Lord of the Flies by William Golding Summary and Reviews
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Book Reviews of Lord of the Flies
Book Review: Lord of the Flies
Summary: 5 Stars
Not only is this book expertly written with an intriguing story line, it also contains vivid imagery and symbolism throughout. The book represents the very animalistic qualities of human nature and the settings in which it can be brought about. The novel is full of subtle symbolism, from Piggy's glasses, to the fire itself, and has an adventurous plot that is sure to keep the pages turning. The books central ideas and messages are conveyed accuratley and interestingly and do not disappoint. This book is a must read for all and is sure to become a favorite for those who embark on Golding's journey.Book Review: Lord of the Flies
Summary: 5 Stars
Lord of the Flies was an exciting and adventurous fiction novel. It completely demonstrated a unique and interesting plot. School boys are forced to live by themselves because a plane crashed on an island. There are so many ideas that could be thought of with this one situation. The author created this situation and developed it into a made up society of kids who try to work together but end up turning against one another. It is a totally realistic way of describing this rare, fictitious occasion. I liked how there was an unexpected twist of Simons death after he realizes that there is no beast and that the beast is a fear within everyone. Ralph showed many leadership qualities as he instructed everyone to do the right thing and maintain their signal for help. Jack is entirely against him and wants to hunt to stay alive instead of follow Ralph's commands. This creates the dysfunction among the boys which is the worst thing that could happen. I could tell at the beginning that Piggy a target since he was previously picked on and was portrayed as fat. He is later killed by the other tribe. I thought the end was somewhat predictable. I had a sense that they would be saved sooner or later. The officer ends up coming to their rescue.Book Review: Lord of the Flies
Summary: 5 Stars
This book is a deep, complex book that can be read at many levels. If the book is read at an elementary level, it is merely an adventure story, but at the upper levels and college level, it is a satire that grips the reader and illustrates the reality about human nature. The story is set during World War II, where a plane carrying young British children crashes on a remote island. The children initially try to organize themselves, as you would expect highly civilized, British children to do. But then, some of these children realize that they are in complete control, that there are no adults on the island to monitor what they are doing, and this is when the primitive human nature starts to take over. They start with killing pigs and eating them half raw, blood dripping everywhere, and they end up killing three innocent children until they were rescued by none other than a cutter, which just goes to show the warring, disgusting, and primitive nature of humans that they have no control over. Golding uses this novel to introduce to us our basic and primitive instincts that emerge in the absence of civilization. He wants to show us that man is born into sin and he is a fallen creature by nature.
A special part of the story is the symbols. The Conch that Ralph uses to call the others is seen as a symbol of authority. Whoever has the conch is the leader, and when the conch is destroyed in a tussle, it signifies Jack's victory; civilization is out. The forest on the island itself becomes a symbol of the location of darkness and evil. There are so many literary features to this novel that it makes it a joy to read. Easily one of the best books I've ever read.
-David Brehm
Book Review: Lord of the Flies Review
Summary: 4 Stars
I really enjoyed this book; although, I would not recommend it to the faint of heart. William Golding's Lord of the Flies is the story of a group of school boys that crash land on an island and are stranded with no adult supervision. This story that begins so innocently soon takes a turn for the worst. At first glance this novel is a story of children gone bad but with careful thought it becomes a concept much bigger than the children themselves.
Many say this is about the psychology of children when no one is around to supervise them but I feel this explains, through a story about children gone wrong, the necessity for a central government. I think the story, that seems very crude, is actually our society and history in a nutshell. A group of people do like there government, so they break away. This in my opinion is a fairly simple concept but put into a story people think of it as some horrific thing. However, it is a fairly natural reaction. Whether or not this is how William Golding intended it to be understood, I think this is not supposed to be a story of children that go stir crazy on an island but a depiction of society.
I definitely think this should be taught in schools. Firstly, it is an idea that most children have thought about, and it is an interesting story that captures the minds of the readers. Secondly, it gives you a different perspective of our society as a whole; something that seemed so normal but put into a story is actually a scary thought. This is a very valuable lesson to be taught and I believe all people should be exposed to different perspectives.
