Lord of the Flies: An Exploration of Human Nature
Lord of the Flies is the greatest novel of the 20th century written by William Golding. This novel was published in 1954 by Nobel Prize winner British author William Golding. This was William Golding’s first and most famous novel. Many movies have been made on this novel. William Golding has described the natural behavior of human beings in his novel.
He has tried to describe the natural behavior of human beings by using different things in his novel. William Golding has tried to tell us through his novel that if no restrictions are imposed on us, then we will also start acting like animals.
Major Characters of Lord of the Flies
The most important characters in this novel are as follows:
1) Ralph: Raph is the most important character and hero of this novel. He is the most intelligent and powerful among all the children. Instead of giving orders to the children on the island, he works strategically on how we can escape from the island. In this novel, Ralph is the symbol of law, governance, and civil society.
2) Piggy: Piggy is the most smart and intelligent child in this novel but he is not physically fit, he is very fond of food and drink and he is also a bit fat but he supports Ralph a lot in this difficult situation. Piggy is the symbol of science and logic.
3) Jack is the third main character in this novel, he is the leader of his group, he likes to exercise his power so he wants to rule over all the children on the island and use his power. At the end of the novel, Jack becomes the leader of the hunter group. Jack is the symbol of greed of power.
Summary
Lord of the Flies; a novel written by William Golding; a British author, which was published in 1954. This masterpiece of literature is a tale of survival and savagery. In this novel a group of British boys is stranded on a deserted Island during a war. This group is led by Ralph; the hero of the story. First of all, they establish order and rules like building of shelters and maintaining of signal fire for their rescue.
But after sometime conflicts aroused with another boy name Jack, the villain of the story, who want to get power by savagery. As a result, boys divided into groups which leads to violence, fear and tragedy. Finally, they are rescued by a naval officer who discovered the boys amidst the chaos. This novel explores many themes like human nature, loss of Innocence and the darkness within the individuals.
4) Simon: Simon is also a very important character in the novel and is the bravest of all the children on the island and by the end of the novel he is the only person of Jack’s group who does not become a hunter. He also helps Ralph build shelters for the children on the island, and Simon is the only one of the children who is not afraid to go alone in the forest. Some critics have described Simon as a symbol of Jesus Christ. Simon is also the symbol of bravery.
Story of the novel Lord of the Flies
The novel starts with some English schoolboys who are stranded on an island. It is the time of the Second World War when their ship crashes and they land on an island and are stranded there with the children. There are no elders with them to help these children and they survive alone on the island.
Role of Ralph and Piggy
The two main characters of the novel, Ralph and Piggy, find a horn-like cone there and Ralph blows the horn, causing all the children on the island to gather in one place. When all the children gathered at one place, they all decided together that one of us children should be the leader of the group, who can lead everyone what to do and how to do it.
Piggy is a bit fat so Jack makes fun of Piggy. Jack wants to be the leader of the group, but all the kids there decide to make Ralph their leader. Ralph makes Jack the leader of the hunting group that you and the boys in your group will be hunting. Along with this, they made some more rules.
One of the children told Ralph that he saw a beast in the forest, but Ralph told him, “No, you must have misunderstood.” Ralph gives the idea to all the children that we should find a path in the forest and we should go to the top of the mountain and make a fire.
Importance of smoke for rescue
The smoke that will come out of the fire might attract someone to us and help us. Piggy, who was the fattest child, wore glasses. Everyone took off his glasses and set him on fire. When burning it, the children became careless and the fire spread throughout the forest, causing the boy who said he had seen an animal in the forest to disappear and never be seen again.
Ralph was very angry that how could all these children be so careless and he was also facing a lot of trouble because there he was building a shelter and no one was helping him to build the shelter. Only a few children were helping Ralph, rest of the children were just playing there.
Role of jack
Jack, on the other hand, was leading the hunting group and never missed an opportunity to make fun of Piggy, and complications and arguments between Ralph and Jack continued to grow. Ralph called an assembly, but as all the children were very careless, no one paid attention to his words, and the meeting went to waste.
