Lord of the Flies

By, Golding William

Reviewed by Kanav Tirumala 

Fall 2016

REVIEW: Lord of the Flies by Golding William

ISBN#: 978-0-399-50148-7

THE STORY:

A plane crashes on a tiny uninhabited island, bearing only a few boys as survivors. The main character, Ralph, is a young, naive boy with only ideals of fun and joy in his mind. Ralph finds another survivor named Piggy, and together they go around the island finding as many other survivors as they can. With a blow of his conch, all the survivors are rounded up, and they soon  realize that no adults had survived the crash. The boys establish Ralph as their leader, and they also establish that everyone is to have fun and enjoy their time away from Adults and civilization. As time goes on, however, the group of boys realizes that their survival depends on whether they can find shelter, hunt, and protect themselves from the dangers of the island including the ever feared “beast.” One particular turning point in the story was when three boys, Ralph, Roger, and Jack are sent on a mission to
find and kill the beast of the island.

The boys fail, and realize that there only hope of surviving is to attract nearby boats to come and pick everyone up. The boys make fires to attract the boats. With the fire being constantly renewed and with no boats to be seen, there longing for home grows. As there fun days turn into nights spent dreaming about their homes and families, their isolation turns into torture. There exciting freedom has turned into a terrifying life for the boys who are left, their hopes of being rescued slowly vanishing with every brief puff of smoke rising from the fire. (267)

MY OPINION:

At the beginning of this book, I thought that the images depicted by the author would be hard to imagine, as his vocabulary was advanced and difficult to understand. I did, however, learn many new words while reading this book, and after searching them all up, the book became a lot clearer. As I kept reading, I discovered the nuances that the author used to characterize each character and their personalities, which made reading each sentence very enjoyable. The author uses many old sayings and described the setting of each scene very well. The story starts off light-hearted and grows into a much more dark, deep, and sophisticated book which is greatly portrayed through the author's imagery and through the thoughts of the main character. Towards the end of the book, each character had grown, in more ways than one, and the author shows this change by using darker, more serious word choice for the characters dialogues and thought. Personally, I have never faced struggles like the characters in the book have, but through the words of the author, I empathized and felt for each character, drawing me into the book with every page. A weakness for this book would be its large vocabulary.  I would recommend this book to eighth to eleventh graders, as It does have a large vocabulary, a complicated plot, and layered characters. I would rate this book an eight out of ten as it was very interesting and quite a page turner. (247)

STUDY QUESTIONS AND VOCABULARY:

FIRST SECTION

1. What did Ralph do after meeting Piggie?

1a. Ralph went swimming in a pool right after meeting Piggie. (pg 12)

2. Who were the three boys who went on an expedition to see if the island was truly island?

2a The three boys who went on the expedition were Ralph, Jack, and Simon.(pg 24)

3. What item brought the boys together for all their meetings?

3a. A conch shell brought all the boys together for their meetings. (pg 32-33)

4. What is the problem that Jack and Simon have with the shelter that the other boys made?

4a The problem that Jack and Simon had with the shelter was that no other boys were helping to make the shelter. The other boys were always playing, eating, or bathing. (pg 50)

5. What did Jack make the other hunter’s do to their faces?

5a. Jack made them smear red and white clay along with charcoal all over their faces. (pg 63)

Strewn (pg 25)

Hiatus (pg 31)

Recrimination (pg 43)

Declivities (pg 54)

Sinewy (pg 61)

MIDDLE SECTION

6. Why does Ralph choose to walk on the firm between the water and the palm trees?

6a. Ralph chose the firm strip as a path because he needed to think, and only here could he move his feet without having to watch them.  (pg 77)  

7. What does Ralph think is on their island?

7a. Ralph thinks that there might be either ghosts or beasts in the island (pg 92)

8. What “protected” the island and the boys from the Pacific Ocean?

8a. A lagoon protected the boys and the island from the Pacific Ocean. (pg 105)

9. Where do Ralph, Roger, and Jack go to find the beast?

9a.  The boys go up a mountain a mountain to find the beast. One boy drops out however. (pg120)

10. What did Ralph and the other boys decide to do about the beast?

10a. All the boys decide to forget about the beast, and keep going with their daily lives. (pg 133)

Dismal (pg 71)

Effigy (pg 87)

Covert (pg 109)

Contemptuously (pg 122)

Amusedly  (pg 137)

                               

LAST SECTION

11. What does Jack do to usurp the power and the group of boys from Ralph?

11a. Jack starts his own tribe, and promises the boy's protection, food, and fun.  (pg 150)

12. What does Piggy think will happen to all the boys if they do not get off the island.

12a. Piggy thinks that the boys will tear each other apart. (pg.165)

13. What do Piggy and Ralph think will get them rescued?

13a. They both think that making a fire would send passing ships a signal, thus rescuing them.(pg 173)

14. Where does Ralph lay and wonder about his wounds?

14a. Ralph lays in a covert just pass a beach and wonders about his wounds. (pg 183)

15. Who rescued the boys who were left in the end?

15a. A naval officer sees the smoke coming from the island and rescues the boys who are left. (pg 200)

Trodden (pg 148)

Tremulously (pg 150)

Barmy (pg 165)

Crepitation (pg 194)

Cordon (pg 196)

Matted (pg 202)