A Report on the Classic Allegorical Novel By Danny East

A group of English schoolboys are marooned on a jungle ISLAND with no adults after their plane is shot down in the middle of a war. Two of the boys, R ALPH and P IGGY find a CONCH shell. Ralph blows into it like a horn, and all the boys on the island assemble. At the assembly, a boy named J ACK mocks Piggy for being fat and runs against Ralph to become chief of the group. Ralph wins the election, and declares Jack the leader of the group’s hunters.

The story is told from 3 RD PERSON viewpoint, alternating between LIMITED and OMNISCIENT.

As we know already, there are TWO main types of conflict in literature: EXTERNAL and INTERNAL. External conflict pits a PERSON against another HUMAN or against an animal, an object, the forces of nature, or any other thing or things OUTSIDE OF HIM. Internal conflict involves a struggle between a person and his emotions or negative attributes. Both types of conflict occur in The Lord of the Flies.

R ALPH : Handsome, ATHLETIC 12-year-old elected LEADER by the boys. He is sensible and SELF - CONFIDENT but gradually becomes DISHEARTENED under the BURDEN OF LEADERSHIP, and J ACK plots to OVERTHROW him. R ALPH is the PROTAGONIST. P IGGY : Fat, clumsy, ASTHMATIC older boy who BEFRIENDS and advises R ALPH. P IGGY is an ORPHAN, and is the MOST INTELLIGENT of all the boys. J ACK M ERRIDEW : A GGRESSIVE older boy who envies R ALPH and VIES with him for LEADERSHIP. He leads the CHOIRBOYS. S IMON : Timid, HIGHLY SENSITIVE older boy who RESPECTS everyone and learns a DARK SECRET.

S AM AND E RIC : T WINS who support R ALPH in his STRUGGLE with J ACK. R OGER : C RUEL older boy who seems to ENJOY harming others. T HE C HOIRBOYS : Singers led by J ACK. They remain LOYAL to him in his STRUGGLE with R ALPH. T HE L ORD OF THE F LIES : The PIG ' S head that J ACK impales on a STICK as an offering to T HE B EAST. The BOYS call the offering "T HE L ORD OF THE F LIES," which in J UDEO -C HRISTIAN MYTHOLOGY refers to B EELZEBUB, an INCARNATION of S ATAN.

There are several types of IRONY. Usually, though, irony refers to an OUTCOME or a CIRCUMSTANCE that is the OPPOSITE of what one might expect. It would be ironic, for example, if the SHORTEST basketball player on a team is the HIGHEST scorer—or if the most POPULAR, most INTELLIGENT, and most ATTRACTIVE student in the senior class is UNABLE to get a date for the PROM. Examples of IRONY in The Lord of the Flies include the following: The SURVIVORS of the plane crash are boys EVACUATED from a battle zone in a WORLD WAR. However, the SOCIETY they form eventually BREAKS down, and the CHILDREN go to WAR with ONE ANOTHER. P IGGY ' S EYESIGHT is WEAK, but his INSIGHT is STRONG.

The B RITISH NAVAL OFFICER who arrives to RESCUE the boys at the end of the novel APPEARS to represent CIVILIZATION and SANITY. But he and the SOCIETY he REPRESENTS are actually a MIRROR IMAGE, on a larger scale, of the BOYS and their CORRUPT ISLAND SOCIETY. When J ACK sets a fire to roust R ALPH from the forest, he unintentionally SAVES the lives of all the REMAINING boys. It was THIS fire that ATTRACTED the ATTENTION of the B RITISH SHIP.

P LANE C RASH : Failure or BREAKDOWN of society in the WORLD outside; SPREAD of CORRUPTING IDEAS. F OREST S CAR : This path of DESTRUCTION through the forest, caused by the CRASHING PLANE, appears to REPRESENT the ENCROACHMENT of CORRUPT civilization on the PRISTINE island. I SLAND : Before the arrival of the boys, the Garden of Eden; after the arrival of the boys, the corrupted world of humankind. C ONCH : Civilized authority, democracy.

E YEGLASSES OF P IGGY AND P IGGY H IMSELF : Insight, wisdom, knowledge. D EATH OF P IGGY AND D ESTRUCTION OF C ONCH : Failure or breakdown of society on the island. S IGNAL F IRE : Hope. I MAGINED B EAST : Fear, superstition. (The boys imagine that a monster in the form of a snake, a sea monster, an ape, or other "beasties" that they dream about lurks nearby.) D EAD P ARACHUTIST : The beast. (In fact, the parachutist is a beast, for he has taken part in a war to kill fellow human beings.) C HANTING AND D ANCING OF THE H UNTERS : Blind emotion, loss of reason. L OGS ON W HICH R ALPH AND J ACK S IT : Seats of authority; thrones.

T HE B IG B OYS : The emerging generation of evil. T HE L ITTLE B OYS : The next generation of evil. T HE N AVAL O FFICER : The present generation of evil. T HE K ILLING OF THE F IRST P IG : Original sin. T HE K ILLING OF THE S ECOND P IG, THE S OW : Release of the inner urge of madness or destruction and continuation of sin. J ACK ' S K NIFE, S TICKS S HARPENED I NTO S PEARS : Weapons of war. J ACK AND R ALPH : Perhaps C AIN and A BEL (although R ALPH does not die, as A BEL did in the B IBLE ). T HE I MPALED P IG ' S H EAD (L ORD OF THE F LIES ): The EVIL in EVERY person's HEART.

I liked Lord of the Flies because all of the characters seemed to represent someone I know (although their actions are on a much smaller scale).

 This is a good book for people who like Aesop’s Fables or stories with morals and a whole lot of symbolism.

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