Lord of the Flies by William Golding

Golding, William.  Lord of the Flies.

Penguin Books; 1999 (originally published in 1954).

ISBN: 0140283331 (pbk.).

Reader’s Annotation

When a plane crashes on an island, leaving a group of British schoolboys as survivors, they must decide how they will live and how their “society” will be defined—with deadly consequences.

Plot Summary

A group of British schoolchildren, being evacuated during wartime, crash on a deserted island and must organize themselves in order to survive.  Ralph, the protagonist, finds a conch shell, and blows it in order to gather the other survivors.  He and Jack, the leader of a choir group, are the natural candidates to guide them, but the overall group chooses Ralph to be their leader.  An intelligent and overweight boy, unhappily nicknamed “Piggy”, is Ralph’s first friend on the island and acts as a sort of advisor to Ralph.  Another boy, Simon, proves to be another trusted friend.  Ralph makes lighting and maintaining a signal fire the number one priority, and they use Piggy’s glasses to start the fire.  Jack, in turn, organizes his choir into hunters to find meat.  For a while, all the boys are united in a common purpose, but then things start to go downhill.  Some of the boys become convinced that there is a monster (“the Beast”), on the island.  Jack exploits that belief, and uses their fear to gain more power and control over the group.  Now there are two tribes—Jack’s and Ralph’s. When Simon reaches an emotional breakdown point, he stumbles across the fly-covered head of a pig, mounted on a stake.  It is the hunters’ first kill, offered up to the Beast.  To Simon, it appears that the “Lord of the Flies” talks to him, telling him the real beast is instead them all.  Before the story’s end, the boys have become utterly savage, and the hunt is on.

Critical Evaluation

This classic novel is so multifaceted that it has become required reading in countless high schools and colleges.  Ripe with symbolism, the story progresses slowly at first, and then steadily faster and faster—you can almost hear the drum beat.  Lord of the Flies has been identified by the ALA as one of the most frequently challenged books.  For some, they cite the violence or profanity.  Others claim that it is racist, or defamatory to disabled, God and women.  One of the more telling reasons cited, however, is that the book is “demoralizing inasmuch as it implies that man is little more than an animal." Ironically, they actually hit on one of the central themes—man’s struggle between civilized and primitive behavior.  For that idea, Golding’s work is likely to remain a classic.  When Golding received the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1983, the Nobel Foundation cited: "...his novels which, with the perspicuity of realistic narrative art and the diversity and universality of myth, illuminate the human condition in the world of today".

Information about the Author

Born to a socialist teacher who supported scientific rationalism (his father), and a supporter of women’s suffrage (his mother), Sir William Gerald Golding seemed destined to become a scientist at his father’s request.  However, he later developed a love of literature—first Anglo-Saxon texts and then poetry, which he wrote fervently.  Lord of the Flies was Golding’s first published novel.  For more information, go to:  http://www.william-golding.co.uk/

Genre

Adventure

Horror

Curriculum Tie-ins

Sociology

Booktalk Ideas

1. What do you think the Lord of the Flies represents?
2. Why do you think that Piggy was so obsessed with the conch shell?  What do you think the shell represents?

Reading level/Interest age

Young Adult (age 13-adult)

Challenge Issues/Challenge Response Ideas

Violence

Language

Racism

Defamation of the disabled, God, and women

• Be ready with a copy of the library’s selection policy.
• Understand the history of challenges for this particular work.
• Be familiar with similar works in the collection.
• Refer to Golding’s Nobel Prize in Literature for Lord of the Flies.

Why I included this work

I read it in high school, and it made an impact on me—especially the last page.

Winner of the 1983 Nobel Prize for Literature

Great Quote from the Book:

"Ralph wept for the end of innocence, the darkness of man's heart, and the fall through the air of the true, wise friend called Piggy."