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Summary: Book Review: Lord of the Flies
Review: A group of English schoolboys, while being evacuated from England during World War II, fall out of a crashing airplane. They land on a tropical island devoid of adults and start their own society. So begins Lord of the Flies, by William Golding.
There are three main characters in this book: Ralph, Piggy, and Jack. Ralph is strong and sensible. He is confident that they will be rescued and meanwhile works to make the island a better place. Piggy is obese and a social outcast. However, he is very wise and tries to advise Ralph, because Ralph is his only friend. Ralph's archenemy, Jack, is bossy. He grows a love for hunting and violence.
Right after the crash landing on the island, Ralph finds a conch shell and blows on it, gathering all the boys on the island. He decides there should be an election to determine a chief of the island. Ralph represents democracy. He gets elected chief, and does his best to make sure that everyone is equal. Ralph starts a fire on a mountain with Piggy's eyeglasses, hoping that passing ships will see a smoke signal. Shelters are built on the shore and food is plentiful. The boys are enchanted by the idea of their own world that they control.
But inevitably, disturbing events start to occur. A boy sees a 'snake thing' in the woods and other see monsters. This gets everyone frightened. Soon a mission is started to find and kill the 'beast.'
Later, after Jack kills a pig, he develops a love for hunting. With an army of boys he starts hunting for pigs. They invent a game in which they form a circle. Another boy comes into the middle of the circle, and the boys on the outside beat him, chanting, 'Kill the pig! Cut her throat! Spill her blood!' Several boys are injured as a result of this violent ritual.
Jack also becomes very rebellious against Ralph and his leadership. For one, Jack is apathetic about the fire on the mountain. He doesn't see that the fire is the only way to be rescued. Jack represents totalitarianism and dictator ship.
Despite being very creative and original, the book has some weaknesses. For one, it paints a very pessimistic view of mankind. It implies that kids are not inherently innocent, but instead evil when deprived of law and order. Lord of the Flies can also get boring at times. Hunting for pigs, keeping the fire going, finding the beast: these themes reappear so many times it feels repetitive. Too much description also causes the book to be monotonous at times. However, the thrilling climax more than makes up for these minor weaknesses.
Golding's writing style is usually both interesting and engaging. It offers insight into what would happen to 'innocent' children when in a world of their own, without parents and authority. In the end, everything turns out fine, but only after an exciting chase and battle. On the surface, Lord of the Flies is an adventure story about boys trapped on a tropical island. But if you look deeper, it is a parable about the true nature of people.
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Summary: Symbolism Abounds
Review: I have watched "horror" movies that scared me less than this book did. Equal parts "Robinson Caruso" and "Children of the Corn," "Lord of the Flies" by William Golding explores our human nature in a way not seen before.Stranded on a uninhabited island, a group of young English boys are left to survive without the influence of an adult. Chaos slowly materializes as the boys gradually lose track of their main goal: to be rescued. Nighttime comes to sybmolize fear and death as a mysterious "beast" rears its ugly head. Ralph and Piggy struggle to remain "civilized" while Jack and others begin to be absorbed by their animalistic urges. One thing that stood out to me was Golding's use of imagery. From the tiniest details of the island to almost palpable tension that devolops on the island, Golding does a magnificent job of portraying it all. However, the aspect of this book that makes it outstanding is the psychology behind the story. As the children begin to fully realize that there are no adults to give them guidance, a darkness falls over them. Long term survival becomes secondary to the immediate need to have "fun." The children evolve from being hunted to being vicious hunters. I highly recommend this as both a good story and as a psychological study. I believe it could be an invaluable guide for high school students leaving home for the first time and experiencing a sense of freedom that can parallel that of the boys in this novel. Even if you are well past that stage, it's worth reading to get an understanding of what people might be experiencing.
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Summary: Optimistic novel...I think not
Review: Sir William Golding wrote the wonderful novel THE LORD OF THE FLIES in 1954. It is a chillingly true look at the darkest of human nature. To the casual reader, it may seem just to be an adventure of lost boys. However, it has a darker and more sinister commentary on the nature of man. If you enjoy grand and classic literature, buy Sir William Golding's THE LORD OF THE FLIES today. The novel centres around four boys among several stranded on a presumably Pacific island. Each one is symbolic of a different aspect of human nature. In the beginning, each is still bound by societal limits. As time progresses, things turn for the worst as these limits melt away. Golding masterfully shows this waring away of society, one of the novel's finer points. One of the novel's flaws is that is tedious at many points. Otherwise, it is a grand novel. If you enjoy classic literature, you should read this novel. If you enjoy thought-provoking work, read this novel. If you enjoy a highly pessimistic commentary on man's nature, read the book. If you don't enjoy tedious reading, or don't like reading a dark book about the evils of man, this novel is not for you...
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Summary: Wow! So Good!
