Lord of the Flies
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| Lord of the Flies | |
 The original UK Lord of the Flies book cover |
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| Author | William Golding |
|---|---|
| Cover artist | Pentagram |
| Country | United Kingdom |
| Language | English |
| Genre(s) | Allegorical novel |
| Publisher | Faber & Faber |
| Publication date | 1954 in the UK, 1955 in the USA |
| Media type | Print (Paperback & Hardback) |
| Pages | 248 pp (first edition, paperback) |
| ISBN | ISBN 0-571-05686-5 (first edition, paperback) |
| Followed by | The Inheritors |
Lord of the Flies is an allegorical novel by Nobel Prize-winning author William Golding. It discusses how culture created by man fails, using as an example a group of British school-boys stuck on a deserted island who try to govern themselves with disastrous results. Its stances on the already controversial subjects of human nature and individual welfare versus the common good earned it position 70 on the American Library Association's list of the 100 most frequently challenged Books of 1990–2000.[1] The novel was chosen by TIME magazine as one of the 100 best English-language novels from 1923 to the present.[2]
Published in 1954, Lord of the Flies was Golding's first novel, and although it was not a great success at the time — selling fewer than three thousand copies in the United States during 1955 before going out of print — it soon went on to become a bestseller, and by the early 1960s was required reading in many schools and colleges. It was adapted to film in 1963 by Peter Brook, and again in 1990 by Harry Hook (see "Film adaptations").
The title is said to be a reference to the Hebrew name Beelzebub (בעל זבוב, Ba'al-zvuv, "god of the fly", "host of the fly" or literally "Lord of Flies"), a name sometimes used as a synonym for Satan.[3]
Contents |
Plot
The novel begins when two boys, Ralph and Piggy, find themselves next to a plane crash site (called the 'scar'), unaware of their surroundings. The boys soon find a conch shell and Piggy suggests that Ralph blows on the conch to call for any others who might be nearby. Their situation soon becomes apparent; there are many British school boys and no adults.
These boys are divided into two main groups: the "big'uns" (several older children) and the 'littluns'. Ralph, one of the "big'uns", holds an "impromptu" election and is voted the chief of the boys, beating another elder boy, Jack (the head of a choir group that also landed on the island). Ralph quickly calls everyone together to work toward two common goals, the first being to have fun and the second to be rescued by creating a constant fire signal, which was to be lit using Piggy's glasses. Some of the boys then go exploring and it is discovered they are on a small island.
For a time things on the island are civil, where all the boys worked toward building shelters, gathering food and water, and keeping the fire going. The one goal which constantly gets sidelined is keeping the signal fire going as some of the boys, the 'hunters', led by Jack, focus their energy on hunting the wild pigs on the island. The children's belief in a "beast" on the island also creates a problem. The children begin to split into two groups, based on the existence of the "beast". Ralph attempts to disprove the existence of the beast while Jack exploits the belief in the beast to encourage his group of 'hunters'.
Jack soon forms a separate tribe from Ralph's. Jack gains defectors from Ralph's tribe by promising them meat, fun, and, most importantly, protection from the "beast". Jack's tribe gradually becomes more savage and they use face paint and focus mainly on hunting, while Ralph's group focuses on keeping the fire going and getting rescued. Simon, a part of Ralph's tribe, sets off on a mission to investigate the mountain. While on his way there, he find the pig's head on a stick Jack put there earlier, and begins to hallucinate. He sees the head as "The Lord of the Flies," and believes that it is talking to him, telling him the truth, that they created the beast, and that the real beast was inside him, inside them all. Unfortunately,on his way back to tell his tribe about the dead parachuter they mistook for the beast on the mountain, he stumbles into the circle Jack's tribe had formed, and is attacked and killed. Jack's tribe then raid Ralph's camp, attacking the non-hunters in order to steal Piggy's glasses in order to make a cooking fire.
By this time Ralph's tribe consists of just himself, Piggy, and twins named Sam and Eric. They all go to the rock fort of Jack's tribe to try to get back Piggy's glasses so he can see. In the ensuing confrontation Piggy is killed by a boulder thrown by Roger knocking him off the cliff and falling forty feet to his death. The conch is shattered into millions of pieces by the launched rock. Eric and Sam are captured and both become part of Jack's tribe, leaving Ralph by himself.
In the final sequence of the book, Jack and his friend Roger lead the tribe of 'hunters' on a hunt for Ralph, intending to kill him. In order to do this Jack sets the entire island on fire. The fire is so large that it attracts the attention of a nearby warship which comes to the island and rescues the boys. A navy officer lands on the island and his sudden appearance brings the children's fighting to an abrupt halt. When learning of the boys' activities, the officer remarks that he would have expected "better" from British boys.