A short distance from the island, there was a fight between two ships, due to which a man parachuted onto the island at the same place where the children had lit a signal fire. When some children saw this man, they were afraid that it might be a ghost and they ran to Jack and Ralph saying that we have seen a ghost.
Both Jack and Ralph went to the same place to show their bravery but they did not see anyone there and returned and told the children that there was no one there. The next morning, Jack tells the kids that Ralph is not fit to be the leader of the group, but the kids again make Ralph the leader of the group, which makes Jack very angry and leaves the group.
Some children followed Jack and he became a hunter. Jack painted his mouth completely so that it would be easier to hunt the pig. Jack hunted a pig and cut off its head and stuck it on a stick, after which some flies landed on its head.
Simon came near the head and when he saw it, he considered it a Lord of the Flies. Simon saw that the head was talking to him, he was telling him that the beast is not anywhere else but in the heart of you children.
Simon went to the top of the mountain where they had lit a fire to give a signal and when he got there, he saw that there was no Beast but a man hanging from a parachute. He ran back to tell all the children but when they got there, Jack and his friends were having a party and they killed Simon as a beast.
The kids from Jack’s group then chase after Piggy and Ralph, and one of Jack’s boys throws a rock that kills Piggy. Now Ralph felt that these men would kill me too, so he hides himself behind the bushes to save his life. Then Jack and his group of boys set fire to the bushes to get Ralph out of it.
In the meantime, a British Navy ship passed by and a navy officer came out and Ralph ran to him for help. Ralph came to the navy officer and started crying and all the children started crying too. This navy officer said what is going on here then all the children started crying and this officer looked at his ship and the novel ended here.
Major Themes of Lord of the Flies
There are many themes in this English novel. Some of them are given below:
- Social Order and Hierarchy
- Symbolism
- Fear
- Loss of Innocence
- Civilization vs Savagery
- Human Nature
- Isolation
- Evil Side of a Human Being
- Greed of Power
- Democracy
Recent updates about the novel Lord of the Flies
BBC announcement
BBC adaptation announced that casting of this novel is open for 10 to 13 years old boys by multi award winning a well famous casting director named Nina gold. This classic novel for the first time is going to be adopted on television. It will be a four-part drama and its shooting will be started in Australia in this month of April 2024 to onward.
Saying of Peter Biles
Peter Biles; writer and editor has recently told us that ” The problem of evil is spiritual and cannot be solved by more technology” he said this in the month of March 2024 on studying the gorgeously written book “Lord of the Flies” by William Golding.
He said that people who believe that new technologies like AI will be helpful and drastically improve the human being and their experiences might be vest by analyzing the novel which provide perfect environment like garden of Eden to the stranded boys.
Announcement of Luca Guadagnino
Luca Guadagnino is going to direct William Golding’s Nobel prize winning novel “Lord of the Flies” remake which was appeared first on consequences of sound.
Staging of the novel by “Odd fellows play house junior Repertory company”
Odd fellows play house junior Repertory company has been started the staging of William Golding’s masterpiece “Lord of the Flies” from the month of March 2024 by young actors in odd fellows play house youth theater,128 Washington st Middletown CT,06457.
Use of symbols in Lord of the Flies
This novel is replete with many symbols that are used by William Golding to represent different aspects of human nature. Some important symbols are as under.
Conch Shell
It is a symbol of order, democracy and authority on the deserted Island.
Piggy’s glasses
It represents wisdom intelligence and insight.
The Beast
It is used to symbolize the primal instincts and fears within human beings.
Fire
In this novel fire symbolizes two things hope and destruction.
The island
It represents loneliness isolation and microcosm of the larger world.
The Lord of the Flies
Severed pig’s head on the stick represent I,t that symbolizes inherent evil of the human beings.
Conclusion
To conclude the whole discussion, we may say that in this novel William Golding has explored the human nature and society. He laid more emphasis on the darker aspects of human nature which serves as a chilling reminder to all of us.
