Lord of the Flys

Lord of the Flies

"This is an island. At least I think it's and island. That's a reef out in the sea. Perhaps there are not any grownups anywhere."

The Lord of the Flies is about a plain full of British boys that get stranded on an island. They start out peaceful and orderly and eventually descend into savagery. Is this book only about boys stranded on an island, or is it about something more? Then a beastie appears into the book things just go from bad to worse and the boy's sink further into savagery.

On their way to an all boys' school during World War Two, the boy's plane crashed on to an uninhabited tropical island. The boys end up all alone on the island without any adults. Ralph and Piggy, two of the main characters, find how to use a conch they find on the beach as a horn to call the first meeting on the island. This conch ends up being the symbol of order and civilization, and is also used for calling meetings and holding it would give boy holding it the right to speak. Everyone decides that the would be civilized and make rules, keep a signal fire going and have a chief that will call meetings and lead the group of boys. Ralph and Jack, another main character in the book, and the leader of the choir group, are in an election to see who will become chief and Ralph wins. This upsets Jack, but he agrees to have his choir maintain the signal fire, using Piggy spectacles to start the fire. To be sure that they were on an island Ralph and jack go out on an expedition. During their expedition they don't only find out that they are actually on an island but there are pigs on the island as well. At one end of the island there is a big rock/mountain that they decide the will maintain their signal fire on. Jack then finds his new hobby of hunting pigs.

All is well until they see a ship in the distance and they notice the signal fire is out. Jack had taken his entire choir member now known as the hunters to go hunting for a pig, and they were successful. But in the excitement of finally killing a pig they let the signal fire out just as a ship went by. This is a huge turning point in the book. It is the point that Jacks and Ralph's priorities change. Jack wants to adapt and hunt pigs, be wilder where as Ralph wants to be civilized and try to get off the island. As time goes on there hair growing out symbolizes them becoming more like savages and less civilized. Piggy, the most civilized boy out of them all hair doesn't grow, symbolizing that Piggy isn't becoming savage.

The younger children start complaining about a beastie or a monster in the book. The younger children know as the littleuns, say that it is huge it fly's around and comes out of the sea or It has long claws and fangs. The littleuns are the first to notice it. At first Ralph and the older kids, known as the biguns, think that the littleuns are just having nightmares and thinking they are true. But slowly more and more biguns come running to Ralph saying that they were being attacked by a monster and they ran away to them as fast as they could thinking that they were being chased by the monster. At on point two boys maintaining the signal fire on top the mountain get chased away by the beast.

Jack became more and more upset about not being chief. Jack wants to hunt, have fun and Ralph wants to make good shelters in case of rain and wind and maintain a good signal fire. Ralph starts the signal fire and next to the main meeting grounds because the beast was now residing on the mountain where they kept their signal fire.

One day Jack hunts down a huge pig and takes a spear sharpened at both ends and sticks on end in the ground and sticks the pig's head on the other. They sacrificed the head to the beast. This head is the Lord of the Flies. The Lord of the Flies symbolizes the savagery and the urge to break the rules and live on instincts that resides in every human. Long after Jack and his hunter had left and the flies had found the skull of the pig on the stick a boy named Simon, another main character in the book found the skull. He sat in front of it and peered