Tuesday, July 27, 2021

LORD OF FLIES

 Text of the Book

                         LORD OF FLIES

              Written by WILLIAM GOLDING



Publisher: Faber and Faber

Genre: Allegory, Social Commentary

First Publication: 1954

Language: English

Setting Place: Deserted Tropical Island

Protagonist: Ralph

Major Characters: Ralph, Piggy, Jack, Simon, Samneric, Roger

Narration: Third person Omniscient

Theme: Evil, Outlets for violence, Human nature, Loss of innocence, Savagery Vs Civilization. 

Lord of the Flies is a 1954 novel by Nobel Prize-winning British author William Golding. The book focuses on a group of British boys stranded on an uninhabited island and their disastrous attempt to govern themselves. 

 It is not only a tale of boys surviving after their plane crashed on a deserted island; it is an allegorical novel about the conflicts between savagery and civilization.

The significant symbolism which is rather easy to comprehend, made it one of the most popular and admired books in history. Lord of the Flies by William Golding presents a memorable and haunting account of believable characters portrayed so subtly and accurately.


Type- ALLEGORICAL NOVEL (Allegorical means containing a moral or hidden meaning. Allegorical stories and plays use concrete ideas as symbols for deeper or layered meanings. Folk tales and fables are often allegorical.) 

The central concern of Lord of the Flies is the conflict between two competing impulses that exist within all human beings: the instinct to live by rules, act peacefully, follow moral commands, and value the good of the group against the instinct to gratify one's immediate desires, act violently to obtain supremacy .

The Lord of the Flies is a masterpiece for so many reasons.It is a book upon which Golding has put much effort; it is a quick and very intense read; it is perfectly structured and beautifully narrated; its freshness is everlasting.

You will love the action-packed provocative tale of survival in Lord of the Flies by William Golding but also learn three very important characteristics of human nature. First: Human’s desire for social and political order through governments, legislatures and parliaments, depicted by the conch and platform. Second: Human’s natural tendency towards violence, savagery and every nation’s need for military and defense, depicted by the choir-boys-turned-hunters-turned-murderers. And third, our beliefs in the divine interventions and supernatural powers, depicted by the sacrifices and ceremonial dances to appease the “beast”.

Those who didn’t have the opportunity to read it before must not put it on hold any longer.

2 comments:

  1. Hollywood has made movies on the said novel. I too have also seen a movie. Generally, Western society practices the imagination and the future to see the present in the present. Worth reading. Also movies based on it can be seen. Two films have been made.Perhapes in 1963 and 1990.
    Students should read more and more so that the imagination can be developed.Imagination is DNA of knowledge.

    ReplyDelete