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Lord of the Flies Mass Market Paperback – December 16, 2003
Purchase options and add-ons
This edition includes a new Suggestions for Further Reading by Jennifer Buehler.
At the dawn of the next world war, a plane crashes on an uncharted island, stranding a group of schoolboys. At first, with no adult supervision, their freedom is something to celebrate. This far from civilization they can do anything they want. Anything. But as order collapses, as strange howls echo in the night, as terror begins its reign, the hope of adventure seems as far removed from reality as the hope of being rescued.
- Print length224 pages
- LanguageEnglish
- Lexile measure770L
- Dimensions4.31 x 0.59 x 7.5 inches
- PublisherPenguin Books
- Publication dateDecember 16, 2003
- ISBN-100399501487
- ISBN-13978-0399501487
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Get to know this book
What's it about?
A group of stranded schoolboys descend into savagery as they struggle to survive on an isolated island, exploring the dark depths of human nature.Popular highlight
Ralph wept for the end of innocence, the darkness of man’s heart, and the fall through the air of the true, wise friend called Piggy.6,962 Kindle readers highlighted thisPopular highlight
He found himself understanding the wearisomeness of this life, where every path was an improvisation and a considerable part of one’s waking life was spent watching one’s feet.5,541 Kindle readers highlighted thisPopular highlight
He became absorbed beyond mere happiness as he felt himself exercising control over living things.4,882 Kindle readers highlighted thisPopular highlight
However Simon thought of the beast, there rose before his inward sight the picture of a human at once heroic and sick.4,308 Kindle readers highlighted this
From the Publisher
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Editorial Reviews
Review
—Suzanne Collins, author of The Hunger Games trilogy
"I finished the last half of Lord of the Flies in a single afternoon, my eyes wide, my heart pounding, not thinking, just inhaling....My rule of thumb as a writer and reader—largely formed by Lord of the Flies—is feel it first, think about it later."
—Stephen King
"This brilliant work is a frightening parody on man's return [in a few weeks] to that state of darkness from which it took him thousands of years to emerge. Fully to succeed, a fantasy must approach very close to reality. Lord of the Flies does. It must also be superbly written. It is."
—The New York Times Book Review
About the Author
Lois Lowry is the two-time Newbery Award–winning author of Number the Stars,The Giver Quartet, and numerous other books for young adults.
Jennifer Buehler is an associate professor of educational studies at Saint Louis University and President of The Assembly on Literature for Adolescents of the National Council of Teachers of English.
Excerpt. © Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved.
THE SHELL
THE BOY WITH FAIR HAIR LOWERED HIMSELF down the last few feet of rock and began to pick his way toward the lagoon. Though he had taken off his school sweater and trailed it now from one hand, his grey shirt stuck to him and his hair was plastered to his forehead. All round him the long scar smashed into the jungle was a bath of heat. He was clambering heavily among the creepers and broken trunks when a bird, a vision of red and yellow, flashed upwards with a witchlike cry; and this cry was echoed by another.
"Hi!" it said. "Wait a minute!"
The undergrowth at the side of the scar was shaken and a multitude of raindrops fell pattering.
"Wait a minute," the voice said. "I got caught up."
The fair boy stopped and jerked his stockings with an automatic gesture that made the jungle seem for a moment like the Home Counties.
The voice spoke again.
"I can't hardly move with all these creeper things."
The owner of the voice came backing out of the undergrowth so that twigs scratched on a greasy wind-breaker. The naked crooks of his knees were plump, caught and scratched by thorns. He bent down, removed the thorns carefully, and turned around. He was shorter than the fair boy and very fat. He came forward, searching out safe lodgments for his feet, and then looked up through thick spectacles.
"Where's the man with the megaphone?"
The fair boy shook his head.
"This is an island. At least I think it's an island. That's a reef out in the sea. Perhaps there aren't any grownups anywhere."
The fat boy looked startled.
"There was that pilot. But he wasn't in the passenger cabin, he was up in front."
The fair boy was peering at the reef through screwed-up eyes.
"All them other kids," the fat boy went on. "Some of them must have got out. They must have, mustn't they?"
The fair boy began to pick his way as casually as possible toward the water. He tried to be offhand and not too obviously uninterested, but the fat boy hurried after him.
"Aren't there any grownups at all?"
"I don't think so."
The fair boy said this solemnly; but then the delight of a realized ambition overcame him. In the middle of the scar he stood on his head and grinned at the reversed fat boy.
"No grownups!"
The fat boy thought for a moment.
"That pilot."
The fair boy allowed his feet to come down and sat on the steamy earth.
"He must have flown off after he dropped us. He couldn't land here. Not in a place with wheels."
"We was attacked!"
"He'll be back all right."
The fat boy shook his head.
