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Summary of William Golding’s Lord of the Flies
T(caps)he novel narrates the story of a group of English school boys who were evacuated to safety when their country was in war. Their aeroplane crashed into an Island. The boys set up a social institution and duties that are necessary for their survival, constructed shelter, gathered fruits, hunt and made fire that will send a pillar of smoke to alert people of their presence in the island. In the process of trying to formalise the institution they set up, using the shell or “couch thing” as their voice, or democratic institution, the boys fall into savagery, the “couch thing” is destroyed, lawlessness and murderous impulse set in among the boys who began to hunt the other. Jack Merridew and his gang hunt down Ralph, the symbol of rationality and morality. The boys lapsed deeper into bestiality as they are separated from adult and rational society. At last, the hunters led by Jack, not only hunt animals but hunt other boys after Jack violently took over the control of the island, and pursued Ralph all over the Island. The civilised boys ignore their civilised behaviours and give in to full violence. The novelist explains:
And there again, shrill and inevitable, was the violation sweeping across the island. At that sound he shields like a horse among the creepers and ran once more till he was painting. He flung himself down by some ferns. The trees or the charge? (P.241)
At last, a rescue force emerged on the Island; a British Naval officer who had come to rescue them scolded them for not putting up a good behaviour. The officer pointed his gun at the boys; he is also engaged in violence as he also has violent will as a hidden part.
Themes
3.2 Some of the Themes Identified in the novel are discussed below:
3.2.1 Effects of War
A group of English school boys were evacuated from the different parts of England in the time of war but their plane crashed on a tropical island. The boys found themselves individually isolated on the Island. They later found out it was necessary for them to get united from the ashes of the displaced effects of the war of their country. Apart from the physical separation from England, their loved ones and parents, they have also been emotionally destabilised. All these separated parts of them must be brought together for them to return to ideal human society that will be free of war and conflicts. But the boys could not return or successfully create an ideal, democratically vibrant society as they had thought since they have been affected by their crises ridden English society. They exhibit the social vices, cruelty, pride, jealousy, insecurity and anarchy that threaten the unity of the English society. The boys in Coral Island found themselves receding more into the vices they inherited from their English country of origin with impunity. Even the rational behaviour of Ralph in the novel could not overcome the beast in him. The novel reads:
He jumped down from the terrace. The island was thick over his black shoes and the heat hurt him. He became conscious of the weight of clothes, kicked his shoes off fiercely and ripped off each stocking with its elastic garter in a single movement… Then he leapt back on the terrace, pulled off his shirt, and stood there among the skull-like cocoa-nuts with green shadows from the palms and the forests sliding over his skin (P.15)
Also, all through the boy‟s stay on the island, Ralph, Piggy, Samnerick, the Littlums, and Jack all played the devil, especially from the moment they failed to set up a meaningful democratic political setting. And they slipped into more chaotic condition after they destroyed the Conch thing or shell, a symbol of unity and authority that would have united them all and return their disintegrated existence to a united one.
3.2.2 In Search of Ideal Democratic Government
Golding may have ridiculed the English democratic/political institution for which she is held in high esteem all over the world. With the return of the boys into savagery as well as the Garden of Eden or Coral Island, the boys thought of a need to recognise their existence by forming laws to govern their Coral Island “country” under an ideal democratic setting.
But, beautiful as it sounds, the ideal was destroyed by selfish ambitions and individualistic attitudes of the boys. Their main immediate challenge was leadership tussle. Ralph interrupts:
“Shut up” said Ralph absently. He lifted the conch. “It seems tome we ought to have a chief to decide things”
“A chief /A chief/”
“I ought to be chief” said Jack with simple arrogance “because I‟m chief chorister and head boy. I can sing sharp”
Another buzz
Well then, said Jack “I
He hesitated. The dark boy, Roger, stirred at last and spoke up
“Lets have a vote”
“Yes”!
“Vote for chief”!
“Let‟s vote ” (P.29)
Ironically, the vote was marred by disagreements but they were still able to choose hunters, choir and so on among themselves into the various Departments of state. Even with the effort, the new political setting could not live above grudge, suspicion, conflicts, power play and intriguestill the democratic institution was set on fire. Peace was never restored in the nation called coral island till a naval officer came to rescue the situation.
