Golding, William - The Lord of the Flies

William Golding - The Lord of the Flies

His masterpiece was Lord of the Flies, a novel that earned him the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1983. However, at the very beginning its publication was rejected for 21 times, until 1954, when the publishing house ‘’Faber & Faber’’ (the same as Eliot) printed the first edition.
Original title: ‘’Stranger from within’’--> Eliot recommended Golding to change it, because it was too clear and simple, differently from the story he treated about-->something that could catch the attention of the reader. This title comes from a literal translation of Beelzebub, that is the devil or an important demon.
The novel became a success when it was turned into a film some years later in the 60s.

This book wanted to be a sort of satire of the adventure novels first of all, like the one of Daniel Defoe ‘’Robinson Crusoe’’.
The name of the protagonist refers back to another novel entitled ‘’the Coral island’’ (1857) written by the Scottish author Ballantyne--> very famous adventure novel. All the children read it, and for this reason Golding was inspired by this book as regard the name of the protagonists: Ralph and Jack, but he depicted another society= symbolised the British superiority, they both were better than the other, the savages.
In the Coral Island: positive atmosphere, lots of pleasure, happiness.
In Lord of the flies: different view of society--> children are not so good and nice. The setting is isolated from society, being isolated, Golding says, means that people in general go back to the instincts, and they behave badly--> human being are evil, and they need society to control this evil= remind Hobbes’ philosophy (Golding infact was a teacher of philosophy). => he experienced war (was in the navy for six years), he was disgusted and shocked by the meanness and evil of human beings--> these events led him to write about it (like George Orwell in 1984), when you experience that kind of events you can't but write differently, there is no way to write about happiness or pleasure--> completely different society.

Plot summary

Those children were flying towards a safe area because of the war, but they had a crash and only children survived, while every adult on the plane died. They landed on an island=there is no adult there (represent order) and infact in this island the chaos will break out: there are just children aged six to twelve.
The oldest children are Ralph and Jack, and they are completely different.
Ralph: democratic leader.
Jack: sort of dictator.

At the very beginning children enjoy being there: they play, everything goes well, no problems. But since the very beginning we understand that Jack has something wrong: he is a hunter of pigs (lots of them in that island).
Other characters are Piggy, Simon and the twins Sam and Eric.
Piggy: the one supposed to give order, he is wise, but since he is overweight nobody listens to his advices.
Simon: considered to be a sort of Jesus-like-character, because he is selfless and really cares about the others, and for this reason will be the first to be killed.

The problem of that island is that, out of the blue, they start having a bad feeling: be scared--> the children think there is a beast on the island, and they are intentioned to find out that beast=they identify a silhouette, and in this right moment democracy is overthrown-->all the children started to follow Jack, because he is a hunter and can protect them.
The children on Ralph’s side try to keep order and calm between them, try to restore this sort of democracy, but it is not possible.

During a sort of sacrificial ritual/rite, realised by Jack and his followers since they have killed an enormous pig, putting its head on a stake/ on the top of a stick and transforming it into a sort of god ‘’Lord of the flies’’=sort of ritual around that gruesome head.
Simon unfortunately is nearby, and since jack and the other think he is the beast, they kill him=they did not think about other possibilities, just attacked=beginning of all the violent episodes on the island.
Even Piggy will be killed=>they just kill each other.
The twins at the end will join Jack, because they are scared.

The last part of the novel is about Ralph, trying to save himself from Jack’s attacks: haunted down by those who oppose social norms and boundaries.

At the end, an adult will rescue Ralph and the others: the children running after Ralph will stop moving, as they were frozen by the presence of the adult=> not because the adult represent their way out from the island, but because he represents society and its rules.

‘’human beings produce evil like bees honey’’ cit. =it is what Golding wanted to prove in the end.
In this deserted island children are supposed to be good, but they are mean (children in 1984)= society has completely changed-> the only way to survive is to have strict rules, only way to live better.