"When we was coming down I looked through one of them windows. I saw the other part of the plane. There were flames coming out of it."
He looked up and down the scar.
"And this is what the cabin done."
The fair boy reached out and touched the jagged end of a trunk. For a moment he looked interested.
"What happened to it?" he asked. "Where's it got to now?"
"That storm dragged it out to sea. It wasn't half dangerous with all them tree trunks falling. There must have been some kids still in it."
He hesitated for a moment, then spoke again.
"What's your name?"
"Ralph."
The fat boy waited to be asked his name in turn but this proffer of acquaintance was not made; the fair boy called Ralph smiled vaguely, stood up, and began to make his way once more toward the lagoon. The fat boy hung steadily at his shoulder.
"I expect there's a lot more of us scattered about. You haven't seen any others, have you?"
Ralph shook his head and increased his speed. Then he tripped over a branch and came down with a crash.
The fat boy stood by him, breathing hard.
"My auntie told me not to run," he explained, "on account of my asthma."
"Ass-mar?"
"That's right. Can't catch my breath. I was the only boy in our school what had asthma," said the fat boy with a touch of pride. "And I've been wearing specs since I was three."
He took off his glasses and held them out to Ralph, blinking and smiling, and then started to wipe them against his grubby wind-breaker. An expression of pain and inward concentration altered the pale contours of his face. He smeared the sweat from his cheeks and quickly adjusted the spectacles on his nose.
"Them fruit."
He glanced round the scar.
"Them fruit," he said, "I expect—"
He put on his glasses, waded away from Ralph, and crouched down among the tangled foliage.
"I'll be out again in just a minute—"
Ralph disentangled himself cautiously and stole away through the branches. In a few seconds the fat boy's grunts were behind him and he was hurrying toward the screen that still lay between him and the lagoon. He climbed over a broken trunk and was out of the jungle.
The shore was fledged with palm trees. These stood or leaned or reclined against the light and their green feathers were a hundred feet up in the air. The ground beneath them was a bank covered with coarse grass, torn everywhere by the upheavals of fallen trees, scattered with decaying coconuts and palm saplings. Behind this was the darkness of the forest proper and the open space of the scar. Ralph stood, one hand against a grey trunk, and screwed up his eyes against the shimmering water. Out there, perhaps a mile away, the white surf flinked on a coral reef, and beyond that the open sea was dark blue. Within the irregular arc of coral the lagoon was still as a mountain lake—blue of all shades and shadowy green and purple. The beach between the palm terrace and the water was a thin stick, endless apparently, for to Ralph's left the perspectives of palm and beach and water drew to a point at infinity; and always, almost visible, was the heat.
He jumped down from the terrace. The sand was thick over his black shoes and the heat hit him. He became conscious of the weight of clothes, kicked his shoes off fiercely and ripped off each stocking with its elastic garter in a single movement. Then he leapt back on the terrace, pulled off his shirt, and stood there among the skull-like coconuts with green shadows from the palms and the forest sliding over his skin. He undid the snake-clasp of his belt, lugged off his shorts and pants, and stood there naked, looking at the dazzling beach and the water.
He was old enough, twelve years and a few months, to have lost the prominent tummy of childhood and not yet old enough for adolescence to have made him awkward. You could see now that he might make a boxer, as far as width and heaviness of shoulders went, but there was a mildness about his mouth and eyes that proclaimed no devil. He patted the palm trunk softly, and, forced at last to believe in the reality of the island laughed delightedly again and stood on his head. He turned nearly on to his feet, jumped down to the beach, knelt and swept a double armful of sand into a pile against his chest. Then he sat back and looked at the water with bright, excited eyes.
"Ralph—"
The fat boy lowered himself over the terrace and sat down carefully, using the edge as a seat.
"I'm sorry I been such a time. Them fruit—"
He wiped his glasses and adjusted them on his button nose. The frame had made a deep, pink "V" on the bridge. He looked critically at Ralph's golden body and then down at his own clothes. He laid a hand on the end of a zipper that extended down his chest.
"My auntie—"
Then he opened the zipper with decision and pulled the whole wind-breaker over his head.
"There!"
Ralph looked at him sidelong and said nothing.
"I expect we'll want to know all their names," said the fat boy, "and make a list. We ought to have a meeting."
Ralph did not take the hint so the fat boy was forced to continue.
"I don't care what they call me," he said confidentially, "so long as they don't call me what they used to call me at school."
Ralph was faintly interested.
"What was that?"
The fat boy glanced over his shoulder, then leaned toward Ralph.
He whispered.
"They used to call me `Piggy.'"
Ralph shrieked with laughter. He jumped up.
"Piggy! Piggy!"
"Ralph—please!"
Piggy clasped his hands in apprehension.
"I said I didn't want—"
"Piggy! Piggy!"