3.2.3 People’s Survival Instinct
The boys tried to adapt to their harsh Coral Island environment: the weather condition, the night, morning, afternoon, and the hunting to establish human presence on the island by the fire made.
They also tried to overcome the fear of beasts in their new „country‟ . Ralph and Roger also brought back the outcome of their investigations on the island and dispelled the image of the beast and dead pilot. They were also ready to overpower and kill any weaker creature. Gradually, the group recognises that all should be brave to conquer the fear of the unknown to survive in Coral island.
3.2.4 People’s Return to Savagery
Golding seems to predict what will soon befall humanity should it continue in conflicts and wars. He has used his popular English novel to remind us of the implications of the first and second world wars and wars generally to the human race. He warns that people must look back to correct the errors of the past, miscarriage of justice, prejudices, chaos and violence, otherwise the modern person might lapse into savagery. If this happens, it will lead to death and destruction of the world and institutions s/he claims to govern. In Coral Island, the English boys from rational or civilized setting fall apart from orderliness, as the beast in them takes over their affair.
3.2.5 The Ubiquitous Nature of Evil
Golding seems to tell his readers that‟s since human society is prone to evil, it could be possible to experience none or less evil in non-human settlement like the Coral Island. But Golding‟s suggestion/hypothesis that the modern person maybe less prone to chaos and violence when s/he is evacuated from his/her „civilised ‟ society that is characterised by weapons of war, technology and violence. The moment a person arrived in the Coral Island or Garden of Eden, evil manifested, as s/he is a replica of the devil and has the capacity to breed evil. Thus, it is not surprising that the innocent school boys in the island conceived evil and actualised it to its maximum. The evil that took over England where they were air lifted into the Island overtook and destroyed them in anon-human settlement.
3.3 Style
Style in Golding‟s Lord of the Flies is discussed below.
3.3.1 Language allegorical and conversational
The allegorical fable maybe read as the story of children in an isolated Island but who were constrained to fashion out a living so as to survive. It can also be read as the novelist‟s attempt to mirror the human world, and not just the English society of the age of Golding. The language of the novel is simple, written in short simple sentences with metaphors and simile. The use of language maybe deliberate so that the novelist can actualise the children‟s characters explored. The child-like language used is mostly conversational. Examples from the novel are given below:
“Ralph turned to him
“You‟re no good on a job like this”
“All the same ”
“We don‟t want you, “said jack, flatly” (P.32)
Also is the extract below:
Ralph and Piggy lay in the sand, gazing at the fire and why flicking pebbles
into it‟s smokeless heart
“that branch is gone”
“Where‟s Samnerick?”
“We ought to get more wood. We‟re out of green branches (p. 191)
Another example is given below
Ralph moved suddenly in the dark, but then he heard Eric working athis mouth. “What‟s the matter?”
“Just a tooth loose”
Piggy drew up his legs
“You all right, Piggy?” (P.207)
Golding must have done this to get properly fixed into his world of children and also get his readers wooed into the precise and clear use of language in the allegorical fable.
3.3.2 Narrative Technique
The novel ‟s third-person narrative technique exposes the private life of each character. The technique gives us a clear and remarkable insight into the novel and its events.
3.3.3.1 Symbolism
Golding makes use of symbols, with universal applicability. For instance, the head of the pig refers to the “lord of the flies”, and may be said to symbolise the Biblical Beelzebub, the devil. This symbol was given a detailed attention in the novel.
3.3.3.2 Imagery
The imagery of heat is widely portrayed in the various parts of the novel, as it affects the boys and the entire environment. For instance, the heat from the atomic bomb and fire power of the various weapons used in the war produce the heat. Added to these is the imagery of the fire on the mountain and the eventual setting of the Island on fire by the boys. Man made fire and explosives symbolise man‟s deviant depletion of the ozone layer to generate severe heats on man‟s only home, the Earth. The dancing butterfly in the novel ridicules the suffering of the boys, and by extension the failure of human institutions and all other desires of the homo-sapiens, including the peace and freedom that s/he is incapable of attaining in a world of perpetual sorrow, conflicts and death.
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