In William Golding's "Lord of The Flies" the author gives a dark and humbling description of human nature. He demonstrates this by showing the degeneration of a group of boys stranded on a deserted island. As the rules and symbols of power and authority are stripped from the group they revert to savagery power struggles and murder. The strong survive and the weak perish. .
The story starts when a plane, rescuing children from the war crashes on a remote, uninhabited island. The main protagonists include Ralph (elected leader), Piggy, Jack (leader of a choir who become the hunters). They have regular meetings. Some of the small boys talk about being scared of a beast they see at night. A rule is established that a fire should be kept burning at all times in the hope that a passing ship will rescue them. However when a ship passes but the fire is not lit. The hunters return (having taken responsibility for keeping the fire going) with a slaughtered pig and there is a bitter argument amongst the boys. Jack soon refuses to obey orders and the boys think that they see "the beast". Jack breaks away from Ralph and forms his own, savage, tribe. They kill a pig and leave its head for the "beast". Simon sees this head and imagines he has a conversation with it. Simon, having discovered what the beast really is goes back to tell the boys what he has found and the boys, having had a feast and performing their dance, kill Simon thinking he is the beast. Ralph's group is now very small and find it hard to keep the fire going. Jack's tribe steal Piggy's glasses which are essential for focusing sunlight to light the fire. As Ralph's group try to get Piggy's glasses back Piggy is killed and Ralph is attacked by Jack. Jack's tribe tries to kill Ralph and on a final effort they try to smoke him out. A passing ship sees this smoke and pulls in to rescue the boys.
In my essay I will be examining the many themes present in this book.
