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Lord of the Flies

Lord of the Flies: Encyclopedia - Lord of the Flies

Lord of the Flies is an allegorical novel by the Nobel Prize-winning author William Golding. It was Golding's first novel, and was published in 1954. Although it was not a great success at the time — selling fewer than 3,000 copies in the United States during 1955 before going out of print — it went on to become a bestseller, and a required reading material in many schools and colleges. It was adapted to film in 1963 by Peter Brook and again in 1990. The title is a reference to Beelzebub (the source is from the Hebrew ...

Including:

Lord of the Flies - Plot summary

Lord of the Flies - Coral Island

Lord of the Flies - Notes

Lord of the Flies - ISBN numbers

Lord of the Flies, Lord of the Flies - Coral Island, Lord of the Flies - ISBN numbers, Lord of the Flies - Notes, Lord of the Flies - Plot summary, The Beach, Infinite Ryvius

Lord of the Flies: Encyclopedia - Lord of the Flies

Lord of the Flies

Lord of the Flies is an allegorical novel by the Nobel Prize-winning author William Golding. It was Golding's first novel, and was published in 1954. Although it was not a great success at the time — selling fewer than 3,000 copies in the United States during 1955 before going out of print — it went on to become a bestseller, and a required reading material in many schools and colleges. It was adapted to film in 1963 by Peter Brook and again in 1990. The title is a reference to Beelzebub (the source is from the Hebrew name Baalzvuv בעל זבוב), a synonym for the Devil.

It is generally regarded as a classic of postwar English literature, as it depicts the regression into savagery of a group of schoolboys stranded on a deserted island without adult supervision, in the aftermath of a plane crash, while fleeing wartime Britain.

Lord of the Flies - Plot summary

In the midst of a raging war, a plane evacuating a group of British schoolboys is shot down over a deserted tropical island. The first two characters to meet are the athletic, somewhat heroic Ralph and a bespectacled, fat boy known only as Piggy, who use a conch to call the other boys to them from across the island. One other potential leader arises from the boys: Jack, who had been leading a choir. Ralph is elected as leader, and appoints Jack to gather food for the entire group. This is indicative of Ralph being a kind, democratic character; Piggy emerges as his unpopular, but nonetheless intelligent back-up.

However, early on there is talk of a "beastie", which scares a lot of the boys. Ralph declares that they must light a signal fire to attract the attention of passing ships. The boys succeed in igniting some dead wood by focusing sunlight through the lenses of Piggy’s eyeglasses. However, the boys pay more attention to playing than to monitoring the fire, and the flames quickly engulf the forest. A large swath of dead wood burns out of control, and one of the youngest boys in the group disappears, presumably having burned to death. The life on the island continues to be disorganised; the major players (Jack and Ralph) have differing aims for the island, and the only person willing to co-operate with the building of shelters is Simon. Simon is often seen as representing religion, goodwill and spiritualism in the novel.

The descent of the boys into chaos starts, ironically, with an opportunity to be rescued. A ship is sailing near the island, but Jack has led a party off hunting rather than tending to the signal fire; the ship sails past unawares. The ensuing argument sees Piggy's glasses broken. Jack continues through the book as a tyrant, as do other members of his choir—the irony of the way these angelic children change is no accident.

A dead parachutist lands on the island, and the twins Sam and Eric (together nicknamed Samneric) assume it is the beast, causing mass panic. An expedition to investigate ends in Ralph, Jack and Roger (Jack's sadistic friend) ascending the mountain, and quickly coming back down. The "beastie" now becomes known as a "beast". Jack denounces Ralph as a coward, and departs Ralph's chiefdom to create his own tribe. This new tribe is quickly able to hunt down a pig, and they decide to host a feast. Before that, they sever the pig's head and place it on a stick as an offering to the "beast". Simon comes across it, seeing that it has been infested with flies, and in hallucination the head speaks to him. Its messages foreshadow the fate of Simon, and he faints.

Jack's tribe hosts the feast, and he orders a ritualistic dance—Simon, who has just run down from the mountain to break the news about the beast being a dead man and being talked to by the "Lord of the Flies", is mistaken as the beast and is beaten to death by the crazed boys, ultimately being drawn out to sea with the tide.

Ralph has seen his tribe dwindle in number. The larger, less civilized tribe of Jack, however, need to steal from them - Piggy's glasses allow them to light a fire. An overly optimistic Piggy demands them back, but is killed when Roger drops a strategically placed boulder on him. Jack fails to kill Ralph at this meeting, and the next day his tribe tries to hunt him down. In doing this, they set up a forest fire, which is seen by a passing naval vessel. One of the ship's officers comes ashore and rescues the boys. Ralph's close escape from death is tinged with irony: the boys are rescued by a ship of war alerted by the forest fire, and as Ralph begins to weep for "the end of innocence", so do all the other boys. The rescue had come at an awful price.

The Beach, Infinite Ryvius

Lord of the Flies - Coral Island

In the 19th Century, R.M. Ballantyne wrote a book called Coral Island. It portrayed three boys: Ralph, Peterkin and Jack (two of these names are transferred to Golding's book; Peterkin is altered to Simon, which is an allusion to the Bible "Simon called Peter") landing on an island, much like that in Lord of the Flies. They have great adventures, and generally represent pompous British Empire attitudes - the book is not a realistic projection of what boys on a deserted island would do. However, it was very successful.

A number of references to Coral Island are made in Lord of the Flies, as Golding wrote it as an indirect response.

Golding read this as he was growing up and thought of Ballantyne as a racist man as the book teaches children that evil is associated with black skin and is external.

Lord of the Flies - Notes

The novel was written while Golding was teaching at Bishop Wordsworths School, a Church of England grammar school for boys in Salisbury, England. He taught English there from 1945 to 1962. It was because of this that The Times could comment that "Golding knows exactly what boys are like."
Lord of the Flies was produced into two films. The first one is a black and white film released in 1963 that follows the novel closely. The second film was released in 1990 and has better visuals and music score, but the plot differs from the original.
An episode of The Simpsons titled Das Bus was a parody of Lord of the Flies, mirroring it in many ways. For instance while trapped on an island, they use glasses to make a fire and also hunt pigs. Another Simpsons episode, Kamp Krusty, also makes some reference to the novel.
Nick Hornby commented that a newer novel, The Beach, is: "A Lord of the Flies for Generation X".
Lord of the Flies is also the name of an episode of The X-Files, whose plot, however, bears no similarity to the novel's (as it concerns a person who can control flies).
English heavy metal band Iron Maiden composed a song about the novel. The song "Lord of The Flies" can be found in The X Factor (1995) and was also released a single.
Punk Rock band "Gatsby's American Dream" have a song inspired completely by Lord of the Flies entitled "Fable".
Lord of the Flies served as the inspiration for Sunrise Animation's classic anime series Infinite Ryvius. The series follows the lives of over 400 teenagers stranded aboard a space battleship, the Ryvius, which was hidden inside an astronaut training center.
The book was the inspiration for Battle Royale.
There is an inconsistency with the physics in the book. Piggy is portrayed as extremely myopic and therefore would have had concave lenses in his glasses. However a convex lens is required to focus sunlight in order to start a fire.
People have found many similarities between Lord of the Flies and the television show Lost − Sawyer makes a reference to the Lord of the Flies.