"Lord of the Flies" written by William Golding, provides powerful insight into basic human nature.
The story takes place in a deserted island. The main character, Ralph provides the foundation for the story. Many other characters are center stage through the book and make up a variety of personalities.
A plane carrying a group of British schoolboys is shot down over the Pacific; many of the boys survive the crash and find themselves deserted on an uninhabited island, where they are alone without adult supervision. Ralph and Piggy make their way to the beach where they find a large conch shell. Using the shell as a horn, Ralph summons any other children that may be on the island. They begin to come from the jungle (including the littl'uns, which are the youngest kids at about 6 or 7 years old), among these boys is Jack Merridew, head of the choir. Rules are set down, and Ralph is to be chief since he had possession of the conch. Jack's black-clad choir are designated as hunters upon Jack's insistence and a child tells of a "beastie" that he saw in the dark, lurking on the island. Ralph suggests making a signal fire, which would be necessary if they hope to get rescued. The group of hunters are divided up to take shifts keeping the fire going. They use Piggy's specs and focus the sunlight to ignite their fire. They were not careful, however, and soon the fire is engulfing half the forest near the mountain. The little boy with the who had spoken of the "beastie" is noticed to be missing, killed by the raging fire. A ship is spotted in the distance, but the signal fire has gone out. That night, a man from a shot-down fighter plane parachutes down from the sky. The man is already dead and the body and parachute float up to the island; the wind continually grabs the parachute, lifting the body up and down, which is seen by the fire tenders, terrified, they run to tell about this. Jack suggests they go hunt it and after returning, Jack calls an assembly by blowing the conch.
