William Golding's The Lord of the Flies

English author William Gerald Golding wrote Lord of the flies as his first novel in 1954. Golding would later become famous as a novelist, playwright, and poet, yet before Lord of the flies publishers had rejected his works many times. Fortunately for Golding and future readers, his new editor Charles Monteith helped him to make some changes to the text and publish the book in September 1954 as Lord of the Flies (“William Golding” par.7). This book became hugely successful, and in 1983 Golding was awarded for it a Nobel Prize in Literature ("William Golding - Prize Presentation" par.1).

The main characters of this novel are Ralph, Jack, Simon, and Piggy. Ralph, who represents civilizing instinct, is elected as the leader of the group of the boys and tries to promote harmony among themselves. Even though he seeks to lead the group and defeats Jack in the election, he doesn’t try to dominate people. Rather, he focuses on the group’s common interest of being rescued. For example, he gives responsibility to the hunters to keep a signal fire while he tries to make a shelter. Unlike Ralph, Jack would like to dominate people. This is especially evident once he becomes the leader of the hunters on the island. He tends to show the other boys how strong and brave he is while expressing his dominance over them. By the end of the novel, Jack usurps Ralph to become the general leader, in which position he shows how barbaric and cruel he can be.

Whereas Ralph and Jack struggle against each other, Simon represents a kind of innocent and spiritual human. Simon had been a member of Jack’s choir, but unlike the other choir members he chooses not to hunt animals. Rather, he would like to help Ralph to make the shelter. Furthermore, Simon is brave ...

... middle of paper ...

...I’m like Ralph

But cannot do anything

I’m just babbling

Piggy is the only one who says what boys have to do instead of just playing. However, he is disappointed that they don’t listen to him, and even many boys become frenzied and harass him harshly.

Even at the end of the book, readers don’t know what Piggy’s real name is. If I were Piggy, I would be really angry and think how life might be I had good health and good eyesight. Jack despises Piggy because of his asthma and appearance. If he were thin like Ralph, I think the other boys would respect Piggy and even like to elect him as their leader.

Piggy tries to lecture the boys, yet because they don’t respect him they mostly just ignore him. Also, Piggy might be disappointed with himself that he cannot participate in physical activities such as building the shelter. Therefore, he must be lethargic and lonely.