Lord Of The Flies Summary

Lord of the Flies by William Golding takes place in the midst of the next world war. A plane taking British schoolboys to safety is shot down and crashes on a deserted island. The boys survived; however, the pilot did not. With no adults, the children have no disciplinary boundaries. They can do anything they want. Social order rises quickly as one of the boys, Ralph, is named chief. Whispers of a beast on the island begin to emerge and the boys set off to find and kill it. In the process, one boy, Jack, becomes jealous of Ralph’s power. Two groups begin to emerge, the hunters, led by Jack, and the builders, led by Ralph. Gradually, the hunters become more and more barbarous and bloodthirsty. Social order begins to fall faster than it was built.

When out exploring, Jack finds a wild boar and kills it. He then cuts off the head and puts it on a stick as on offering for the beast, who they are determined to find. Simon, who has a hideaway next to where the head was placed, went out to inspect the head after Jack left. Suddenly, the head starts speaking to Simon. It calls itself the Lord of the Flies. The Lord of the Flies says, “You knew, didn’t you? I’m part of you? Close, close,close! I’m the reason why it’s no go? Why things are what they are?” (143). The Lord of the Flies mocks Simon for thinking the beast was something they could hunt and kill. Rather, the Lord of the Flies reveals that the boys themselves are what they are afraid of. They are the beast. Slowly, flies eat away at the pig head and it slowly deteriorates symbolizing the deteriorating social order on the island. Once social order on the island dissipated, Ralph saw the pig head which was now just a skull. Ralph saw that “the white face was bone and that the pig’s skull grinned at him from the top of a stick” (185). The skull having no flesh is a symbol for the island having no rules left to abide by. The social order had dissolved into