Ralph danced out into the hot air of the beach and then returned as a fighter-plane, with wings swept back, and machine-gunned Piggy.
"Sche-aa-ow!"
He dived in the sand at Piggy's feet and lay there laughing.
"Piggy!"
Piggy grinned reluctantly, pleased despite himself at even this much recognition.
"So long as you don't tell the others—"
Ralph giggled into the sand. The expression of pain and concentration returned to Piggy's face.
"Half a sec'."
He hastened back into the forest. Ralph stood up and trotted along to the right.
Here the beach was interrupted abruptly by the square motif of the landscape; a great platform of pink granite thrust up uncompromisingly through forest and terrace and sand and lagoon to make a raised jetty four feet high. The top of this was covered with a thin layer of soil and coarse grass and shaded with young palm trees. There was not enough soil for them to grow to any height and when they reached perhaps twenty feet they fell and dried, forming a criss-cross pattern of trunks, very convenient to sit on. The palms that still stood made a green roof, covered on the underside with a quivering tangle of reflections from the lagoon. Ralph hauled himself onto this platform, noted the coolness and shade, shut one eye, and decided that the shadows on his body were really green. He picked his way to the seaward edge of the platform and stood looking down into the water. It was clear to the bottom and bright with the efflorescence of tropical weed and coral. A school of tiny, glittering fish flicked hither and thither. Ralph spoke to himself, sounding the bass strings of delight.
"Whizzoh!"
Beyond the platform there was more enchantment. Some act of God—a typhoon perhaps, or the storm that had accompanied his own arrival—had banked sand inside the lagoon so that there was a long, deep pool in the beach with a high ledge of pink granite at the further end. Ralph had been deceived before now by the specious appearance of depth in a beach pool and he approached this one preparing to be disappointed. But the island ran true to form and the incredible pool, which clearly was only invaded by the sea at high tide, was so deep at one end as to be dark green. Ralph inspected the whole thirty yards carefully and then plunged in. The water was warmer than his blood and he might have been swimming in a huge bath.
Piggy appeared again, sat on the rocky ledge, and watched Ralph's green and white body enviously.
"You can't half swim."
"Piggy."
Piggy took off his shoes and socks, ranged them carefully on the ledge, and tested the water with one toe.
"It's hot!"
"What did you expect?"
"I didn't expect nothing. My auntie—"
"Sucks to your auntie!"
Ralph did a surface dive and swam under water with his eyes open; the sandy edge of the pool loomed up like a hillside. He turned over, holding his nose, and a golden light danced and shattered just over his face. Piggy was looking determined and began to take off his shorts. Presently he was palely and fatly naked. He tiptoed down the sandy side of the pool, and sat there up to his neck in water smiling proudly at Ralph.
"Aren't you going to swim?"
Piggy shook his head.
"I can't swim. I wasn't allowed. My asthma—"
"Sucks to your ass-mar!"
Piggy bore this with a sort of humble patience.
"You can't half swim well."
Ralph paddled backwards down the slope, immersed his mouth and blew a jet of water into the air. Then he lifted his chin and spoke.
"I could swim when I was five. Daddy taught me. He's a commander in the Navy. When he gets leave he'll come and rescue us. What's your father?"
Piggy flushed suddenly.
"My dad's dead," he said quickly, "and my mum—"
He took off his glasses and looked vainly for something with which to clean them.
"I used to live with my auntie. She kept a candy store. I used to get ever so many candies. As many as I liked. When'll your dad rescue us?"
"Soon as he can."
Piggy rose dripping from the water and stood naked, cleaning his glasses with a sock. The only sound that reached them now through the heat of the morning was the long, grinding roar of the breakers on the reef.
"How does he know we're here?"
Ralph lolled in the water. Sleep enveloped him like the swathing mirages that were wrestling with the brilliance of the lagoon.
"How does he know we're here?"
Because, thought Ralph, because, because. The roar from the reef became very distant.
"They'd tell him at the airport."
Piggy shook his head, put on his flashing glasses and looked down at Ralph.
"Not them. Didn't you hear what the pilot said? About the atom bomb? They're all dead."
Ralph pulled himself out of the water, stood facing Piggy, and considered this unusual problem.
Piggy persisted.
"This an island, isn't it?"
"I climbed a rock," said Ralph slowly, "and I think this is an island."
"They're all dead," said Piggy, "an' this is an island. Nobody don't know we're here. Your dad don't know, nobody don't know—"
His lips quivered and the spectacles were dimmed with mist.
"We may stay here till we die."
With that word the heat seemed to increase till it became a threatening weight and the lagoon attacked them with a blinding effulgence.
"Get my clothes," muttered Ralph. "Along there."
