The story takes a look at what would happen if a group of British school boys were to become stranded on an island. At first the boys have good intentions, keep a fire going so that a passing ship can see the smoke and rescue them, however because of the inherent evil of the many the good intentions of the few are quickly passed over for more exciting things. The killing of a pig slowly begins to take over the boys life, and they begin to go about this in a ritualistic way, dancing around the dead animal and chanting. As this thirst for blood begins to spread the group is split into the "rational (the fire-watchers) pitted against the irrational (the hunters) (Dick 121)." The fear of a mythological "beast" is perpetuated by the younger members of the groups and they are forced to do something about it. During one of the hunters' celebrations around the kill of an animal a fire-watcher stumbles in to try and disband th

Golding's works have a way about them that is distinctively his. All of his works are in some way copied from other works, but he adapts them to fit his own needs. In his own use of the word, Lord of the Flies and The Inheritors are "parodies" of Ballantyne and Wells. "Golding's hallmark: a polarity expressed in terms of a moral tension (Dick 121)." This is usually the key thing that makes a Golding novel a Golding novel.

Despite being heavily involved in the war efforts during the second world war, Golding managed to not become a war novelist, this does however, somewhat explain why most of the conflicts in his books are basic struggles between people. "He [Golding] entered the Royal Navy at the age of twenty-nine in December 1940, and after a period of service on mine sweepers, destroyers, and cruisers, he became a lieutenant in command of his own rocketship (Baker xiii)." So many of the authors of his time used the war as the back ground or main conflict in their books, but not Golding, he is able to use the war as his inspiration and write about the most primitive and basic struggles that man has. One must not think that Golding did not go unchanged from the war, because analysis of his pre-war poetry shows a much softer, more forgiving Golding.

Golding's basic philosophy can be summed up in a few words - society is evil. All of his books deal with this idea in some way or another. It is very easy to see how this idea is presented in Lord of the Flies where "the good intentions of the few are overborne by the innate evil of the many (Burgess 121)." According to one of many critics "what Golding senses is t

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Approximate Word count = 1094
Approximate Pages = 4 (250 words per page double spaced)