Review: I mean it!! It's just so good. With the flies, and the Christian symbols. ("Lord". Get it?) And that Bill Golding, he's so arch. It's no wonder they gave him the Noble Prize. My girlfriend read this one and that other with the island and the lobster, and the other one, with the apes, like that one movie, and she thought they were just the best. And she knows her literature. So buy this book and read it right away! And I'll bet you can buy both the movie versions here, so buy them too, right now, because you won't regret it. Just curl up in front of the TV with a ham sandwich and enjoy.
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Summary: A delightful, dark story from an 11 year-old fan
Review: This book was absolutely thrilling! The tale of a group of boys who are reduced to killing each other is a welcomed change from literary pop culture. The author does an outstanding job bringing out the dark side of human nature which civilization hides.
This book is about a bunch of British boys who become stranded on an island. Ralph, the chief, tries to establish a functioning society with rules and laws but his little tribe of boys is corrupted by the dominant, jealous Jack who promises the boys meat, killing and glory. Ralph attempts to bring survival back into perspective but is only taunted and abandoned.This story is a masterpiece and I would recommend this to any daring readers. The story grows not less but only more haunting in time.
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Summary: A Nobel winner with a difference.
Review: All too often, I am put off by Nobel prize winning books because they are too dense for me. Or simply because I cannot connect with the characters portrayed in them. I also partially subscribe to the notion that 'A classic is something that everybody wants to have read and nobody wants to read'. Not true for this one: it transcends all barriers (for me at least). The plot is a remarkably interesting, the characters well defined and the ending delicious. To add more usefulness to this review: some other books that I like are - Of Mice and Men, All Quiet on the Western Front, Animal Farm, A Brave New World, The Catcher in the Rye. So, if you like any of these books, you might like The Lord of the Flies too.
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Summary: Award-winning, yet it [is terrible].
Review: This is one of the few books in my elite "bounce" category -- it bounced off the wall when I finished it. I am aware of all the praise that has been heaped upon this book. This is one of the times at which I must find myself unable to really even comprehend the reasoning (if any) that goes on in the minds of those who have handed out the awards. _Lord of the Flies_ is, we are told, a novel about human beings and their nature. It's a shame we see so few human beings in the book. Golding seems to see savagery as the natural and instinctive state of humanity, a position that's logically untenable (if this was the "natural" way, exactly how did we acquire civilization at all, let alone keep it long enough to develop the printing press necessary to spread such [negativity]?) Ignoring the stated literary intent, the book is on the surface the story of shipwrecked children trying to survive, a la Robinson Crusoe and Mysterious Island. However, in this aspect it also fails miserably, with characters not even covering the gamut of behavior one would suspect from children (at least some would have tried making a boat, one would think; while the exact time Lord of the Flies takes place is indeterminate, Kon-Tiki had sailed from Peru to Polynesia in 1947, something the character Piggy, at least, would probably have known), and with one of the most important parts of a survival story -- the survival science -- being gotten dismally wrong. This is most notable in having the NEARSIGHTED Piggy's glasses be used to start a fire, and it's one of the least excusable; even if Golding himself wasn't nearsighted, one would think he'd have one or two acquaintances whose glasses he could borrow for a second to test the idea. Admittedly, Golding has an excellent grasp of the language and uses it well. The book is well-written in a technical sense. Yet it fails utterly on both its major levels, failing to convince me of its major thesis on human behavior, and wrecking the suspension of disbelief in its overt plotline. I was personally quite aware of the potential savage nature of young people -- I was one of the bullied types -- yet the level of cynicism necessary to accept Lord of the Flies' ideas never came to me. I think Golding misses an essential streak of optimism that exists in young people, a willingness to try things and a dedication to survive that explains the fact that we're still a civilized species instead of a scattered group of savages barely above the flint-chipping level.
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Summary: Ickkk
Review: I'll preface this by saying I was made to read this in the 10th grade, but I really did not like this book. Maybe it's just a boys book, I don't know, but it disturbed me to read and I was thinking the whole time "this would never happen, this is the stupidest thing I have ever read." Perhaps this is a classic, but would I recommend it? No.
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Summary: Lord of the Flies
Review: There is only one reason that I chose this book it was because it is a non fiction book and also the cover of the book, the book cover has a face of a person, insects, and some plants. The cover is so interesting. It shows some real tips about surviving on an island.
This story is about these boys going on a trip and there plane crashes on an island. When they are conscious again the boys find out that there parents died and only the kids were alive. They attempt to gather food and they learn how to survive. They show a lot of strength trying to survive almost without any modern technology. They called up a meeting and they learned skills how to survive.
I liked this book because it is a very interesting book about the survival skills. To be honest I also liked it because it was very short. They book is adventurous, funny, and exciting. I would really like to read the other books that William Golding wrote.
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Summary: A very boring book.
Review: I might just be a teen in high school but I know what I like and this book was not one in my interest. Although William Gerald Golding wrote this worthwhile astonishing book it made no imapct to my opinion. The book was very well presented and had touching moments but lacked the realism that books have to maintain. Its moments of exitement were short lived and really weren't that exciting to begin with. All in all it was a hell of a book to those who actually like reading books. To tell the truth I hardly remember what the book was about.
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