Film adaptations
There have been two film adaptations:
- Lord of the Flies (1963), directed by Peter Brook
- Lord of the Flies (1990), directed by Harry Hook
Audiobooks
- Lord of the Flies (1999), read by Tim Pigott-Smith
References to other works
Lord of the Flies borrows key elements from R.M. Ballantyne's The Coral Island (1857). Ballantyne's book, a simple adventure without any deep social themes, portrays three boys, Ralph, Peterkin and Jack, who land on an island. Golding used two of the names in his book, and replaced Peterkin with Simon. Lord of the Flies has been regarded as Golding's response showing what he believed would happen if children (or generally, people) were left to form a society in isolation.[4]
Golding read 'The Coral Island' as he was growing up, and thought of Ballantyne as racist, since the book teaches that evil is associated with black skin and is external.[citation needed] In Chapter 11 of the original Lord of the Flies, Piggy calls Jack's tribe "a pack of painted niggers."[5] This was changed to "savages" in some editions and "Indians" in the mass media publication.
Influence
Many writers have borrowed plot elements from Lord of the Flies.
Printed works
Robert A. Heinlein's Tunnel in the Sky, published in 1955, can be seen as a rebuttal to Lord of the Flies as it concerns a group of teenagers stranded on an uninhabited planet who manage to create a functional tribal society.[6]
Stephen King has stated that the Castle Rock in Lord of the Flies was the inspiration for the town of the same name that has appeared in a number of his novels. The book itself also appears prominently in his novels Hearts in Atlantis and Cujo.[7] King's fictional town in turn inspired the name of Rob Reiner's production company, Castle Rock Entertainment.
The DC Comics series Salvation Run is an adaptation of the "Lord of the flies" concept with all the major DC Supervillains being marooned on an Alien planet
Television
Lord of the Flies inspired Sunrise Animation's classic anime series Infinite Ryvius, which follows the lives of nearly 500 teenagers stranded aboard a space battleship.
Also the "Das Bus" episode of the Simpsons is based on this book.
The Club Spongebob episode of Spongebob Squarepants, in which he, Patrick and Squidward are stranded in the woods and rely on the "magic conch" for guidance.
The ABC television show Lost has also shown loose similarities to the book.
Music
- The English heavy metal band Iron Maiden composed a song about the novel, with the title "Lord of the Flies".
- The debut studio album, Boy, by Irish rock band U2 was loosely based on the novel's theme of childhood corruption, and the final song on the album, "Shadows and Tall Trees," takes its title from the novel's chapter of the same name. Additionally, some printings of the book's cover are similar to the cover of the album.[8]
- American Punk Rock band Bad Religion wrote a song in their 1988 album "Suffer", mentioning the novel, with the title "1000 more fools" : "I've seen the rapture in a starving baby's eyes, Inchoate beatitude, the Lord of the Flies".
- Buck 65 makes a reference to Piggy's death in his song "Memory is Paralax" on the album Vertex saying,"...backstage at the showcase, I want bouquets of flowers, a large order of fries and I'm sort of surprised because the same thing happened in the Lord of the Flies when Piggy lost his glasses and got crushed by a boulder."[citation needed]
References
- ^ The 100 Most Frequently Challenged Books of 1990–2000. American Library Association (2007). Retrieved on 2007-03-27.
- ^ The Complete List: TIME Magazine – ALL-TIME 100 Novels. TIME (2005). Retrieved on 2007-05-12.
- ^ Fenlon, John Francis. (1907). "Beelzebub" - Catholic Encyclopedia. - Vol. 2. New York: Robert Appleton Company. - Retrieved: May 29, 2008
- ^ Johnson, Arnold (1980). Of Earth and Darkness. The Novels of William Golding. Missouri: University of Missouri Press, 132.
- ^ Green Paint: Mysteries of William Golding’s Lord of the Flies « Great War Fiction
- ^ Wagner, Thomas M. (2006). Robert A. Heinlin: Tunnel in the Sky. SF Reviews.net. Retrieved on 2007-03-27.
- ^ Stephen King (1947-). Authors' Calendar (2003). Retrieved on 2007-03-27.
- ^ Bailie, Stuart (1992-06-13). Rock and Roll Should Be This Big!. NME. Retrieved on 2007-11-28.
External links
- The Lord of the Flies: A Study Guide
- Criterion Collection essay by Peter Brook
- Slashdoc: Lord of the Flies Literary analysis of the novel
- Nobelprize.org: Play the Lord of the Flies Game
- Lord of the Flies characters and plot
- Lord of the Flies Reviews
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