He trotted through the sand, enduring the sun's enmity, crossed the platform and found his scattered clothes. To put on a grey shirt once more was strangely pleasing. Then he climbed the edge of the platform and sat in the green shade on a convenient trunk. Piggy hauled himself up, carrying most of his clothes under his arms. Then he sat carefully on a fallen trunk near the little cliff that fronted the lagoon; and the tangled reflections quivered over him.
Presently he spoke.
"We got to find the others. We got to do something."
Ralph said nothing. Here was a coral island. Protected from the sun, ignoring Piggy's ill-omened talk, he dreamed pleasantly.
Piggy insisted.
"How many of us are there?"
Ralph came forward and stood by Piggy.
"I don't know."
Here and there, little breezes crept over the polished waters beneath the haze of heat. When these breezes reached the platform the palm fronds would whisper, so that spots of blurred sunlight slid over their bodies or moved like bright, winged things in the shade.
Piggy looked up at Ralph. All the shadows on Ralph's face were reversed; green above, bright below from the lagoon. A blur of sunlight was crawling across his hair.
"We got to do something."
Ralph looked through him. Here at last was the imagined but never fully realized place leaping into real life. Ralph's lips parted in a delighted smile and Piggy, taking this smile to himself as a mark of recognition, laughed with pleasure.
"If it really is an island—"
"What's that?"
Ralph had stopped smiling and was pointing into the lagoon. Something creamy lay among the ferny weeds.
"A stone."
"No. A shell."
Suddenly Piggy was a-bubble with decorous excitement.
"S'right. It's a shell! I seen one like that before. On someone's back wall. A conch he called it. He used to blow it and then his mum would come. It's ever so valuable—"
Near to Ralph's elbow a palm sapling leaned out over the lagoon. Indeed, the weight was already pulling a lump from the poor soil and soon it would fall. He tore out the stem and began to poke about in the water, while the brilliant fish flicked away on this side and that. Piggy leaned dangerously.
"Careful! You'll break it—"
"Shut up."
Ralph spoke absently. The shell was interesting and pretty and a worthy plaything; but the vivid phantoms of his day-dream still interposed between him and Piggy, who in this context was an irrelevance. The palm sapling, bending, pushed the shell across the weeds. Ralph used one hand as a fulcrum and pressed down with the other till the shell rose, dripping, and Piggy could make a grab.
Now the shell was no longer a thing seen but not to be touched, Ralph too became excited. Piggy babbled:
"—a conch; ever so expensive. I bet if you wanted to buy one, you'd have to pay pounds and pounds and pounds—he had it on his garden wall, and my auntie—"
Ralph took the shell from Piggy and a little water ran down his arm. In color the shell was deep cream, touched here and there with fading pink. Between the point, worn away into a little hole, and the pink lips of the mouth, lay eighteen inches of shell with a slight spiral twist and covered with a delicate, embossed pattern. Ralph shook sand out of the deep tube.
"—mooed like a cow," he said. "He had some white stones too, an' a bird cage with a green parrot. He didn't blow the white stones, of course, an' he said—"
Piggy paused for breath and stroked the glistening thing that lay in Ralph's hands.
"Ralph!"
Ralph looked up.
"We can use this to call the others. Have a meeting. They'll come when they hear us—"
He beamed at Ralph.
"That was what you meant, didn't you? That's why you got the conch out of the water?"
Ralph pushed back his fair hair.
"How did your friend blow the conch?"
"He kind of spat," said Piggy. "My auntie wouldn't let me blow on account of my asthma. He said you blew from down here." Piggy laid a hand on his jutting abdomen. "You try, Ralph. You'll call the others."
Doubtfully, Ralph laid the small end of the shell against his mouth and blew. There came a rushing sound from its mouth but nothing more. Ralph wiped the salt water off his lips and tried again, but the shell remained silent.
"He kind of spat."
Ralph pursed his lips and squirted air into the shell, which emitted a low, farting noise. This amused both boys so much that Ralph went on squirting for some minutes, between bouts of laughter.
"He blew from down here."
Ralph grasped the idea and hit the shell with air from his diaphragm. Immediately the thing sounded. A deep, harsh note boomed under the palms, Spread through the intricacies of the forest and echoed back from the pink granite of the mountain. Clouds of birds rose from the treetops, and something squealed and ran in the undergrowth.
Ralph took the shell away from his lips.
"Gosh!"
His ordinary voice sounded like a whisper after the harsh note of the conch. He laid the conch against his lips, took a deep breath and blew once more. The note boomed again: and then at his firmer pressure, the note, fluking up an octave, became a strident blare more penetrating than before. Piggy was shouting something, his face pleased, his glasses flashing. The birds cried, small animals scuttered. Ralph's breath failed; the note dropped the octave, became a low wubber, was a rush of air.
The conch was silent, a gleaming tusk; Ralph's face was dark with breathlessness and the air over the island was full of bird-clamor and echoes ringing.
