Book Review – Lord of the Flies (William Golding)

William Golding was a British writer. He won a Nobel prize for the book that he had written - “Lord of the Flies”. He was born on September 11th 1911 and died on 19th June 1993 when he was 81 years old. Apart from “Lord of the Flies”, William Golding also wrote many other great novels like the trilogy “To the Ends of the Earth”. This novel had won him the Booker’s prize for literature in 1980. William Golding’s fictional stories have a very wide range of topics.

The novel “Lord of the Flies” was written during the first years of the cold war. The theme of the book is mainly about civilization and people’s desire to rule. This desire for power destroys all the rules and laws that we create to live peacefully and harmoniously.

The novel “Lord of the Flies” is mainly about a group of boys who crashed landed on an uninhabited island. With no adults around, these boys have to take care of themselves and survive. However, the boys have many arguments on what to do and soon the two boys Ralph and Jack struggle to gain leadership over the group of boys. Eventually the group splits into two small groups. The group under Jack loses their civility and become savages.

This story tells us about the sometimes invisible evil side in every human being. This evil side can sometimes only be seen when the person is placed in a particular situation. For example, when the person is in an extremely dangerous situation, the person might reveal his evil side just for survival. In the novel, William Golding uses children as his characters instead of adults. This is to show that evil exist in every single being be they young or old. Children are a symbol of innocence, however in the story, these children show their darker sides.

“Maybe there is a beast....maybe it's only us.” Although in this context the children did not mean that they were the beast but rather that they were imagining the beast. However, we can interpret this quote as the children being the beast which was true at the end of the story where most of the boys became savages - the “beast”.

"The rock struck Piggy a glancing blow from chin to knee; the conch exploded into a thousand white fragments and ceased to exist." At first, the boys had respected the conch. Blowing the conch would have meant a meeting was to be held and also the boys could only speak in a meeting if they held the conch. This conch was a symbol of civility, rules and values. However, when the conch was destroyed, it represented the end of civility within the boys and also the end of their rule system. They no longer abided by the rules. They had turned from civil people to savages.

In conclusion, the book mainly explores the darker side of the human being by placing the boys in an unfamiliar and possibly dangerous environment. William Golding does this by illustrating the boys’ darker side unleashed through their struggle for survival. The book makes us reflect about ourselves, if we would give in to our “darker” side when under pressure. The book ends abruptly leaving us a question if the children would revert back to their old selves when they return to civilization or would they remain as savages.