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BOOK REPORT

William Golding „Lord of the Flies“

Biography/ earlier work:
William Golding was born in Cornwal lin 1911 on septembre 19th. He studied Physics and English Literature at Marlboro and Oxford University. He also took part in the 2nd World War, which was an experience that signed his life very much. Afterwards he got on with his normal life as a teacher and writer.
(He wrote 17 famous books between 1954 and 1993)
William Golding was awareded with the Booker McConnel Prize and also with the Nobel Prize for the things he wrote. He finally died in 1993 in Wiltshire, England.

Main characters:
Ralph: the boy with the conch
12 years old, blond, charismatic, „good-looking“, built like a boxer
a leader because of many positive qualities
conflict with Jack
represents order and democracy
Jack : about 12 years old, red hair, freckled, ugly
leader of choir-hunters
overtakes Ralph as a chief
represents svagery, anger and war
Piggy: short, overweight, wares glasses (constant polishing) , asthma
wants to keep peace, wants to communicate
smart
- represents order and democracy
Simon: not old but not young
good and pure
meets 'Lord of the Flies'
is killed soon by the other boys who were caught up in a savage dance
Roger: small; dirty, shaggy, black hair
no mercy
first one who tries to kill another boy
sadistic pleasure
Jack's most loyal helper
represents evil and wrongness
Sam and Eric: young twins
join Jack's tribe
disclose hiding spot
lose any real sence of loyality towards other persons
represent reliance and unity
Maurice, Percival, Phil, Bill, Henry, Wilfred

Summary:
The story is about a group of young boys who are the only survivors of an airplane accident on a small uninhabitated island. The boys try to be independent because they have to survive alone, without any adults to help them. They choose one of the older boys as a leader. Most of them take their survivingas a game because they want to have fun until they are rescued. But soon they begin to separate themselvesin two groups because of their different ideas about the way of handling their lives. The first group belongs to Ralph the leader,a boy who wants to keep order on the island, and the other group belongs to Jack, a boy who habors a lot of emotions like anger an savagery. The two groups finally end up in a war, they become savage and merciless like wild animals.
assessments are there to speak with each other, whoever has the conch is allowed to speak
signalfire has to be kept burning to get rescued, but most of them don't care (so a ship passed without realising that there is someone)
arguments between Ralph and Jack abou hunting and fire and huts>>in the end Jack#s tribe wants to kill Ralph
the beast is mentioned seveal times, beast from the forest and the air (simon and parachutist)
after the pigs are hunted thea do their ritual dances
lord of the flies is a killed sow's head on a stick >> simon talks to it and is told to be killed
two dead boys: simon: others do ritual dance and kill simon because thexy think he is the beast
Piggy: is hit by a rock thrown by roger because he could't see anything because they stole his specks
Jack is ment to be next dead person, Ralph is sitting at his hiding spot because Jack's tribe wants to hunt and kill him, they try to make him get out of his hidng spot but withoput any success, so they set the forest on fire. Ralph runs away from the fire to the beach where he finally meets a Naval Officer who was attracted by the fire and smoke. Everyone is rescued.

Message:
William Golding wants to explain the important role of war in everyone of us. In this case he explains that war is a game which human knows from the very beginning of his life and gives a detailed explanation to the atrocities of war. Golding describes the real nature of a human being and wnts o make clear that none of uns is as innocent as we think, because the human naver gave uop this war game.

Relation to other novels:
„ The Coral Island“: 3 boys ( Jack, Ralph, Peterkin ) are shipwrecked somewhere on an island
but the evil is not in the boys, it comes from the outside
>> cannibals, pirates

Cultural (philosophical) context:

>> after the 2nd world war
Goldingconcludes that the evil actions are inherent in human nature and can only be controlled by societal mores and rationality
political: represents the srtuggle between liberal democracy ond totalitarianism (anarchism)>> military dictatorship
>> Influenced by Thomas Hobbes, Freudian psychology and religion and ritual.

Assessment:
not that easy to read
too brutal too makaber
interesting if you know the backround

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