Lord of the Flies

Title: Lord of the Flies
Author: William Golding
ISBN: 0399529209

Plot Summary: A group of British schoolboys are stranded on a desert island after their plane crashes, killing all the "grownups" on board. Determined to create some form of order to survive, the group of boys soon split off into two factions: the main group, led by the charismatic Ralph, who feels it is his duty to look after the younger boys, and the "hunters," led by the older and more practical Jack, who takes responsibility for finding food for the group. Both tribes eventually become more animalistic, with Jack keeping his group in line by encouraging their belief in a rumored "monster" on the island. These rumors lead to the boys mistaking the corpses of a pilot, a parachutist, and a wild pig for the imaginary creature. Tragedy strikes when one of the boys is mistaken for the monster and killed by the others; this also causes a shift in power, as many of Ralph's followers defect to Jack's side. When Ralph's now much smaller band decide to steal the glasses of an overweight, awkward boy known as Piggy, the ensuing struggle leads to Piggy's accidental death as well. It is not until the boys are ultimately rescued that they come to realize exactly how far they have fallen into the traps of anarchy and barbarism.


Critical Evaluation: This book provides a disturbing image of the "pack mentality" prevalent in boys and young men allowed to run wild without adult supervision. Charismatic leaders can easily take over a lost, confused group eager for some direction; the more difficult question is whether or not those leaders have anything substantive to offer their followers, particularly when it comes to survival. Although there are implications of the boys having been stranded on the island because of nuclear war, any number of other circumstances could have led to their current situation, and even boys brought up in a system of strict social and academic rules can degenerate into savagery all too easily.


Reader's Annotation: A group of English schoolboys are stranded on a deserted island after their plane crashes. Left alone without adult supervision, they manage to find enough food and shelter to survive, but their social interactions and invented rules of conduct grow increasingly violent, eventually leading to horrifying and tragic results.

About the Author: William Golding was born in Cornwall in 1911, at his grandmother's house, and grew up with his parents and elder brother in Marlborough, Wiltshire.

Genre: Fiction: Dystopia

Curriculum Ties: Anthropology, Sociology, Psychology

Booktalking Ideas:

Hook: The conch and its use in the book.
Approach: Plot-based.
Ideas for Booktalk: Blowing a conch shell to call attention or order has "tribal" implications; who has it versus who is capable of using it. Moments where it changes hands, brings about major plot points. Discuss its initial discovery, at a time when Ralph and Piggy are still on relatively friendly terms. How, if at all, will its use eventually drive them apart? Discussion of scene in which conch gets shattered, and what this symbolizes.

Hook: "Kill the beast! Cut his throat! Spill his blood!"
Approach: Scene-based.
Ideas for Booktalk: How did the boys degenerate to this level of bloodlust? Issues of anarchy, discovery of the enjoyment of killing when they first killed a pig. Circumstances which led to a mentally unstable boy being mistaken for a mythical creature. When the pig's head "speaks" to Simon, it tells him they all created the monster, and that it is inside all of them. Is this prophetic? Is the fact that this is revealed to Simon the reason he must die?

Reading Level/Interest Age: Junior high/High school

Challenge Issues: Violence, character death, anti-authority, offensive language.
The characters in this book are often violent towards each other, torturing and even killing each other either on purpose or by accident. Their increasingly anarchic, "uncivilized" behavior is profoundly disturbing to the adult reader, and will no doubt be even more so to younger readers, especially more sensitive ones. However, although the book shows boys rebelling against authority, the initial exhilaration they find in so doing soon leads to negative consequences, which the book presents as such. In earlier editions of the book, Piggy refers to Jack's face-painted tribe as "a pack of painted n---ers;" subsequent editions changed this to "savages" or "Indians," neither of which is much of an improvement. However, the boys' casual racism may be seen as a product of their upbringing, as well as a sign of their era, thereby promoting further discussion of racial issues.

Why I Chose This Book: When I first read this book as a teenager, its vision of societal degeneration disturbed me greatly. In rereading it, though, I found notes of hope in some of the boys' rediscovery of their sense of humanity and remorse, especially Ralph. Although the idea of a deserted island with no adult supervision may sound delightful to young people, especially boys, this book effectively shows the dangers in letting unbridled pre-adolescent self-will run rampant.