him Jack's group kills them. Everything just seems to be falling apart and no one is thinking straight.

Through everything that has happened, Ralph struggles for survival against the "Lord of the Flies", the other boys. There was an out-of-control fire meant to kill Ralph, but he did not die. He is then encountered with the boys and at this point they come to realize that they have to get a hold of themselves and move forward. The end of the novel shows that Ralph and the others are relieved by the fact that they no longer should act the way they did. They go on and weep because of their loss of innocence and the deaths of the two boys.