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Lord of the Flies by William Golding: Summary | Neb English Support Class 12
Lord of the Flies
ABOUT NOVEL
Lord of the Flies by William Golding
"Lord of the Flies" is an allegorical novel by Nobel Prize-winning British author William Golding. This novel was first published in 1954.
William Golding was a British novelist, playwright, and poet. Golding's original title for this novel was 'Strangers from Within'. After being published by Faber & Faber, an independent publishing house in London, the book was named "Lord of the Flies".
The current novel focuses on a group of British boys stranded on a deserted island and their disastrous attempt to rule themselves.
MAIN THEMES
Lord of the Flies by William Golding
The main themes in William Golding's novel 'Lord of the Flies' are as follows:
1. Civilization vs Savagery
2. Loss of Innocence
3. Struggle to build Civilization
4. Man's inherent Evil
MAIN SUMMARY
Lord of the Flies by William Golding
The novel begins with a plane crash on an island. A group of English schoolboys are on a plane. Two boys, Ralph and Piggy, find a conch. Ralph blows it like a horn, and all the boys get on board. The boys on the island gather. They choose a leader, an attractive boy named Ralph, and a boy named Jack as the leaders of the group. Soon after, Ralph, Jack, and another boy named Simon explore the island and discover wild pigs.
In the second assembly, the boys made rules to govern themselves. The first rule is that anyone who wants to speak in the meeting must discover a conch. At the meeting, a young boy claims that he saw a "beast," but Ralph ignores it as merely the result of a nightmare. Later, Ralph suggested that they build a signal fire on a mountaintop so that any passing ships would see the smoke and rescue them. The boy who saw the beast never sees the beast again after they start fire on the mountaintop. As time passes, the tension also increases among the boys. Ralph becomes frustrated when no one helps him build a shelter. Many of the boys fool around, while Jack knows about the hunt and takes every opportunity to make fun of Piggy, who is smart but weak. Meanwhile, Simon often wanders into the woods to meditate. The rivalry between Ralph and Jack flares up when Jack forces the boys to come hunting with him, who are supposed to watch the signal fire. They kill their first pig instead of caring for the fire signal. In the meantime, a ship passes by. This carelessness of boys leads to a heated argument between Ralph and Jack.
Ralph calls a meeting in the hope of settling things right. But that night, after a distant aeroplane battle, a dead parachutist landed on the mountaintop. Both the leaders, Ralph and Jack, climb the mountain in the dark to prove their courage. They see the shadowy parachutist and think of him as a beast. The next morning, Jack challenges Ralph's authority at a meeting. Ralph wins, but Jack leaves the group. Jack's tribe paints their faces. They hunt a pig and kill it. They then leave his head as an offering to the beast. Simon arrives at the head and sees that it is 'Lord of the Flies', the beast within all humans. While Jack invites everyone to a feast, Simon climbs the mountain and sees the parachutist. However, when Simon returns to tell everyone the truth about "the beast," the boys at the feast have become a frenzied mob, carrying out the ritual murder of a pig. The mob thinks Simon is a beast and kills him.
Jack's tribe moves towards the rocky fort. They stole Piggy's glasses to light the fire. Ralph, his last ally, Piggy, and twins named Samperik go to retrieve the glasses. Jack's tribe captures the twins, and a boy named Roger rolls a rock from the fort that breaks the conch shell and kills Piggy. The next day, the tribe hunts down Ralph and sets fire to the forest. The boys corner Ralph on the beach, where they first established their society after crashing on the island. The burning forest has attracted a British naval ship, and an officer stands on the shore. The boys stop, shocked, and stare at the man. He jokingly asks if the boys are playing in the war and if there are any casualties. When Ralph says yes, the officer is shocked and disappointed that English boys would behave this way. Ralph starts crying, and soon the other boys start crying too. The officer looks away from his warship uncomfortably.
Through this novel, 'William Golding' shows how young boys try to develop a system of organisation and fail.
TIMELINE
Lord of the Flies by William Golding
1. The Plane Crashes:
The story begins with a plane crash on an island. Only the British boys survived the crash. The boys are left trapped in the accident, as no adults survive the crash.
2. Ralph Meets Piggy:
This meeting part is an important part of the story. The fat boy with glasses, Piggy, is the first person Ralph meets on the island. Ralph and Piggy eventually form a strong bond. Here, Ralph, Piggy, and another character named Simon have become symbols of civilization.
3. Ralph Calls an Assembly:
At the first meeting, Ralph calls an assembly. He meets the rest of the boys on the island. He also meets a group of choir boys who are led by Jack. The boys on the island are wearing clothes. It is important to the story as it shows the first signs of civilization on the island. The boys vote for chief, and Ralph is chosen. However, he feels bad for Jack, and so he gives him his own choir of hunters. The idea of lighting a fire is proposed, and the boys do so. This makes smoke visible to ships.
