'Lord Of The Flies' By William Golding: An Analysis

Lord of the Flies by William Golding, is a fictional novel depicting a group of English boys who were stranded on an island and struggled to both survive and find leadership in their society. Although it was written in 1954, many of the themes established in it are still relevant to today’s society. For nearly seven years, Syria has been involved in a civil war. The country’s leader, Bashar al-Assad, reacted to people protesting against things they wanted to change in violent ways. As shown in the article, “Syria’s civil war explained from the beginning” when people fought against his reactions, they too were silenced. This relates to Lord of the Flies because like in the Syrian war they too stood up for themselves against harsh and unethical treatment. The protagonist in the story, Ralph, along with his friend Piggy, were

Page 180 of the novel quotes,“I got this to say. You’re acting like a crowd of kids...which is better- to be a pack of painted Indians like you are, or to be sensible like Ralph is?’...The rock struck Piggy a glancing blow from chin to knee…” (180). In this excerpt, Piggy spoke out about his views on how Jack’s group was behaving. He voiced his opinion that heand his group were acting uncivilized, and that the way Ralph was behaving was the better path. While Piggy spoke Roger pushed a large boulder on Piggy, thereby killing him. The parallel between the Syrian civil war and Lord of the Flies was that both Jack and Bashar al-Assad silenced people who opposed them. Aforementioned, the thirteen year old boy involved with the protests was killed after being tortured for his involvement. Therefore, the two boys are similar, because although Piggy was a fictional character, he too suffered an unfortunate fate because he spoke up against a tyrannical ruler. describes Ralph’s conversation with Sam and Eric, two boys that had been taken to Jack’s