Book Analysis Of Lord Of The Flies

Essay, Research Paper

Book Analysis:

Lord of The Flies

Why is it that when people are placed in situations where sanity and reason are the keys to survival, people go crazy and end up ruining their chances to live? All that they needed to ensure a chance for their rescue was the fire. I don’t see what is so hard about that. The fire gives off smoke, they then see the smoke as a signal showing inhabitants on the island, then passers-by will go and search for them. Plain and simple!

Why did you require us to read this book? I can think of one reason, being that no matter how old you are, morals and law are necessary for survival. Yet, I still believe that this book, despite its strong message, was weak and uninteresting.

What was so great about hunting? This obsession with hunting was what baffled me the most throughout this book. I honestly don’t see what was so great about it, and why they let it interrupt their responsibilities. If they had not been distracted with hunting and just tended to the fire like they were supposed to, it’s possible that could have been rescued earlier on in the book.

“Kill the pig! Cut his throat! Kill the pig! Bash him in!” (Chap. 7, pg. 114) This line shows that they have pretty much lost it by now. It describes their loss of hope for rescue, and that they have developed a superiority complex. The rush they get from ending a life has made them go insane and clouded their judgement. As the book goes on and they say this line more often, wackiness follows.

“Coming?” (Chap. 7, pg. 119) Although Ralph was a good leader and had good intentions, he was still somewhat passive because he always gave in to whatever Jack said. He would let Jack walk all over him which was a factor in the “biguns” leaving his group and joining Jack’s chaotic tribe.

“No. They’re not as bad as that. It was an accident.” (Chap. 12, pg. 184) Despite the bad things they’ve done and the chaos that was spreading throughout the island, they were still just children. Innocent, naive, and unaware of the outcomes of their actions. They know that what they’ve done was wrong but they refuse to admit it, they dilute themselves.

The title: Lord of The Flies relates to the story mainly through Simon. We hear about him seeing and speaking to the Lord of The Flies and the pig’s head in the book. He is the only character known to interact with the Lord of The Flies and is told by him that he holds their fates on this island.

Also, the title Lord of The Flies relates with the story through the children. They flutter around the animal carcasses the way flies would. The boys celebrate killing pigs by dancing about its carcass. Similar to the way flies swarm around a rotting corpse. Which would make Jack, the Lord of The Flies since he leads the boys in their wrong doings and gets the biggest rush from killing, and celebrates the most.

The scene opens with the survivors gathering and trying to act rationally by creating electing a leader and focusing on the most important thing, their rescue. This relates to the way the boys try to act civilized and just, yet they cannot escape the fact that they are still mere children. Susceptible to the “dark side” and not fully responsible. It describes how naive they are.

The physical setting of this story, takes place on an uncharted desert island in the ocean. Very similar to the tropical islands of the Pacific. It is very lush, verdant, and fruitful. The island is shaped like a boat. It contains a jungle and orchards that are at the low end of the island, which rise to a treeless, rocky mountain ridge. There is a warm water lagoon which the boys bathe in, and a natural platform of fallen trees where they would hold their meetings. Also, there is a castle at the other end of the island that rises several hundred feet above the sea.

The societal structure was democratic yet bias. All of the boys were from somewhat aristocratic societies since they most likely belonged to a rich boarding school if they were flown from place to place. They discriminated against the “littluns” and Piggy because they were unable to help and saw them as useless. Many felt the need to be in a higher position than the other. Yet they elected a chief and made up laws. They were contradicting themselves.

The values of the children really varied from boy to boy because most were insane and diluted, and very few were sane. Ralph valued how others perceived him more than being rescued. He should have just lectured from the very beginning instead of caring what Jack thought of him. When he finally realized that Jack was an idiot and decided that being rescued was more important, it was too late to keep the other boys. Since they now saw Ralph as a weak leader and that Jack’s tribe showed more promise. The boy who had values was Piggy.

He was the brain, and he knew that the fire was the most important thing, and that Jack was a threat to Ralph’s leadership. If Ralph had only listened to Piggy earlier, they could have averted many bad things.

A major conflict in the story was Hunting vs. The Fire. They develop this in the book when many of the boys lose faith in their rescue. They decide to dilute themselves by painting prettier, more happier pictures by hunting and becoming savage. They lose sight of what is important and decide to hunt rather than tend to the fire in the hopes of being spotted and rescued. This is relevant because adolescents are always distracted and from doing the right thing, and often we are put in a position where we’d feel that taking the easy way out would be better. Or here, become delusional and not be rescued.

Another is the conflict in leaders, Ralph vs. Jack. They see this conflict very early in the book with their many opposing ideas and petty little arguments. Basically, Ralph is the “light side” and Jack is the “dark side.” Naturally they clash with one another, especially since both are somewhat power-driven in certain ways. Ralph was reason, Jack was rebellion, and the rest of the boys didn’t know who to follow because they were without responsible adults to guide them. This relates to me because in many ways teenagers are “stranded on an island.”

There are often when there won’t be an adult to tell us what to do and it will be up to us to decide. We’ll need to know who’s right and who’s wrong, a process we need to pick the right friends.

Ralph is the main character. He’s a tall light-skinned, light-haired, and slightly. In a certain way, he takes on slightly an anthropocentrism-type feel, since he is the center of everything. The main character, the leader, the decision maker, and the one screw up. He allowed Jack and the other to walk over him, which is not good to do if you’re supposed to be a leader. He’s assertive, yet passive. Intelligent, yet a fool. He knows what is right, yet has a hard time grasping it, evident in the way he treats Piggy.

Jack is another main character, being the enemy of Ralph. He has red hair, freckles, and is slightly scrawny. He’s a rebellious and chaotic young boy, which I find hard to believe sometimes. He’s a young boy yet he behaves like a mischievous, spoiled, vindictive, and pessimistic adult. Jack reminds me of that little boy Damien from The Omen.

Piggy is the only reasonable person on that island. He’s the only boy who doesn’t go insane! He’s a short, fat, little boy who is very smart and wears glasses. So typically the other boys to pick on him because he’s different. Piggy’s character develops in the story as Ralph notices how much he should listen to him rather than Jack. In some ways, Piggy is reason. Piggy is Ralph’s support and conscience, always letting Ralph know what is right and giving him confidence when Jack stole Ralph’s group. Naturally, Jack hates him because Ralph always listens to him and because Piggy knows about many things.

The narrator of the story would be Ralph. He is the integral character and many things are the way they are because of him. They see many things from his point of view and the story focuses on him, his actions, thoughts, and the story is focused on him. He narrates the story because was the one who blew the conch, found everyone else, formed the government, leads them, ruined them, and fought to convince them of what was right. I brought up a sort of anthropocentric feel in this book, it is true because of Ralph, because he is the center if everything in the story. Also, they told it through his point of view because he was the only good leader that was sane.

The conch was a very big symbol throughout the book. It symbolized power and authority over everyone else. When it was held in one’s hand, it gave you the power for you and only you to speak. Which is why Piggy treasured it because holding the conch was the only times that people would really listen to him and not interrupt or make any comments.

The pig’s head symbolized the boys’ spiral down toward insanity. At this point, when they decided to plant a pig’s head on a stick, they were already obsessed and diluted with hunting and killing. They were “off their rockers.”

The beastie/Lord of the Flies, symbolized the darkness a human can possess in his soul.

I never thought it possible for young and innocent children to be capable of such heinous mu