"I bet you can hear that for miles."
Ralph found his breath and blew a series of short blasts.
Piggy exclaimed: "There's one!"
A child had appeared among the palms, about a hundred yards along the beach. He was a boy of perhaps six years, sturdy and fair, his clothes torn, his face covered with a sticky mess of fruit. His trousers had been lowered for an obvious purpose and had only been pulled back half-way. He jumped off the palm terrace into the sand and his trousers fell about his ankles; he stepped out of them and trotted to the platform. Piggy helped him up. Meanwhile Ralph continued to blow till voices shouted in the forest. The small boy squatted in front of Ralph, looking up brightly and vertically. As he received the reassurance of something purposeful being done he began to look satisfied, and his only clean digit, a pink thumb, slid into his mouth.
Piggy leaned down to him.
"What's yer name?"
"Johnny."
Piggy muttered the name to himself and then shouted it to Ralph, who was not interested because he was still blowing. His face was dark with the violent pleasure of making this stupendous noise, and his heart was making the stretched shirt shake. The shouting in the forest was nearer.
Signs of life were visible now on the beach. The sand, trembling beneath the heat haze, concealed many figures in its miles of length; boys were making their way toward the platform through the hot, dumb sand. Three small children, no older than Johnny, appeared from startlingly close at hand, where they had been gorging fruit in the forest. A dark little boy, not much younger than Piggy, parted a tangle of undergrowth, walked on to the platform, and smiled cheerfully at everybody. More and more of them came. Taking their cue from the innocent Johnny, they sat down on the fallen palm trunks and waited. Ralph continued to blow short, penetrating blasts. Piggy moved among the crowd, asking names and frowning to remember them. The children gave him the same simple obedience that they had given to the men with megaphones. Some were naked and carrying their clothes; others half-naked, or more or less dressed, in school uniforms, grey, blue, fawn, jacketed, or jerseyed. There were badges, mottoes even, stripes of color in stockings and pullovers. Their heads clustered above the trunks in the green shade; heads brown, fair, black, chestnut, sandy, mouse-colored; heads muttering, whispering, heads full of eyes that watched Ralph and speculated. Something was being done.
The children who came along the beach, singly or in twos, leapt into visibility when they crossed the line from heat haze to nearer sand. Here, the eye was first attracted to a black, bat-like creature that danced on the sand, and only later perceived the body above it. The bat was the child's shadow, shrunk by the vertical sun to a patch between the hurrying feet. Even while he blew, Ralph noticed the last pair of bodies that reached the platform above a fluttering patch of black. The two boys, bullet-headed and with hair like tow, flung themselves down and lay grinning and panting at Ralph like dogs. They were twins, and the eye was shocked and incredulous at such cheery duplication. They breathed together, they grinned together, they were chunky and vital. They raised wet lips at Ralph, for they seemed provided with not quite enough skin, so that their profiles were blurred and their mouths pulled open. Piggy bent his flashing glasses to them and could be heard between the blasts, repeating their names.
"Sam, Eric, Sam, Eric."
Then he got muddled; the twins shook their heads and pointed at each other and the crowd laughed.
At last Ralph ceased to blow and sat there, the conch trailing from one hand, his head bowed on his knees. As the echoes died away so did the laughter, and there was silence.
Within the diamond haze of the beach something dark was fumbling along. Ralph saw it first, and watched till the intentness of his gaze drew all eyes that way. Then the creature stepped from mirage on to clear sand, and they saw that the darkness was not all shadow but mostly clothing. The creature was a party of boys, marching approximately in step in two parallel lines and dressed in strangely eccentric clothing. Shorts, shirts, and different garments they carried in their hands; but each boy wore a square black cap with a silver badge on it. Their bodies, from throat to ankle, were hidden by black cloaks which bore a long silver cross on the left breast and each neck was finished off with a hambone frill. The heat of the tropics, the descent, the search for food, and now this sweaty march along the blazing beach had given them the complexions of newly washed plums. The boy who controlled them was dressed in the same way though his cap badge was golden. When his party was about ten yards from the platform he shouted an order and they halted, gasping, sweating, swaying in the fierce light. The boy himself came forward, vaulted on to the platform with his cloak flying, and peered into what to him was almost complete darkness.
"Where's the man with the trumpet?"
Ralph, sensing his sun-blindness, answered him.
"There's no man with a trumpet. Only me."
The boy came close and peered down at Ralph, screwing up his face as he did so. What he saw of the fair-haired boy with the creamy shell on his knees did not seem to satisfy him. He turned quickly, his black cloak circling.
"Isn't there a ship, then?"
Inside the floating cloak he was tall, thin, and bony; and his hair was red beneath the black cap. His face was crumpled and freckled, and ugly without silliness. Out of this face stared two light blue eyes, frustrated now, and turning, or ready to turn, to anger.
