Lord of the Flies

Lord of the Flies is an allegorical novel by Nobel Prize-winning author William Golding. It discusses how civility created by man fails and how man always shall turn to savagery in an allegory. This allegory tells us of a group of school children trapped on a desert island who attempt to govern themselves and fail disastrously. 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.

The novel was chosen by TIME Magazine as one of the 100 best English-language novels from 1923 to the present.

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.

The title is a reference to a line from King Lear - "As flies to wanton boys, are we to the gods, — They kill us for their sport".

It may also be a reference to the Hebrew name Beelzebub (בעל זבוב, Baal-zvuv, "god of the fly" or "host of the fly"), a name sometimes used as a synonym for Satan.

Plot summary

!—WARNING—!

Article below this line is likely to contain spoilers.

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The story begins with a large number of young boys, ages 6 to 12, being stranded on a tropical island. They were being evacuated from a nuclear war and their plane has been shot down. The first two characters introduced are Ralph, an athletic and charismatic boy with fair hair, and "Piggy," a fat boy with glasses who also suffers from asthma. The two boys obtain a conch and use it to call the other boys from across the island. The boys begin to discuss who should be their leader. Ralph is chosen by vote, but one other potential leader arises — Jack Merridew. Jack was a choir leader, and still acts as leader of the other castaway members of his choir. Ralph is elected as leader but because Ralph senses the threat, he elects Jack to be the leader of the hunters (his choir). Piggy is the least popular of the boys, but is intelligent, and becomes Ralph's "lieutenant", having civilised values but no way to carry them out. However, it is evident that Jack covets the leadership position. Then, Ralph takes Jack and Simon to explore the island. During their exploration they find a trapped piglet. Jack pulls out a knife, but hesitates to kill it and it escapes. Jack vows never to hesitate again. Early on, the boys are full of optimism, and expect the island to be fun, despite the fact that many of the boys are scared of a "Beast" — allegedly some kind of dangerous wild animal on the island seen by one of the younger boys with a birthmark on his face.

The boys then make their first attempt at being rescued by starting a signal fire, lit by Piggy's glasses. The fire burns without control, and scorches a good portion of the island. The boy with a birthmark on his face who saw the Beast goes missing during the fire, and is never seen again.

The major characters Jack and Ralph have conflicting aims for the island, and life on the island begins to deteriorate, and becomes more and more disorganized. The island's descent into chaos starts, ironically, with the potential for rescue by a passing ship. Jack had led a group off hunting, and took with him the boys who were tending to the signal fire (the twins Sam and Eric, or "Samneric," as they become known), so the ship sailed past without knowing of the boys on the island. An intense argument ensues, in which one lens of Piggy's glasses is broken, symbolising a loss of foresight on the island.

Although the signal fire is maintained along with a false sense of security, the order among the boys quickly deteriorates as Jack and Ralph continue to struggle for power. Jack pushes the boundaries of his subordinate role, and eventually splits off and becomes a tyrant on "Castle Rock" with the rest of the savages.

As the novel takes place during a war, a dogfight between two planes occurs over the island. One of the pilots parachutes out of his plane, but dies upon or before landing. Sam and Eric assume that the pilot is the Beast when they see him in the dark, causing mass panic. An expedition to investigate leads to Ralph, Jack, and Roger, a choir boy, ascending the mountain, but they eventually run away from what they believe is the Beast. Jack denounces Ralph as a coward, and calls for another election for chief, but does not receive a single vote. He leaves the group to create a new tribe. Most of the older boys eventually leave Ralph's tribe to join Jack's tribe.

The new tribe hunts down and slaughters a pig, and Jack decides to host a feast. Before that, they sever the pig's head and place it on a stick as an "offering" to the Beast. Flies swarm around the head of the pig. Simon comes across it, and through hallucination, he hears the dead pig speak to him, and the "Lord of the Flies" foreshadows Simon's fate. Discovering that the "beast" is the dead pilot, he runs down from the mountain to break the news. However, when he arrives,it is raining terribly, and while the little ones (or littluns) are screaming and running around; The other boys, who were worked up in their war dance, mistake Simon for the beast and tear, bite, and claw him to death.

Ralph's tribe dwindles in number. Jack's larger, less civilized tribe, however, needs to steal from them to maintain their existence. They steal Piggy's glasses to light a fire. Piggy demands his glasses back, but is killed when Roger launches a boulder into him, crushing the conch shell and sending him over a cliff. Jack's tribe captures Samneric and force them to join their tribe. Jack tries and fails to kill Ralph, and the next day, his tribe tries to hunt him down. In doing this, they set a forest fire, which is seen by a passing naval vessel, and one of the ship's officers comes ashore in a boat with a machine gun and rescues Ralph and some of the boys. Ralph's brush with death is tinged with irony; Ralph had always pushed for a fire to be kept, but the fire that leads to their rescue was originally lit to kill him. Also for all his wishes of peace he is saved by people who are fighting a war like he is. For the first time on the island, Ralph cries, weeping for the "end of innocence", "darkness of man's heart", and the death of his friend, Piggy.

Major themes and analysis

Ralph and the conch

"Because the rules are the only thing we've got!"

Ralph may represent democracy as he is elected leader by a democratic vote and attempts to please the majority. He can also be interpreted as a representation of the ego, which governs the id and is associated with practicality. He seeks to create civilization on the island and is the antithesis of Jack.

The conch shell becomes a powerful symbol of civilization and order in the novel. The shell effectively governs the boys’ meetings, for the boy who holds the shell holds the right to speak. As the island civilization erodes and the boys descend into savagery, the conch loses its power and influence among them. Its appearance, or its gradual loss of colour from exposure to the air, may also parallel their descent. The other boys ignore Ralph and throw stones at him when he attempts to blow the conch in Jack’s camp. The boulder that Roger rolls onto Piggy also crushes the conch, signifying the end of the civilized instinct among almost all the boys on the island. When Piggy and the conch are destroyed, Jack jumps up and yells "...There is no tribe for you anymore. The conch is gone-I am chief!" This is the point at which Jack finally wrestles all control from Ralph, and without the powerful symbol of the conch to protect him, he must run from Jack's hunters who now have no inhibitions against killing him.

Piggy and his glasses

" Which is better - to have rules and agree, or to hunt and kill?"

Piggy may represent rational thinking as he is logical, but unpopular; eventually Ralph realizes how much he depended on him and his logic, admitting "I can't think. Not like Piggy." He is arguably the most rational boy in the group, and as such his glasses may represent intuition and intelligence (they can also represent science, as can Piggy). But at times, he may be quite annoying, and usually getting the remark of "Shut up, Piggy!" This symbolism is evident from the start of the novel, when the boys forcibly take Piggy’s glasses to focus the sunlight and start a fire.

When Jack’s hunters raid Ralph’s camp and steal the glasses, the savages subsequently take the power to make fire, leaving Ralph’s group helpless. The physical state of the glasses may also represent the state of the social order on the island, for as their condition deteriorates, so does the order and organization of the boys. Piggy's fatness and asthma, which mark him as an outcast, can also be viewed as emblematic of how the superego, and, thus, civilized thinking, are ill-suited for this environment and are rejected as useless. The power of his glasses to make fire is also a reference to the notion that products of science can be useful, but the science itself isn't. Piggy might also represent Socrates, because, as in Plato's Apology, his high intelligence and plain speaking only create more problems for him, and lead to his eventual death.

Piggy is the most feminine character in the story, and is almost a mother figure for the "littluns". Piggy is physically weak but mentally strong. Piggy identifies the conch, and he and the conch end their existence together. Throughout the story Piggy blames those who do not act properly of "acting like a crowd of kids" and always asks "what would the adults think?" to further enforce his point. In addition, like Piggy, the Sow (‘Pig.' 'Piggy!’) is a sort of mother figure; when she dies, so does most of the power of the conch. The pig is pink and rosy; Piggy is a rosy white; and the conch is also rosy and white.

Being physically weak, he is also a symbol of civilized man, in that the others must take care of him. This epitomizes an essential tenet of civilization, which is mercy. As soon as the others abandon him, they are rejecting civilized society.

Piggy's glasses may also represent civilization, as they are used by the boys to light the signal fires, which were the only hope for a return to civilization that they had on the island. When the first lens on Piggy's glasses is broken, it is a symbol that civilization on the island is breaking and falling apart. When the glasses are stolen by Jack's hunters, it is a sign that civilization is completely falling apart.

Piggy's glasses are his source of logical thinking. In most situations when a decision has to be made, Piggy will clean his glasses, to clear his vision. Similarly, Ralph pulls back his long hair from out of his eyes. As the glasses become broken, Piggy, to some degree, makes fewer decisions and becomes irrational in some cases. Without his glasses, Piggy decides to stand up to the savage tribe, and gets killed in the process.

Jack

"Bollocks to the rules!"

Jack is the next tallest and strongest of the boys next to Ralph, may represent totalitarianism as he does not appreciate the results of the election, eventually using his strength, his aggressiveness, and his choirboy militia to seize power in a coup and rule alone, making himself chief and the other boys his tribe. Most obviously, he demonstrates Lord Acton's idea that "absolute power corrupts absolutely."

Jack may represent the opposition of democracy, dictatorship, or even the opposition of civilization itself--sheer atavistic savagery. Everyone must coordinate their actions by arbitrary rules, and he shows an obvious disrespect for the conch and its associations. In Jack's tribe, where fear and superstition go unchecked, the beast comes to seem more and more real until its existence is an article of faith. Jack, who gains authority from this atmosphere of dread by saying he'll protect the others from the beast, also succumbs to the fear himself.

Jack may also represent the Id in contrast to Ralph as the Ego and Piggy as the Superego. The logic behind this is that Jack seeks to immediately satisfy the needs and act on instinct, fulfilling the description of the Id, while Ralph upholds the social norms of the Superego. Examples of this are both positive and negative. The positive is his commitment to democracy and teamwork, while the negative is his conventional mockery of social oddities, such as Piggy's thick specs, his obesity, and his "ass-mar" (asthma), as he calls it in his lower class accent (see reference to 'Home Counties').

Roger

"You don't know Roger. He's a terror."

Roger may represent pure evil (and can be the Devil himself) and, whilst Simon represents human goodness, Roger represents natural human malice even more so than Jack; he is Jack's toady, abetting all his worst instincts, and is sadistic. Early in the book, Roger throws rocks at a smaller boy, Henry, and only misses on purpose because "Round the squatting child was the protection of parents and school and policemen and the law." During the sow-hunt, he pushes his spear up the sow's anus, although the particular location is probably unintentional ("Roger found a lodgment for his point and began to push till he was leaning with his whole weight"). After nearly all of the boys on the island have joined Jack's tribe, Roger goes on to kill Piggy with a large boulder. Jack had originally put the boulder there to scare off "enemies" like Ralph, but since Roger represented death, hatred, or Satan, he deliberately uses the rock and kills Piggy.

He also tortures Samneric until they join Jack's tribe. He also plans Ralph's killing when they have captured him: Samneric tell Ralph that Roger sharpened a stick at both ends, much like the stick that the sow's head is impaled on, but do not elaborate further. He and Jack nudge each other near the end of the book, implying that had they been allowed to stay on the island any longer, Roger might eventually have challenged Jack for the leadership just as Jack did Ralph in turn.

Simon

"However Simon thought of the beast, there rose before his inward sight the picture of a human at once heroic and sick."

Simon may represent natural goodness because he is the only character on the island that continues being good even when the other boys forget about the rules of society. Some see similarities between him and Jesus, based on the religious references around Simon: his name (that of one of the disciples), his skill with carpentry and his killing at the hands of a mob. Simon is also seen on the island giving the little ones fruit from the tree that they cannot reach. Simon is the only one who can get the fruit for them, and indeed the only boy who would stop to help. Through him they get the fruit, much like through Christ, Christians receive salvation they cannot achieve on their own. Also, Simon's private sanctuary is a place with a high dome roof and candle-like flowers, suggests a cathedral, further establishing him as a spiritual, visionary character. His climb up and down the mountain to discover what the beast is also long and arduous, much like Christ's carrying of the cross on the Via Dolorosa. Also, Simon freeing the parachutist can symbolize Jesus freeing mankind or man. His conversation with the Lord of the Flies (pig's head) can be linked to Jesus' journey through the desert when he must overcome the temptations put before him by Satan.

With his superior insight, he sees most clearly that the children's civility is dying. This is made clear when he says "maybe it's only us" in reference to the beast. This demonstrates his intuitive knowledge that the fear and chaos come from the minds of the children and not from any outside agent.

Simon has been viewed as a Cassandra figure, able to predict the future but condemned to be disbelieved. Another interpretation is that he represents the poets and writers, much like Benjamin the Donkey in Animal Farm. Simon has a sense of many things which he cannot communicate to the others, and he is in touch with the darker side of humanity as much or more than Piggy.

Both film versions omit the monologue of the Beast, addressed to Simon.

Sam and Eric / Samneric (the twins)

"But they could never manage to do things sensibly if that meant acting independently . . . "

Sam and Eric are referred to in the first half as "Sam 'n' Eric" and the second half of the novel as "Samneric". They were very loyal to Ralph in the very first 10 chapters, but in the last chapters, they were forced to join Jack's tribe. It was actually Roger that tortured Samneric until they joined the tribe.

Their allegorical representation in WWII could be nations forced into war by the Axis such as Belgium. Physically, Golding describes them as "barely having enough skin" to cover both: they are "stretched". They also are a representation of unity, due to the fact that every activity they participate in, they do together.

Other boys

"They waited for two minutes, then they fell in the sea; they went into the forest; they just scattered everywhere."

The littluns are perhaps a representation of the masses or the plebeians who are easily swayed to support one group or another but who are needed by a leader to rule over.

Percival

"Percival had gone off, crying . . ."

Percival, the youngest of the littluns, may represent innocence, emotion, and children. He is known as the character who frequently expresses emotions. He uses his address, Percival Wemys Madison, The Vicarage, Harcourt ..., as an incantation that comforts and reminds him of civilization. However, by the end of the novel he cannot even remember his own name. This shows how far the children have descended into savagery — so far that they have no recollection of the civilized world.

The boy with the mulberry coloured birthmark

"He says the beastie came in the dark."

At one of the earlier assemblies, a scared boy came forward to ask about the 'beastie'. He had a mulberry coloured birthmark. He is sometimes seen as the devil as he introduces something for the boys to direct their fear towards. Another possibility is that he represents the False Prophet mentioned in the book of Revelation who paves the way for the coming of the Antichrist, just as the boy's tale of the Beast in some ways gives birth to Jack's main source of fear and power. He is never given a name and is always referred to as the boy with the birthmark, which can also be the mark of the devil. After the forest fire, he is never seen again, and it is believed that he burned to death. Ralph suggests, "Perhaps he went back to the, the --" while Piggy "glanced nervously into hell".

The beast

"This head is for the beast. It's a gift."

The beast may represent brutality, propaganda, and irrational fears, as it causes panic and ultimately allies the boys around Jack. The fact that there is physically no beast suggests that it is a representation of the evil in human nature. "Lord of the Flies" is translated from Hebrew Beelzebub, or Ba'alzevuv. "Lord of the Flies" is said to be a mistranslation from an incorrectly transliterated word, but it does sound pungent and evil, like that of a reference to the devil. A devil whose name implies a devotion to decay, destruction, demoralization, hysteria and panic is particularly fitting for this book. The Lord of the Flies and the beast represent the evil lurking within everyone's hearts, which, while not physical, is no less real. It may also be considered to be the religious belief of the island society, as it is not seen but its existence is rarely doubted, it is credited to what cannot be explained, and it is given offerings in an attempt to persuade it to spare the lives of the islanders. In this way, it is representative of what one might call "dark worship" — the worship of things that are inherently bad.

Simon's conversation with the pig's head (referred to as "the Lord of the Flies") in the realm of his own mind is one of the most fascinating parts of the story, because the pig's head tells him that the beast is immortal and finds all human action funny, leading one to wonder if there is some intelligence inside human evil — a reference to the devil, linking back to its name.

The author is believed to have written the novel shortly after World War II as a reflection on true human nature. Simon implies that he thinks the true beast is really human nature. The beast's actions seem to match Simon's theory. The beast and the children's fear of it is what eventually splits the one tribe into two competing tribes. The beast is only seen by the littl'uns (the most pure of the children). It leads to the death of three of the children (one death is implied) and the attempted murder of another. Taking into account the world events occurring when the novel was written, similarities can be drawn to World War II. The 'beast' of human nature (Hitler's holocaust) divides the tribe (the world) into two parts. The idea the author tries to convey is that this 'beast' of human nature during World War II is not simply a one-time occurrence, but rather a fundamental flaw in human nature that is bound to be repeated until the world goes into total chaos, which is represented on the island when the jungle is being burned to the ground as a result of the manhunt for Ralph.

The killing of the sow

"Here, struck down by the heat, the sow fell and the hunters hurled themselves at her."

The sow is a mother: "sunk in deep maternal bliss lay the largest of the lot…the great bladder of her belly was fringed with a row of piglets that slept or burrowed and squeaked." The killing of the sow is done through bestiality and murder, referring to its driving force of sexuality, especially among the half-grown and prepubescent boys.

They remove the head of the sow and place it onto a stick that is jammed into the ground as a gift for the Beast, which seems to be lurking on the island. This shows their own irrational fears and blind terrors of the island and beast release the forces of death and the "devil" on the island.

The most symbolic incident of this is that of Simon and the sow head. To Simon, the head seems to be saying "Everything was a bad business... The half shut eyes that were dim with the infinite cynicism of adult life." Simon fought against what the head was saying. "Fancy thinking the Beast was something you could hunt and kill!" said the head. For a moment or two the forest and all the other dimly appreciated places echoes with laughter. "You knew, didn't you? I'm part of you? Close, close, close! I'm the reason why it's no go? Why things are the way they are?"

The pig's head tries to tell Simon that he cannot avoid the recognition of human capacities for evil and the superficial nature of human moral systems. It is the acknowledgment of the end of innocence.

The Head is also the one who finally convices Simon that the beast is not a phyisical manefestation, instead it originates from within the boys.

Flies

"Nothing prospered but the flies who blackened their lord and made the spilt guts look like a heap of glistening coal."

The pig's head (The Lord of the Flies) may represent Satan, while the flies may represent devils and iniquitous and nefarious human beings.Simon's confrontation with the Lord may represent the Temptation of Jesus.

"Even when the vessel broke in Simon's nose , and the blood gushed out, they left him alone, preferring the pig's high flavour."

The flies which represent mortal evil choose the pig over Simon. This represents the way a number of humans choose to be evil instead of good and how doing evil bears more satisfactory fruit than doing good.

Names

"I told you to. I told you to get a list of names!"

The names of Ralph, Piggy, Simon, Jack and Roger all have symbolic meaning. Ralph's name is derived from the Old English word for "wolf council," symbolizing Ralph's role as a leader who forms meetings and councils on the island. Piggy's real name is unknown, but the name Piggy is meant to symbolise how he is vulnerable, just as the pigs on the island are. Piggy's name is also a reference to the Lord of the Flies, which is a pig's head. The pig's head holds its brain, therefore its intelligence. It is ironic, seeing as how the other boys mistreat him, while at the same time all of the brilliant ideas such as fire-making, and looking after the littluns, originated from him. The derogative nickname also shows the hostility towards him from the other boys. Jack's name is derived from the Hebrew name Jacob or Yakov יַעֲקֹב, which literally means "supplanter" or "one who takes over", just as Jack took the role of leadership by force from Ralph. Simon's name, derived from the Hebrew name Shim'on means "one who listens" or "one who observes", symbolizing Simon's quiet, attentive behaviour. Simon is also the original name of Peter, one of the Apostles in the Bible. "Roger" means "famous with the spear."

The signal fire

"Your only hope is to keep a signal fire going as long as there's light to see."

The signal fire represents the hope of the children to return to a normal life. Only with rational thinking could the boys ever be saved from the island. Since they need Piggy's glasses to make the fire, this is a good symbol. The signal fire thus functions as a kind of barometer of the strength of the civilized instinct remaining on the island. Ironically, at the end of the novel, a fire finally summons a ship to the island, but not the signal fire. Instead, it is the fire of savagery — the forest fire Jack’s tribe start as part of his quest to hunt and kill Ralph. The forest fire could also represent humanity's destruction of the environment to accomplish shortsighted goals. If they had not been rescued, they had burned down the fruit trees and probably killed most of the wild game, and thus would have eventually perished due to their actions. Another interpretation of the fact that the savage fire saved the boys on the island may be that the "Allied forces" liberation of Europe from the clutches of the Nazi regime which was due to the fact that Germany attacked Russia in "Operation Barbarossa" and that the allies of Germany, namely Japan, attacked the US naval base at Pearl Harbor is an analogy to the boys' condition on the island. Had those attacks never occurred, the U.S and the U.S.S.R would have never joined the war and without their contribution, Europe's fate may have been sealed. In the same manner, Ralph's fate would have been to die at the hands of Jack's hunters, were it not for the fire and its smoke which, though intended to kill Ralph, ended up signalling the British cruiser and rescuing the boys, including him.

The platform

"Piggy stood on the platform, the white conch gripped in his hands"

The platform may represent Parliament or Congress, for meetings and assemblies are held here. It is where the rules are created and where Ralph is elected by the boys to be their chief. There are many ties between the platform, as a place for speaking and debate, and the conch, which gives one the right to speak. Another symbolism involving the platform is the unsteady branch. This represents the unstable and shaky nature of the group and hints at the later development of instability in the island society. This may be an allusion to the war Golding fought in, showing his own point of view that when, in the wild, people find themselfs in unstable situations and will most likely choose dissention than making hard decisions for themselfs.

The glasses

"From his left hand dangled Piggy's broken glasses"

The glasses undergo a duration of decay and destruction throughout the course of the book. The point being made by this is to show the decay undergone by logic and rational thinking in today's society.

As mentioned in the section on Piggy, the glasses are important in symbolizing the descent of the boys from civilization into savagery. Actually, the glasses are important to Piggy because they symbolise intelligence status of social order. This could show that Piggy's rationality is lost at first when they are all shocked by the initial crash. When sense starts to return to the children, they go crazy with it, making suggestions like "televisions and submarines." Then they lose it again, returning the weight of thought to Piggy's shoulders. Later on, the glasses are broken in the fight that initially severed Ralph and Jack's friendship. The leaders, both desperate to be in charge, have been shown to misuse knowledge in swaying their people, and to hurt each other. This shows how far people are willing to go to hurt their fellow man.In the beginning, they're clean and unbroken in the hands of their rightful owner. As the book continues, the glasses go through several phases. At the start, no one would have thought of taking them. No one wanted them. Then when it was realized what they could do, they were taken and tossed about among the boys, kept from the helpless Piggy until Simon returned them. The children could remember some happiness, but they were also possibly reminded of the war ravaging their home. They could have been reminded that that did not exist on the island then. It was wild, but it was free. Then Jack leaves, taking half of the leadership with him. The glasses only have one broken lens. Thus, half of the sanity has been lost to savagery. Afterwards, when Ralph and Piggy are bathing, Ralph splashes water at the glasses. He started to refute the knowledge, to give in to wildness. Piggy screams at him, and he pauses, but then continues to splash, doubting the only thing keeping them separate from the animals.

Despite that, the glasses start and end the novel with one similarity: they are held always with respect as the starters of the life-giving fire. Without some form of civilization, meat would be eaten raw, boys would sleep in the rain, and everything would fall into cannibalistic madness. Even in its most primitive form - broken glasses - logic is crucial in human survival.

Allusions/references to other works

The Coral Island

In 1857, R.M. Ballantyne wrote a book called The 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, typical of much children's fiction written during the period of the British Empire — 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 The Coral Island are made in Lord of the Flies, as Golding wrote it as an indirect response.

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. It is somewhat ironic then, that in Chapter 11 of Lord of the Flies, Piggy calls Jack's tribe "a pack of painted niggers." The term was not viewed as offensive in 1950s British society as it is today, being seen as a descriptive (rather than abusive) term for people of dark skin. (For instance, the word "nigger" played a prominent role in the 1954 British film The Dam Busters). In any case, the word was changed to "savages" in some editions and "Indians" in the Mass Media publication.

To a certain extent it can be said that Golding wrote this book as a response to The Coral Island, to show what boys would truly do if left alone on an island. In Chapter 2 the boys compare to what will happen "like in a book", saying it will be like "treasure island-", ""swallows and amazons-" and "coral island". Golding sets this to deliberately compare the two books, two different versions of boys activities when left on their own. When the officer is on the island at the end he says "like the coral island". This is once again comparing them, showing what would really happen.

Heart of Darkness and Pincher Martin

After Simon finishes talking with the Lord of the Flies, he imagines he is looking into a vast mouth. "There was blackness within, a blackness that spread… Simon was inside the mouth. He fell down and lost consciousness."

The mouth also seems to be a reference to Conrad's Heart of Darkness: "I saw (the dying Kurtz) open his mouth wide—it gave him a -- voracious aspect, as though he wanted to swallow all the air, all the earth all the men before him".

E.L. Epstein wrote, in a critical note regarding the Lord of the Flies which appears at the end of certain editions, that this mouth "seems to represent a ravenous, unreasoning and eternally insatiable nature. This appears again in Golding's novel Pincher Martin, in which the development of the theme of Nature inimical to the conscious personality of man is developed in a stunning fashion."

Literary significance and criticism

Many people have interpreted Lord of the Flies as a work on moral philosophy. The environment of the island, a paradise with food, water, and other natural resources, is a metaphor for the Garden of Eden. The first appearance of the beast (to a littlun in a nightmare) is in a form reminiscent of a serpent, which represents evil in the Book of Genesis. One of the major themes of the book, on the nature of evil, is brought to a head in a scene in which Simon converses with the head of the pig, which is known as the "Lord of the Flies" (a literal translation of the Hebrew name of Ba'alzevuv, or Beelzebub) which is a powerful demon in hell, sometimes believed to be the devil himself. The conversation held also points to Simon as the character representing religion and good will in the novel, which is reminiscent of the temptation of Jesus in the wilderness. Some Christian readers allude the British Naval officers' rescue of the boys, as the second coming of Christ (Bible story in Revelation). The "Lord of the Flies" reveals that evil and the terror of the beast is not an external threat, but an inborn evil within the boys themselves.

Others have looked at the novel as a work on political philosophy. The stranding of the boys, without any adult supervision, represents a clean slate upon which they have the power to build a small society without reference to any past authorities (past governments, religion, etc.). The abundance of resources for sustaining life sets the stage for a utopia, or a perfect society. The actions of the boys demonstrate the spectrum of governments, with Ralph and Piggy representing democratic ideals while Jack represents more authoritarian systems, such as an absolute monarchy.

File:LordoftheFlies1990.png

Lord of the Flies (1990) DVD cover

There have been two film adaptations.

• Lord of the Flies (1963), directed by Peter Brook.
• Lord of the Flies (1990), directed by Harry Hook.

Lord of the Flies in popular culture

The book has influenced or inspired multiple cultural works. It inspired Sunrise Animation's classic anime series Infinite Ryvius, which follows the lives of over 400 teenagers stranded aboard a space battleship. It was parodied in The Simpsons episode "Das Bus", which mirrored it in many ways (using glasses to make fire, calling meetings with a conch, a monster lurking in the forest of the island, stronger kids chasing after "the nerds"). The English heavy metal band Iron Maiden even composed a song about the novel, with the title Lord of the Flies. Also, American indie rock band Gatsby's American Dream has composed a song about the book, titled "Fable".

After a reward challenge in Survivor All Stars, tribe members watch a film of Lord of the Flies and host Jeff Probst mentions that the film was one of the main inspirations for the reality TV show.

Writers and film directors have also borrowed plot elements from Lord of the Flies. 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 alien world who do manage to create a functional tribal society. 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. Stephen King's fictional town itself, in turn, inspired the name of Rob Reiner's production company, Castle Rock Entertainment. According to film critic Benjamin Urrutia, the main sequence of Apocalypto – the lone hero being chased through the tropical jungle by fierce spear-wielding hunters, ending with rescue on the beach by men from the outside world – mirrors the scene from the Lord of the Flies.

Editions

• ISBN 0-606-00196-4 (prebound, 1954)
• ISBN 0-399-50148-7 (paperback, 1959)
• ISBN 0-571-05686-5 (paperback - educational, 1962)
• ISBN 0-571-06950-9 (hardcover, 1962)
• ISBN 0-8072-3176-2 (audio cassette with paperback, 1977, unabridged)
• ISBN 1-55651-525-1 (paperback, 1988)
• ISBN 0-02-635121-8 (hardcover, 1990)
• ISBN 0-571-16056-5 (paperback, 1996)
• ISBN 1-57322-612-2 (paperback, 1997)
• ISBN 1-56137-384-2 (hardcover, 1998)
• ISBN 1-56137-383-4 (hardcover, 1999)
• ISBN 0-7910-4777-6 (hardcover, 1999)
• ISBN 0-7641-0821-2 (paperback, 1999)
• ISBN 0-14-028333-1 (paperback, 1999)
• ISBN 0-571-20053-2 (paperback, 1999)
• ISBN 0-399-52901-2 (paperback, 2002)
• ISBN 0-8072-0954-6 (audio cassette, 2002, unabridged)
• ISBN 0-399-52920-9 (hardcover, 2003, Anniversary Edition)
• ISBN 1-58663-355-4 (paperback, 2003)
• ISBN 0-88411-695-6 (hardcover)
• ISBN 0-8072-1364-0 (paperback)
• ISBN 0-571-22767-8 (paperback, 2005)

External links

• Summary of Lord of the Flies - chapter summaries.
• The Lord of the Flies: A Study Guide
• NovelGuide
• SparkNotes
• CliffsNotes
• test
• test
• Criterion Collection essay by Peter Brook
• Slashdoc: Lord of the Flies Literary analysis of the novel
• Lord of the Flies: Summary and Significant Events
• Nobelprize.org: Play the Lord of the Flies Game

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