Lord of The Flies by William Goldings
An aircraft that carries about thirty preadolescent boys who are evacuated in the midst of an atomic war crashes on an uninhabited island in a remote region of the Pacific Ocean. The crew has been killed so, the boys are left to their own fate. Two of the boys, Ralph and Piggy find a conch that Ralph blows to call the other boys to an assembly.
During the assembly, Ralph is elected the leader and they organize themselves into groups with a routine of duties (fetching water, building huts, keeping a signal fire, etc.) Ralph designs three primary policies; to have fun, to survive, and maintain the signal fire for their rescue. Any passing ship could see the smoke and rescue them. Piggy’s glasses is used to ignite the fire.
Orderliness works among the boys for some time before disorderliness sets in. The majority of the boys turn idle. The rumor of the presence of a beast on the island created problems among them.
Jack, who is also interested in the leadership plans to disorganize the united boys. He creates fear in the minds of the smaller boys and divides the older boys into two groups. Ralph fails to dissuade the minds of the boys about the existence of the beast on the island.
Jack starts having the support of some of the boys when he promises them that he would hunt down the beast on the island. His main preoccupation with Jack is hunting on the island. At one point, he led some of the boys to hunt down a pig.
Some of the boys assigned to be kindling the signal fire are attracted to the hunting expedition. At that moment, the ship that would have rescued them passed, but there was no smoke from the signal fire to attract the occupants of the ship since the boys have joined Jack in hunting pig.
This incident annoys Ralph and he confronts Jack about his failure to maintain the signal fire. The other boys resisted him and he considers resigning as the leader of the boys. it is piggy that persuades him not to resign.
A tragic event takes place one night near the island where the boys sleep. Sam and Eric are on the mountain rekindling the fire. A sudden bright explosion is seen at a distance followed by darkness. A figure drops beneath a parachute and fell among the blue flowers of the mountainside. The breeze hauls the figure through the blue flowers to the shattered rocks of the mountain top.
As the breeze blows intermittently, the figure bows forward with its head between its knees. The twins are doing well with the fire until they are scared of this figure. The twins then run down the mountain. The corpse of the fighter pilot is mistaken to be the beast hence, they believe that the beast is real.
Jack seizes the opportunity to turn the boys against Ralph when he calls an assembly but initially does not enjoy the support of the boys. He then forms his own tribe where he promises the boys lot of fun and they are gradually joining him.
Simon always goes into the island’s forest alone. He is there one day when he sees a pig’s head on a sharpened stick and swarming with flies put there by Jack and his group as an offer to the beast. Simon dialogues with the heads and calls it the “Lord of the Flies.” The head replies to Simon that there is no beast on the island and predicts that the other boys will attack him.
Simon later discovers that the “beast” is the dead body of the pilot. He rushes down to inform Jack’s boys of his discovery. The boys who are carried away by the fun they are making mistakes Simon for the beast and he is beaten to death.
There is no way for Jack’s group to get fire. They then decide to raid Ralph’s group and Piggy’s glasses is stolen and taken to “Castle Rock” as Jack’s side of the island is called.
Ralph in the company of Piggy, Sam, and Eric goes to meet Jack and his group to retrieve Piggy’s glasses. The boys reject Ralph and a big stone set by Roger kills Piggy and breaks the conch which is the symbol of authority. Sam and Eric are tortured by Roger and they agree to join Jack’s tribe.
Ralph secretly meets with Sam and Eric and they reveal the evil plans of Jack to hunt him down and behead him like a pig. Jack and his tribe set fire to the island the following morning. Ralph narrowly escapes being killed by Jack’s group.
When Ralph is about to be killed by these savages, he falls down and when he raises his head, he sees a naval officer who arrives with a party to rescue the boys. Irony plays out here; it is the smoke from the fire that is set on the island by Jack’s group that attracts the naval officers.