William Golding, Lord of the Flies Review

Overall Rating

William Golding's Lord Of The Flies, the novel that exhibits civilisation, isolation, and how they can destroy humanity; has been on our shelves for 53 years to this day, and despite the age of this book, it certainly deserves our attention and high respect for its achieving, disturbing plot which seems to teach us right from wrong.

It all begins as World War 2 breaks out, and the children must be evacuated to safety. Little did they know they were boarding a plane to their own death and insanity. The plane crashes on a completely deserted island, not exactly the place that young, civilised schoolboys would like to spend the next few weeks of their time.

Two responsible boys, Ralph and Piggy are the first to meet, shortly before they discover a conch. They use this conch to summon any other boys on the island. They move on to meet Simon, a boy with a heart of only good; Jack, leader of a choir of a few other boys that follow his every word; Roger, a quiet boy but of pure evil; and Samneric, twins practically joined at the hip. There are also lots of other boys, but these aren't considered as main characters in the book.

A vote for chief, Ralph wins. The other boys see him as sensible and reliable. Jack is very shocked and embarrassed at this, and his loss of vote explains his grievance against Ralph through the whole book. Now that Ralph has the great burden of being chief on his shoulders, many things go wrong. He tries to control everything, but Jack ends up leaving the group after an argument over everything.

Disastrous things start to happen, a 'beastie' is discovered, the fire can't be kept alight because not enough people can watch it, Simon is brutally murdered by mistake by Jack and his tribe and Piggy is also murdered by Roger, using a big boulder.

Ralph tries to make amends with Jack, but his tribe are already out trying to murder him as well. The whole forest alights, and just as Ralph is about to be stabbed, a sailor comes to their rescue.

William Golding uses very styled language in his novel. He takes time to fully describe every detail to his audience. He uses words that create an image in people's heads of exactly what's going on, so the reader can embrace the full meaning of the story. Overall, William Golding really is a great author, of a great book with so many different meanings and mysteries too. Teaching the world about civilisation and the effects of insanity, Golding has really made some people think about human lifestyle in a more realistic way. This book explores a nightmare, and I'd definitely recommend it for a good read.