4. Ralph, Jack, and Simon Climb the Mountain:
Among the boys, three climb the mountain and survey the area. They discover that they are actually on an island, and they mark out some areas. At first, Jack seems a little upset about not being chosen as a chief, but he and Ralph begin a relationship.
5. The Ship Passes:
The crew of Jack has to light the fire, while Ralph has to help build the shelter. But Jack and his crew move on, hunting, and the fire goes out. When Jack and the boys are out, a ship passes by the island and disappears from it. Ralph becomes quite angry to learn about this fact.
6. Jack Gets Meat:
When the fire goes out, Jack leaves to hunt. He returns with the meat. He kills the first pig on the island. Finally, all of them cook and eat the meat. Killing pigs is the first murder on the island. This is very significant as the boys begin to lose their grip on what is right and what is wrong.
7. Ralph Calls for Another Meeting:
When Ralph calls another assembly, he gets a little angry. Due to his duties as chief on the island, he has to do a lot of work while the other boys usually go out to play. They wander around the island while Ralph keeps on doing something for the sake of others. This drives him crazy. This is an evolution in his character as he begins to go through the ageing process.
8. The Parachutist Lands:
Most of the time on the island, there is talk about the beast. This talk of beasts is spreading around the island. The boys are scared that there is something else on the island, and they will all die from the beast. This fear remains with them until the end of the novel. This is also the cause of one death in the book. Meanwhile, the body of a parachutist falls onto the island and hangs on a tree near the fire.
9. The Twins See the Body:
Two twins on the island, collectively known as Samneric, find the parachutist's body and believe it to be the Beast. They run back to the camp and tell everyone about it. This news adds more fear within the boys.
10. The Group Divides:
The group on the island is divided between Ralph's loyalists and Jack's hunters. Most boys go to Jack's side. The few boys who remain with Ralph also leave. Jack's group kills a boar and places the animal's head on a stick as an offering to the beast.
11. The Lord of the Flies:
While returning from the mountain, Simon stumbled upon a pig's head. He is so hungry. When he gets near the pig's head, he starts speaking to it. It reveals many things, and Simon goes through psychological hell. Pig's Head is called "Lord of the Flies" because it is covered with flies.
12. Simon is killed:
When Simon comes back from the mountain, he tells the group that the beast is only a parachutist. Jack's group is dancing at the bottom of the mountain. They have gone mad with the power and frenzy of control, and they have just had a feast. Ralph's group is also there. When Simon comes in from the trees, he is badly attacked by some boys. Simon is beaten to death while shouting that the beast is a parachutist. His body remains floating in the water.
13. Jack's Group is a Group of Savages:
After killing Simon brutally, Jack ties up one of his own friends and throws him against a stone wall for no reason. The group that Jack leads is shown to be based on barbarism and for very little reason. Most of the boys have now transferred to Jack's group, and thus the scales have tipped in favour of anarchy.
14. Piggy is murdered:
Jack's group steals fire from Ralph's group. So, Ralph moves to Jack's camp to call an assembly. Jack arrives, and a fight breaks out. In madness, Roger picks up a bold lever, and it crushes Piggy. His body also floats on water.
15. Ralph is Being Hunted:
After the rest of his group either dies or transforms, Ralph is hunted by Jack's group. As they pursue him, they set fire to the forest, and Ralph nearly dies. He suddenly meets a naval officer outside the forest.
16. Rescue:
The boys pursue Ralph, ready to kill him. At the last moment, Ralph meets a naval officer. When Jack's group all captures Ralph, fully dressed in paint, for murdering him, they realise the barbarity of their lives. The boys take it away from the island.
Lord of the Flies is the story of a war between barbarism and civilization. When the boys descend, Ralph is voted in as chief. Ralph always tries to maintain civilization, and this is his symbol. On the other hand, Jack always wants to have fun. As the boys go crazy from their time on the island, Jack takes control of Ralph. Thus, Jack represents barbarity. As the members of the island slowly come to Jack's side, we realise just how cruel the man fundamentally is. This is an epoch-making novel. At the beginning of the book, the boys seem quite innocent. They just want to survive. Finally, they brutally beat other boys to death and crushed other boys with stones. They have seen death firsthand at their own cost, and they have been hardened by it. His maturity grows through events as he realises how life really is and how cruel humans are. If they are not rescued in time, the group will kill each other at their own cost, and they have become hardened by this. His maturity grows through events as he realises how life really is and how cruel humans are. If they are not rescued in time, the group will kill each other.
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