Golding, William - Lord of the Flies

William Golding's early life

William Golding was born in 1911 in England. After his second year of college, he abbandoned the study of science in favor of English literature. He wrote poetry and worked in amateur theater.

He believed that the horrors oh World War II can be based on some innate evil which he explores in Lord of the Flies.

LORD OF THE FLIES

Trama
During a nuclear war, the transport plane evacuating a group of English boys, is shot down over a desert island in the Pacific, and only the boys survive, all the adults are killed.

Among the main characters, Rlph tries to build a sort of civilized life on the island, together with his faithful friend Piggy, an intellectual and rational boy.

Jack is Ralph's antagonist, who longs for power, dominated by an inner instinct of ferocity, like Roger, sadistic and brutal.

The only naturally good character is Simon, endowed with an innate sense of morality, kindnes to all people and love of nature.

Marooned on the island, Ralph, Jack and Simon go to explore the uninhabited land.

Ralph's leadership and challenges

The boys elect Ralph as the leader. Ralph's orders include: to keep a fire burning on the muntain as a signal of their presence, to attract the attenction of passing ships;

to hold assemblies at the sound of the conch shell;

to respect the rules of a democratic community.

As they need food, Ralph elects Jack as leader of the "hunters".
At first the children enjoy the freedom, but before, for lack of rules and the inner corruption, they gradually revert to a state of savagery.

Jack's hunters became a kind of warrior caste. Antagonism between Ralph and Jack increases.

What is the beast and inner evil?

The boys, left alone in the island, begin to be afraid.

They believed that a sort of "beast" may be lurking on the island.

One night an aircraft battle takes place above the island, and a parachutist falls down and dies. His corpse remains imbed on the rocks.

The two boys who had watching the fire at night, run to the other boys to tell them that the "beast" has attacked.

Jack and Ralph travel up to the mountain and mistake the corpse for a kind of ape.

The two boys were in conflict. Jack declares himself the only leader of the tribe, and organized a feast, which begins with a ritual slaughter: a sow killed by the hunters in decapitated. Its head is placed on a stake in the jungle as an offering to the beast. All boys were trasformed into real savages, and jack, notwithstanding ralph's opposition, gains full power on the boys.

Temi

Themes of human nature

Human beings are thought to be the most developed organism on the earth. But sometimes a human being can be so illogical or evil.

Children are not immune to evil. The theme is an attempt to trace the defects of society back to the defects of human nature.

The novel examines the aspects of human nature and the implications for society.

The Island demonstrates that humans are born good and that evil is an external force present in the world.

The evil is inside. Lord of flies illustrate the story of a group of boys who must overcome not only the difficulties presented by the island but also the difficulties presented by their own inherent human nature.

Simon's realization

Later Simon encounters the pig's head. Simon begins to talk to him in a hallucination. At this point Simon realises that there is no beast in the island.

The real beast is the evil in their nature, that the boys have been gradually giving in to. dell'appunto