"Isn't there a man here?"
Ralph spoke to his back.
"No. We're having a meeting. Come and join in."
The group of cloaked boys began to scatter from close line. The tall boy shouted at them.
"Choir! Stand still!"
Wearily obedient, the choir huddled into line and stood there swaying in the sun. None the less, some began to protest faintly.
"But, Merridew. Please, Merridew ... can't we?"
Then one of the boys flopped on his face in the sand and the line broke up. They heaved the fallen boy to the platform and let him lie. Merridew, his eyes staring, made the best of a bad job.
"All right then. Sit down. Let him alone."
"But Merridew."
"He's always throwing a faint," said Merridew. "He did in Gib.; and Addis; and at matins over the precentor."
This last piece of shop brought sniggers from the choir, who perched like black birds on the criss-cross trunks and examined Ralph with interest. Piggy asked no names. He was intimidated by this uniformed superiority and the offhand authority in Merridew's voice. He shrank to the other side of Ralph and busied himself with his glasses.
Merridew turned to Ralph.
"Aren't there any grownups?"
"No."
Merridew sat down on a trunk and looked round the circle.
"Then we'll have to look after ourselves."
Secure on the other side of Ralph, Piggy spoke timidly.
"That's why Ralph made a meeting. So as we can decide what to do. We've heard names. That's Johnny. Those two—they're twins, Sam 'n Eric. Which is Eric—? You? No—you're Sam—"
"I'm Sam—"
"'n I'm Eric."
"We'd better all have names," said Ralph, "so I'm Ralph."
"We got most names," said Piggy. "Got 'em just now."
"Kids' names," said Merridew. "Why should I be Jack? I'm Merridew."
Ralph turned to him quickly. This was the voice of one who knew his own mind.
"Then," went on Piggy, "that boy—I forget—"
"You're talking too much," said Jack Merridew. "Shut up, Fatty."
Laughter arose.
"He's not Fatty," cried Ralph, "his real name's Piggy!"
"Piggy!"
"Piggy!"
"Oh, Piggy!"
A storm of laughter arose and even the tiniest child joined in. For the moment the boys were a closed circuit of sympathy with Piggy outside: he went very pink, bowed his head and cleaned his glasses again.
Finally the laughter died away and the naming continued. There was Maurice, next in size among the choir boys to Jack, but broad and grinning all the time. There was a slight, furtive boy whom no one knew, who kept to himself with an inner intensity of avoidance and secrecy. He muttered that his name was Roger and was silent again. Bill, Robert, Harold, Henry; the choir boy who had fainted sat up against a palm trunk, smiled pallidly at Ralph and said that his name was Simon.
Jack spoke.
"We've got to decide about being rescued."
There was a buzz. One of the small boys, Henry, said that he wanted to go home.
"Shut up," said Ralph absently. He lifted the conch. "Seems to me we ought to have a chief to decide things."
"A chief! A chief!"
"I ought to be chief," said Jack with simple arrogance, "because I'm chapter chorister and head boy. I can sing C sharp."
Another buzz.
"Well then," said Jack, "I—"
He hesitated. The dark boy, Roger, stirred at last and spoke up.
"Let's have a vote."
"Yes!"
"Vote for chief!"
"Let's vote—"
This toy of voting was almost as pleasing as the conch. Jack started to protest but the clamor changed from the general wish for a chief to an election by acclaim of Ralph himself. None of the boys could have found good reason for this; what intelligence had been shown was traceable to Piggy while the most obvious leader was Jack. But there was a stillness about Ralph as he sat that marked him out: there was his size, and attractive appearance; and most obscurely, yet most powerfully, there was the conch. The being that had blown that, had sat waiting for them on the platform with the delicate thing balanced on his knees, was set apart.
"Him with the shell."
"Ralph! Ralph!"
"Let him be chief with the trumpet-thing."
Ralph raised a hand for silence.
"All right. Who wants Jack for chief?"
With dreary obedience the choir raised their hands.
"Who wants me?"
Every hand outside the choir except Piggy's was raised immediately. Then Piggy, too, raised his hand grudgingly into the air.
Ralph counted.
"I'm chief then."
The circle of boys broke into applause. Even the choir applauded; and the freckles on Jack's face disappeared under a blush of mortification. He started up, then changed his mind and sat down again while the air rang. Ralph looked at him, eager to offer something.
"The choir belongs to you, of course."
"They could be the army—"
"Or hunters—"
"They could be—"
The suffusion drained away from Jack's face. Ralph waved again for silence.
"Jack's in charge of the choir. They can be—what do you want them to be?"
"Hunters."
Jack and Ralph smiled at each other with shy liking. The rest began to talk eagerly.
Jack stood up.
"All right, choir. Take off your togs."
