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Lord of the Flies, a book about a group of schoolboys who have crash landed on an island, portrays the inner struggle of good vs evil and how it eventually corrupts the young boys’ minds.  I really like the imagery in this book, as I felt like I got transported to the island when I read it. I also really like the plot, as it seems very logical and interesting.  Identifying the many meaningful symbols in the book added to the experience of reading it. I do not like the ending, where evil ultimately triumphs over good, turning all the boys into savages, though.  The ending also seems really anticlimactic and unrealistic. It felt like there wasn't really a falling action, and it just goes from climax to ending.

This book taught me about how people really are, or at least in William Golding's eyes.  I learned that everybody has a bad side, an idea shown to its full extent on the island. Certain character traits such as greed or loyalty take over characters in the book, and it shows to a larger scale what can happen to people in stressful or scary situations.  I learned this about myself too, as while I may not think I have a savage side to me, even people who seem to be good can become savages when they discover the true darkness in humans. While they even understand this, as “Ralph wept for the end of innocence, the darkness of man’s heart” (243), the boys can do nothing about it, as they already digressed into evil savages.  After reading this book, I analyzed coming of age, and how it can occur differently to different people. We see how boys can either come of age, like Ralph, or digress into uncivilized beasts.

It is really interesting to see the character development.  Piggy and Ralph do not know each other in the beginning of the book, but they were on the same plane carrying school children.  As Piggy and Ralph learn their situation, a hierarchy quickly comes into play. Piggy continuously talks to Ralph when they first meet, but Ralph is uninterested and dismisses what he says, which immediately makes Piggy seem inferior to Ralph.  Ralph’s confident and collected attitude, makes him seem the more fitting leader, over Piggy, an outsider who is portrayed as worrisome and awkward.

I recommend this book to people who like adventure stories, because this book almost feels like a movie.  Each chapter has a unique plot that adds to the main plot, as the story goes on, and each chapter adds a lot of growth/degradation to the characters.  It is fascinating to see just what happens when you take a group of school boys out of school and place them on this Island, almost like an experiment.  It also brings into question how the war outside affects them, which is pretty interesting, because as men are fighting on the mainland, these boys are fighting on the island.  It is a very fascinating, thought provoking book, and I recommend you read it.

Check out Lord of the Flies at the Newport Beach Public Library.