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Lord of the Flies is a young adult novel written by William Golding that tells the story of a group of schoolboys who are stranded on an island together. Unrestricted by the social norms they have always lived with, the boys must work to survive together and create their own laws without parents or any adults around. 

This story is set in the midst of World War II, and takes place on a presumably uninhabited island. The schoolboys were on board a plane, which then crashed into the island and left a “scar.” We are introduced to many different characters, and we observe their different personalities as well as their different developments throughout the book. I will explain some of the main characters, but the other characters you can find out on your own (there’s just simply too many to describe). 

The main protagonist we are first introduced to is Ralph, a fair haired boy who finds a conch and blows it in order to assemble all of the boys on the island. He believes he should be the chief among all the boys. The second character we learn about is Piggy, an overweight, glasses-wearing, asthma-containing, orphan who appears to be the most rational-thinking out of the other boys. There’s Jack, a red-hair, arrogant boy who is a choir leader and will soon develop a rival relationship with Ralph. Finally, there is Simon. Simon is a seemingly odd, peculiar boy who appears to be spiritual and naturally good. 

The main theme of this book is the idea of civilizations vs. savagery. Since there are no laws, rules, or regulations to keep the boys in check, they are free from civilization and can choose to become uncivilized. The boys attempt to organize a system in order to govern themselves and keep everyone under control in order to survive. The first rule that the boys decide to create is that whoever holds the conch is the only one allowed to speak. However, later in this book we can quickly see that this rule does not stay consistent and the boys soon do not obey this rule. 

The boys start to inhabit the island. They build shelters, gather food such as berries and coconuts, and create tools and weapons. Despite the boys beginning to develop some sort of civilization, there is still disagreement. Ralph argues that they should continue to build shelters as well as build a fire in order to signal a possible rescue ship. Jack argues that he wants meat, and says they should be hunting the pigs on the island. This creates a divide within the group of children. As the story progresses, we can see some boys starting to slowly descend in savagery and agree with Jack on killing pigs. The boys start to struggle to keep peace within each other and this affects their ability to survive on the island. 

I would definitely recommend this book to any teenager. This story does an excellent job at describing what would happen if a group of young schoolboys were isolated from society on an island together. At times, the language the author uses is a bit difficult for me to understand, but this book conveys many themes that question human nature which I think is very interesting. I would highly recommend this book!

Check out Lord of the Flies from the Newport Beach Public Library!