As if released from class, the choir boys stood up, chattered, piled their black cloaks on the grass. Jack laid his on the trunk by Ralph. His grey shorts were sticking to him with sweat. Ralph glanced at them admiringly, and when Jack saw his glance he explained.
"I tried to get over that hill to see if there was water all round. But your shell called us."
Ralph smiled and held up the conch for silence.
"Listen, everybody. I've got to have time to think things out. I can't decide what to do straight off. If this isn't an island we might be rescued straight away. So we've got to decide if this is an island. Everybody must stay round here and wait and not go away. Three of us—if we take more we'd get all mixed, and lose each other—three of us will go on an expedition and find out. I'll go, and Jack, and, and...."
He looked round the circle of eager faces. There was no lack of boys to choose from.
Product details
- Publisher : Penguin Books; Reissue edition (December 16, 2003)
- Language : English
- Mass Market Paperback : 224 pages
- ISBN-10 : 0399501487
- ISBN-13 : 978-0399501487
- Reading age : 12+ years, from customers
- Lexile measure : 770L
- Item Weight : 4.4 ounces
- Dimensions : 4.31 x 0.59 x 7.5 inches
- Best Sellers Rank: #151 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
- Customer Reviews:
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About the authors
Born in Cornwall, England, William Golding started writing at the age of seven. Though he studied natural sciences at Oxford to please his parents, he also studied English and published his first book, a collection of poems, before finishing college. He served in the Royal Navy during World War II, participating in the Normandy invasion. Golding's other novels include Lord of the Flies, The Inheritors, The Free Fall, Pincher Martin, The Double Tongue, and Rites of Passage, which won the Booker Prize.
Photo by See page for author [CC BY-SA 3.0 nl (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/nl/deed.en)], via Wikimedia Commons.
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Customers find the book very entertaining and well-developed. They also describe the plot as thought-provoking, gripping, and a stark reminder of the darkness. Readers mention the content as thought provoking and morally decency. However, some find the emotional tone boring. Opinions are mixed on the writing style, with some finding it masterful and stimulating, while others find it vague and hard to follow. Reader opinions are also mixed on reading pace, with customers finding it quick and others slow.
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Customers find the plot good, interesting, and great. They also say the morality, and savagery are expertly woven throughout the story. Readers describe the book as gripping and thought-provoking. They mention the interior pages are ordinary.
"...The novel is a classic story that bleeds over into our world today and details how fear can be used as a weapon when needed to achieve a desired..." Read more
"...Lord of the Flies is an extremely well-written tale with intriguing plots and ideas...." Read more
"Wonderful ending, tough in between. A sad (but real) picture of the worst of human instincts projected in a group of boys (which makes it even worse)" Read more
"SPOILERS! Lord of the Flies is a fairly interesting and fast-paced book...." Read more
Customers find the book thought-provoking, with a lot of symbolism and bold social commentary. They also say the book has a strong message, and is important and educational for high schoolers.
"...The second character is Piggy, who is smart and insightful...." Read more
"...Even today, this is a book that, in my opinion, tells a highly valuable story--not only for young adults, but old adults as well...." Read more
"...Young teenagers should read the book because it teaches about human nature, and because censoring literature that teaches morals in an intense way..." Read more
"...In the grand scheme of things, this book is extremely cool and I would recommend it to anyone who wants more than a bad summary of it from me, and..." Read more
Customers find the characters well-developed and true to the nature of humans. They also appreciate the super SAT-ACT vocabulary, tons of symbolism, and applicable central themes.
"...The characters are all unique and have different effects on each other throughout the plot...." Read more
"...anything else, what was refreshing was Golding's ability to create well-rounded characters...." Read more
"granddaughter says: overall, very good book. characters were intriguing...." Read more
"...For one, his characters repeat dialogue over and over again...." Read more
Customers find the book very entertaining, a wonderful way to spend alone time, and keeps them engaged. They also say it's life like, terrifying, and true.
"...I found that this book was more meaningful and enjoyable the second time I read it...." Read more
"...or taking instruction from the older kids was pretty true and hilarious...." Read more
"...But it's intricately crafted, and enjoyable on many levels - a tightly plotted and suspenseful story, a dark allegory of humankind's propensities..." Read more
"...the dangers of mob mentality are all explored in a way that is both engaging and thought-provoking...." Read more
Customers find the book easy to use and well received. They also say the concept is simple yet profound.
"...right places where it doesn't want to fully show, and it actually works quite well...." Read more
"...complex issues into simple ways I found Golding's work here to be incredibly great!..." Read more
"My son needed this for class. It was a great book and served its purposes well." Read more
"...The Flies says alot of interesting things, and manages to do so in a concise and compelling manner...." Read more
Customers have mixed opinions about the writing style. Some find the book masterful, creating a vivid and believable world. They also say the themes, morals, and censoring are profound. However, others find the writing vague and overly descriptive, making it hard to follow and interpret some scenes.
