Lord Of The Flies

A detailed Summary of Lord Of The Flies

Using political terms as an example, a democratic system can be easily changed into a dictatorship because of a small reason whether it be a coup or anything else. In the novel "Lord of the Flies", the children changed from civilized school boys to savages all because of atavism. Atavism either majorly or minorly affected them but either way, it did.

At arriving on this uninhabited island, the first characters introduced were Ralph and Piggy. As time went by, it became more and more obvious that Ralph symbolized civilization and Piggy was intelligence. Throughout the book, they pretty much worked together, along with the conch Piggy found, trying to keep order. When Jack was introduced, he led the choir boys who later turned into the hunters. It was unmistakable that he was power hungry. When Roger suggested to have a vote on who ought to be chief, Jack immediately said "I ought to be chief, because I'm chapter chorister and head boy. I can sing C sharp" (22). Especially after not being voted as chief rather than Ralph, he was disappointed. "...the freckles on Jack's face disappeared under a blush of mortification" (23). Simon was one of the choir boys. He first appeared in the book when he fainted while all the boy

Ralph was voted chief therefore everyone looked to him for leadership. He was constantly talking about rescue saying the fire must be kept going on with a lot of smoke so they could be rescued. He would always try to remind everyone of rescue and civilization. He pretty much kept things in order in the beginning before things started falling apart. Without Ralph, atavism would've taken a hold on the boys sooner than it did. Time and time again, Ralph showed through his actions or words how important rescue was to him and for everyone. The time where there was a ship passing by but Jack and his hunters who were responsible for keeping the fire going, went off hunting and let the fire go out. When Jack finally returned, they finally for the first time had meat. Everyone was so ecstatic you'd think Ralph would not be as mad. The ship was so important to Ralph, he showed no joy, instead, all that came out of his mouth was "You let the fire go out" (69). Jack was a little irritated but he didn't let that comment bother him at all and Jack went on with his exciting story on how they killed the pig. "Ralph spoke again, hoarsely. He had not moved. 'You let the fire go out' " (70). After all of Jack explanations to why he took all the boys hunting, Ralph still repeatedly stayed on the subject of Jack letting the fire go out and rescue. At another meeting the boys had, Ralph was setting rules and lecturing everyone about how dirty everything's getting and how they need to follow the rules. "Now I say this and make it a rule, because I'm chief. We won't have a fire anywhere but on the mountain. Ever" (81). After being chief so long with so much responsibility that was put on him, it started to torture Ralph slowly. "Ralph dismissed Simon and returned to his personal hell" (104). There was a time when Ralph went hunting with the rest of the hunters. When Ralph had wounded a pig, he got really excited. "I hit him all right. The spear stuck in. I wounded him!" (113). After that, Ralph felt it was good hunting after all. Then he still kept going on excitedly trying to get everyone's attention showing them how he hit the pig. "Ralph entered into the play and everybody laughed" (114). "Ralph, carried away by a sudden thick excitement, grabbed Eric's spear and jabbed at Robert with it" (114). "Ralph too was fighting to get near, to get a handful of that brown, vulnerable flesh. The desire to squeeze and hurt was over-mastering" (114-115). All of this was all during Ralph's first hunting experience. It can be seen how as little time passed by, how he changed from civilized to a savage. This was the beginning to Ralph losing control. Later on, after being on the island for so long, Ralph and Jack got into a big disagreement and they separated into two groups; Jack and his hunters as one, Ralph, Piggy, and some others as one. At times Ralph wanted to stop being chief but Piggy, being his intelligence, reminded him that he needed to stay chief and keep the hope alive or they'd never get rescued. Ralph had a feast and everyone was there including Ralph and Piggy. Later on, they had a big dance and started to get out of hand and at this time, atavism really showed in all the boys for they attacked and killed Simon. Ralph kept saying it was murder and Piggy was trying to tell him it was an accident, that they were scared but Ralph said "I wasn't scared, I was-I don't know what I was" (156). At this point, it showed atavism had gotten to Ralph.

Simon was a member of the choir but he didn't act like them much. They all pretty much stuck together but Simon kept more to himself and did what he felt was right. Throughout the novel, Simon was a character who usually helped out, didn't cause much trouble, unafraid, and didn't complain much. The first time Simon leant a helping hand was when they first went exploring around the island. After already fainting once and maybe in more danger than anyone else to fai

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Approximate Word count = 3449
Approximate Pages = 14 (250 words per page double spaced)

Category: English