Lord of the Flies Analysis

Setting:

A group of schoolboys were stranded on an uncharted island due to a plane crush in the midst of a raging war.

Plot:

Ralph and Piggy discovered a conch shell on the beach, and used it as a horn to summon the other boys. After being assembled, the boys discussed about electing a leader and finding a way to be rescued. Ralph was elected as the leader, and Jack was responsible to find food for the group of boys. Jack, Ralph and Simon explored the island and said that they must light a fire on top of mountain as a signal to seek for rescue. The boys successfully lit up a fire on the mountain by focusing sunlight through the lenses of Piggy’s glasses. But they did not put much attention to monitor the trend of the fire, causing the forest being consumed by fire.

Ralph asked the boys to maintain the fire and build shelters, but the boys preferred enjoying their lives without adults to listening to his orders. Jack, as the leader of the hunters, was especially preoccupied by hunting. One day, a ship passed by the island, but the signal fire at that moment was gone. As a result, Ralph was angry with Jack, the person that was in charge of maintaining the fire. However, Jack and his team just went back with their first kill, and they were all very excited. Piggy criticized Jack, resulting in a punch on the face. Ralph then declared that the only people who can be speaking are the people who are holding the conch shell in their hands. Then, at the group meeting, they  found out that some little boys (littluns) were suffering nightmares involving beasts on the island. The elder boys said it was impossible to have a beast on the island. But then a littlun suggested that the beast could be coming from the sea, and that put the entire group of boy in great horror.

Sam and Eric, the boys that were responsible to monitor the fire at night, were asleep when a parachutist fell from the sky. When they were awake, they thought the shape of the parachute and the strange noise it made was indicating that a beast was coming. So they rushed back to the camp and reported that they were attacked by a beast.

They boys decided to hunt for the beast. When the shape of the parachute came into their sight, Jack and Ralph arranged a meeting and told the other boys about the appearance of the “beast” as a deformed ape. Jack said Ralph was a coward and should not be the leader anymore, but other boys disagreed with him. Jack ran down the beach with his hunters with wrath. Ralph told his followers to light up a signal fire on the beach. His followers followed his instructions, but many of them sneaked to Jack’s side before the job was accomplished.

Jack declared that he was the leader of his tribe of hunters. They organized a hunt towards a sow. After capturing the sow, they decapitated it and put its head on a stake as an offering for the beast. Simon then encountered the head that was covered by flies. He heard some voices due to his terrible health conditions, and he believed that the voice belonged to the lord of the flies. The voice said that Simon could never escape, and then Simon fainted. When he was awake, he went up the mountain and saw the body of the dead parachutist. Then he realized that the beast did not really exist. After that, Simon went back to the beach to tell other boys about his discovery, but unfortunately he was killed by other boys as soon as his figure emerged from the jungle ( other boys were singing and dancing wildly around a fire).

In the next morning, Ralph and Piggy found that Jack’s hunters had attacked them and stole Piggy’s glasses last night. Then they went to Jack and tried to persuade him to give Piggy’s glasses back. But Jack fought with Ralph and tied Sam and Eric up. Afterwards, Roger rolled a huge rock down the mountain and killed Piggy and smashed the conch shell in his hands. Ralph quickly escaped.

After knowing that Jack and his hunters would be hunting for him tomorrow, Ralph hided in the forest. However, Jack lit the forest in order to force Ralph to leave the forest. He was forced to the beach and realized that he would soon be killed by other boys. However, he saw a British naval officer. The officer’ ship noticed the fire in the jungle and came to rescue them. The other boys reached the beach at that point as well. The officer then asked Ralph to explain that why the boys were so savage and desperate. Recalling the tragic memories from the last days, Ralph began to weep. Other boys began to weep as well. The officer turned back to give the boys some time to pull themselves together.

Character:

Ralph: The protagonist in the novel. He attempted to hold order within boys. He represents rational and civilizing humans. However, his kindness is imposed by the society. He is not totally kind in heart—as can be seen from his early actions towards Piggy.

Jack: The antagonist in the novel. He attempted to manipulate other boys by his own will. He represents savage and irrational human beings, as opposed to the rational and civilizing side that Ralph represents.

Piggy: Piggy attempted to hold order within boys and keep the boys being rational and realistic. He represents rational and civilizing human beings, too.

Roger: Roger helped Jack to perform many of cruel actions. He represents the cruel side of human beings.

Sam and Eric: Sam and Eric were allied with Ralph at first, but were forced to join Jack’s tribe in the end. They are kind in heart, but weak in arms.

Simon: Simon is the most sensitive and shy boy in the entire group. He is naturally kind to other boys. He represents natural goodness of human beings, opposite to the society-imposed civilization and rationality represented by Ralph.

Theme:

The true enemy of humanity is disorder.

Literary devices:

Allusion:

1.The title, Lord of the flies is itself an allusion. It alludes to the Bible.

2. The novel’s setting indirectly alludes to the Garden of Eden, with the beast alludes to Satan ( the snake-like thing provides a more direct allusion to the Garden of Eden).

3. Treasure Island, Swallows and Amazons, Coral Island were direct allusions. Coral Island was mentioned several times, referring to the fun adventure having by a group of boy stranded on an island.

Irony:1. Coral Island can also be considered as irony, because what the boys experienced on the island (savage) was not like what the boys experienced on the coral island ( fun adventure).

2.In chapter 2, Jack said “we’ve got to have rules and obey them. After all, we are not savages.” But in the end, Jack led the savage tribe to kill Piggy and hunt for Ralph.

3. At the beginning of the novel, fire was used as a signal for rescue. But in the end, fire was used for destruction and to smoke Ralph out of the forest. And more ironically, the fire actually became a signal for rescue when it was used for destruction.

4. The “beast” was actually a dead parachutist. The reader knows it, but the boys in the novel did not know it.

5. When Jack apologized for not maintaining the signal fire, he did not really mean it.

Personification:

There are too many personification used in the novel. I will give 2 examples.

“The sand, trembling beneath the heat haze”

“Yellow flame that poured upwards and shook a great beard of flame”

Sand cannot tremble and fire cannot shake. These are all things that only human can do.

Simile:

There are too many personification used in the novel. I will give 2 examples.

“Sleep enveloped him like the swathing mirages…”

“The breezes that on the lagoon had chased their tails like kittens…”

Hyperbole:

They exaggerated the worth of conch.

“In a year or two when the war’s over, they will be traveling to Mars and back.”

When Piggy said they needed a clock, Ralph said that they also needed a TV and steam engine.

Foreshadowing:

Before Simon was killed, the novel depicted the weather a lot, such as “ All at once the thunder struck. Instead of the dull boom there was a point of impact in the explosion” and “The dark sky was shattered by a blue-white scar”. The purpose of the author is to foreshadow that something bad is going to happen.

Before Roger threw a huge rock and killed Piggy, there were words like “ Roger took up a small stone and flung it between the twins, aiming to miss” and “some source of power began to pulse in Roger’s body”.

When we first meet Jack, we can see his attitude as radiating authority. This foreshadows the authority he would take later on.