Lord of the Flies: Inside the Book

So recently, I had to read a novel of my choice (from the list of novels selected for my class) in a certain amount of time. The book would have 2 quizzes to it and a novel project in the end. Out of the selection of books, I hose Lord of the Flies. I mainly chose it because my mother suggested it to me since she read it when she was in high school. Another reason I read this was because it was the least depressing out of the other novels (a few of the other ones were A Separate Peace, Jane Eyre, and To Kill a Mockingbird). I tried to read this book years ago, but I just couldn't get around to it. I guess it just had to be assigned to me (I don't know), but I finally read it.



For those of your who don't know, Lord of the Flies is about a throng of British boys who was in a plane accident (it was during WWII, so...) and landed on an uncharted island in the middle of the ocean. They have to figure out how to survive without adults, so there was one group who was focused on being rescued, and another who wanted to have fun on the island and take advantage of the lack of parental supervision. I realize that there was more to this book than just them scrambling around an island. There's a principle to everything, and this book definitely had a principle.


*Civilization vs. savagery!! In the book, one of the biggest battles had to do with civilization (Ralph's side) and savagery (Jack's side). The question on the reader's mind is, "Will these boys loose their sanity before they are even able to be saved?" The further and further you get through the book, it is harder and harder to answer that question. In my opinion, this question has to do with modern civilization, ad whether or not the people of today are any more sane. I'm sure they don't run around with pig blood on their face (at least not directly. I mean people are using lanolin, which is made from sheep, as a skin moisturizer), but whose to say that people cannot and will not achieve that point of savagery in due time? All we need is some sort of pandemic as an excuse.

*Alienation of intellect. The one boy on that island who actually had some sense, his name was Piggy, was the most disrespected person there. Piggy was an overweight boy (hence Piggy) with glasses that, eve under the circumstances, had to deal with being bullied the entire time he was there. I said "entire time he was there"? Eventually, they were so sick of his logic that they killed him.

Something that I learned in this day and age is that the average person does not want to hear your logical thoughts on a serious situation. Especially when it comes to health. I know people who would rather listen to Dr. Oz than members of their own family who could give more detail and explanation about their health than a man on television. So I found the fact that they murdered Piggy to be rather interesting.

*Apathetic bloodshed. The worst part is, Piggy wasn't the only person to be murdered. There was a boy named Simon who was running up to the other boys in the night to tell them something about the island. They mistaken him as a beast that they were afraid of on the island and killed him on the spot. Only a few of them actually felt bad about it. Which brings me back to my original point: what if the world comes to just people killing people? It's not like it's not already happening, but I mean directly in broad daylight, or as a recreational activity for cannibals. I hope people can get it together before that happens.

*The "Beast" In the book, there was an anonymous beast on the island that the boys were worried about. a few of them claim to have seen this beast, but it turns out that the beast was just an illusion and they were entirely alone, but of course they didn't know that. This is why Simon died: they mistaken him for the beast (it was too dark for them to see), so I guess you can say it was self-defense. Unless you out the fact that most of them didn't feel bad about it!

I think that the beast stands for what humans do not know of in life and the universe, which can be frightening. For example, how would you react if there were supposedly aliens on Earth that you haven't seen yet? I bet that due to the rumor's popularity, you will believe it and develop a sense of paranoia by stocking up on nuclear spray, or installing an underground bunker to your backyard. Another example is: how are you reacting to 12-21-2012?


These are just some of the things that I learned or observed from the book. I'm pretty sure that there is more to any book than just the story, which is one of the may things that I love about reading. At first, I wasn't even going to read Lord of the Flies. It sounds like Bob Bummer wrote it for the world to become pensive from.  However, I found that this book was very well written, the drama and suspense was put together in an adequate fashion, and I now see why this book has become a classic. Plus, I hope that William Golding's message was acquired.

Like I mentioned earlier, I had to do a novel project for the book. I had to choose between three options: 1) a literary essay, 2) a book trailer, and 3) writing the next chapter. I chose the trailer because I wanted to practice with the Windows Movie Maker, and I wanted to practice my movie making abilities (I'm thinking about having a career in the film industry). This is how it went: