Lord of the Flies by W. Golding: Book Review

The society that we know now can be considered civilized. But is it really the truth? William Golding's "Lord of the Flies" explores the theme of civilization vs. savagery and gives an insight of what the theme represents in reality under natural pressure through a group of boys with ages ranging from five to thirteen.

The story begins when a plane full of British schoolboys crashes onto an uninhabited island. Ralph and Piggy first find each other and then discover a conch shell. Later, Ralph blows the shell, and all the other boys on the island hear it and gather together. There are no adults with them, and the boys' priority is to decide who the leader is. With some objections from Jack, they all agree that Ralph should be the leader since he is the one who called them. Ralph's first action as the chief is to let everyone build a signal fire so that passing ships could see them. Additionally, Jack and his group are also assigned to be hunters. During the boys' time at the island, Jack disagrees with Ralph's objective. Jack's priority is to have fun and hunt while on the other hand, Ralph thinks that keeping the signal fire is the most essential. Ralph never knows that this is the moment where tension builds up and eventually leads into a bloody climax with the looming danger of the Beast. Apparently, one of the boys claims to see the Beast and disagrees with Jack and his hunters.

The only character who is pure and conquers his evil nature is Simon. He discovers that the Beast is inside each boy all along. Their human nature is the Beast that they are afraid of. Savagery is a part of human character. Even though civilization flourishes, people only hide the deep desire that has been inside them for so long. When the boys stay long enough on the island to forget about order and civilization, the moment of savagery completely takes over them. William Golding's novel proves that culture cannot destroy their desire (barbarism).

Golding chooses a dark and violent tone as the story goes on - it highlights the anxiety that the readers experience. It represents the author's weariness of the human's inner evil nature. He is trying to warn us what would happen if a group of boys are left surviving on their own. Golding also has cleverly hidden symbols throughout the story to express his thoughts. In this novel, the conch shell represents civilization since Ralph uses it for order and leadership. Under Ralph's leadership, the boys are in better condition than when Jack leads them. However, the author shows us savagery triumphs over civilization when people are in life-threatening situations. When the conch shell breaks in the book, it signifies order being broken and savagery winning. Furthermore, Piggy's glasses represent the ability for us to see things, to differentiate between right and wrong and to be logical. His eyeglasses also break around when Jack and his hunters are leaving to start a new group, which means that logic and order are no longer present in the boys on the island.

A community can fall apart when a person is influenced by their individual and selfish desires of freedom - also something that I saw from reading this book. For instance, Ralph is trying to build shelters on the island so that they could have a place to live. However, no one except Simon and Piggy help make the shelters. The other boys would rather have fun and hunt than focus on survival. This shows that no one wants to cooperate and sacrifice their time for work. This is when Jack and Ralph's argument starts to have a more significant impact on all the other group members.

In conclusion, this novel is a wonderfully deep book. It shows that even innocent schoolboys cannot escape their inner evil nature. This emphasizes the theme because all main characters are children, and they are supposed to be more virtuous than adults. I like this book because Golding has hidden many brilliant messages and symbols for us to find in his book. He connects them all through a tale of survival in an uninhabited island using his vivid imagination. Furthermore, I like Golding's syntax choices in terms of using short and simple sentences at intense moments. The author's options allow us to feel the stress, pressure, and intensity that the characters undergo. "Lord of the Flies" transitions from a relatively medium pace into an intense and fast pace at the end. In my opinion, the language is relatively easy to understand. Still, the hidden meaning is something that takes people to read repeatedly to comprehend. I highly recommend "Lord of the Flies" to people who are above 14 and enjoy reading survival and dystopian novels.