Book Review: Miscreation Myth
Summary: 3 Stars
The two boys we meet on the first page of "Lord of the Flies", Ralph and Piggy, are as freshly minted as Adam in the Garden or the earth/ice gods of Greek and Norse mythology. Born full-formed, they are pre-modern, utterly unsurprised by their own existence. They are no more plausible as 12-year-old boys than the usual totemic first humans of "creation myths" from cultures around the world. Plausibility is not the objective of myth; moral instruction is, and "Lord of the Flies" is plainly intended as a morality tale illustrative of human nature, which is depicted as innately savage, held in check only by authoritarian social structures and above all by "rules".
Reading "Lord of the Flies" as a version of Genesis does make the story clearer, though I make no claim that such clarity was William Golding's intention. But: A) they're in a garden paradise; B) `Woman' has not yet been created; C) fratricide, the Cain and Abel story, is central; D) Yahweh, in the form of a Grown-Up British naval officer, makes his judgmental appearance in the end.
"Lord of the Flies" can also be read as science-fiction. Most critics have taken it as an apocalyptic parable, an `end of the world' scenario, with the boys as the only visible survivors of a world war. End of humankind, beginning of humankind, take your choice! Of course, without girls, without Eve, humankind wouldn't amount to much. If, indeed, the boys were being transported to the island, or to some other custodial location, the reader will have to puzzle out the survivalists' intent. If, on the other hand, these boys -- all British but of mixed ages -- were on a flight somewhere and were stranded on the island by a crash, the questions brim up faster than the tide. Why didn't any of them know where, why, how, or what? On a plane of the size Golding could have imagined, wouldn't they have at least noticed each other while boarding? The `creation myth' reading eliminates some of those questions; the boys popped into existence on the island without real-time antecedents, even though they were created with the illusion of prior-life memories.
Implausibility in the cause of plot development is one of the constant weaknesses of second-rate science fiction. "The Lord of the Flies" is riddled with implausibilities small and large. My guess is that William Golding had less than no experience with the outdoors, other than English playing fields. Let's get persnickety for a moment: 1) The boys start a fire INSTANTLY with sunlight through the lens of Piggy's glasses; Hah! I'd like to see that done! 2) The naked or nearly naked boys, with their tender English feet, scamper over coral and volcanic rocks all a-jumble, and through palm and bramble thickets, at the speed of thought on the typewriter keys; Golding had clearly never attempted hiking off-path in his life! 3) The island is straight out of Disneyland! If it's big enough to support a population of wild hogs, to have running streams of fresh water, and to feature a peak as high as described, then the boys COULD NOT possibly cover the territory they do in the time they're allotted, any more than Jack Bauer could drive from edge to edge of Los Angeles during a commercial break! If the island is as small as it has to be for the final `hunt' to make sense, then it's too small for any other item of the story to compute. There are also some ecological illogicalities, the strangest of all being the presence of those pigs without any history of human settlement. Honestly, as a narrative of `survival' in a hostile or indifferent environment, "Lord of the Flies" is less realistic than "The Hatchet", Gary Paulsen's classic for young readers.
In short, William Golding knew absolutely NOTHING about nature! And knowing nothing about Nature, how can his depiction of Human Nature be considered meaningful?
That's the burning question for me, in reading this rather childish portrayal of the innate bestiality -- the "original sin" -- of our species. Frankly, I think "The Lord of the Flies' is fatally dated; it's a specimen of the mindset of the year it was published, 1954, at the beginning of the Great Fear of nuclear destruction. It dates from an era when the implications of evolution were just beginning to dawn on middle-class literary Joes like Golding, but long before any combination of ethology and evolutionary psychology had begun to probe the roots of social-ethical behavior.
Is it still worth reading? Yeah, it's kinda fun. Does it have depths of insight in the human dilemma? None that I can take seriously. Should it be a standard reading choice for school children of any particular age, as it has been? Is it actually a book intended for "young readers"? I'll have to leave those questions for teachers to consider.