"...It stimulated some excellent conversations at dinner and on the way to and from school in the mornings, as we talked about leadership and human..." Read more
"Great book but the blue coloring on the cover bleeds onto your hands." Read more
"...Lord of the Flies is a novel of profound messages, themes, and morals, and censoring is not worth missing out on learning from the book...." Read more
"...At times, the dialogue was a little difficult to follow, but I just had to figure out who was talking when...." Read more
Customers have mixed opinions about the reading pace of the book. Some find it a quick read, while others say it's slow.
"The book starts of well, slowed down in interest and then it started to pick up...." Read more
"...It's a fast read, less lengthy than its page count indicates, considering the frequent extra spacing between paragraphs and in the narration of..." Read more
"...It was a slow and unpleasant read...." Read more
"...The reading is quick and easy once you get into it, just the plot might slow you down...." Read more
Customers find the emotional tone of the book boring, depressing, and lacking in attention. They also say it doesn't keep them hooked.
"It's not a fun book, persay - the subject is bleak, children are murdered, and the tone alternates between wonder and despair with astounding..." Read more
"...but it was a bit of a struggle to finish as I felt it got a little boring toward the end. And I felt like it left out so much information...." Read more
"...Please, please, please get this book! It is such a timeless tale of a broken society and broken people." Read more
"...but that's just it... most of the time it's actually kinda dull and boring.. the story never tells how how everything happened with the plane with..." Read more
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Needing a sense of structure, the boys elect one of the boys, Ralph, as the chief of the group. Ralph then assigns roles and duties to each of the other boys to survive until they can be rescued. This seems like a good solution to their problem until rumors begin that a monster is residing on the island with the boys. The boys decide to give a sacrifice to the monster in the form of a bloody boar’s head, which in time decays becoming “Lord of the Flies.” This unknown monster “fear” ultimately lives inside each of the boys causing it to consume every moment of the boys’ days and nights turning the boys against one another. Their make-shift society quickly begins to unravel creating a conflict between the need for order and the savage nature of human beings.
The novel delves deep into the four main characters showing how chaos can truly change a person and make one do things that he never imagined he could do. The first character is Ralph, who is elected chief of the group. Ralph is determined to maintain order within the group. When the boys first arrive on the island, Ralph blows a conch shell like a make-shift horn signaling all the lost boys from the island to descend upon the group. The second character is Piggy, who is smart and insightful. Piggy becomes the most mature of the group; however, he is soon mocked by the other boys due to his physique. Another character Jack is the hunter of the group and delights in hunting for wild pigs on the island. Jack slowly develops a following of other boys who want to hunt, and this leads to a power struggle between Ralph’s followers and Jack’s group. The last of the boys is Simon, the quiet type who likes to venture into the jungle to find solitude away from the others. However, Simon’s solitude becomes his downfall when he starts to become crazy leading to the other boys killing Simon thinking he is the monster of their dreams.
The climax of the novel begins after Piggy is killed, and Ralph, Jack, and one of the island’s lost boys named Roger set fire to the entire island. Knowing he is the next to be killed by the group of savages, Ralph runs away and straight into the arms of a British naval officer signaling the end of the haunting journey for the remaining boys. When the boys realize that they have been rescued, they burst into tears realizing what the evil that they have become.
Human nature, the struggle between good and evil, and the ultimate darkness of man are central themes throughout the story detailing how even good people can be savage if it means survival. The haunting story is a scary reminder that human depravity makes people do things unimaginable. The struggle between savagery and civilization is something our own society has dealt with since the beginning of time. The novel is a classic story that bleeds over into our world today and details how fear can be used as a weapon when needed to achieve a desired outcome. Goldberg’s novel Lord of the Flies is dark and disturbing at times, but it opens the reader’s eyes to how human nature ultimately controls us all.
This copy is standard paperback quality at very reasonable price.
First, the characters Ralph, Jack, Piggy, and Simon are introduced and become some of the most important symbols in the book. The characters are all unique and have different effects on each other throughout the plot. Ralph can be counted as the protagonist in this book and is a fair-haired chef representing civility. Jack is a power-hungry antagonist who symbolizes anarchy. Piggy is fat, has asthma, and acts as a scapegoat, but is smarter than anyone else; he symbolizes intelligence. Simon is a boy who volunteers to the point that it gets him killed, he is a symbol of human goodness. These characters become great contributors to the plot and theme.
Speaking of the plot and theme, William Golding did an excellent job of reminding people how easily human nature can put society in danger of collapsing. It begins with the male middle school group stranded on an island with no adult supervision, it’s a thing to celebrate at first, but the group under Ralph’s attempts to raise a functioning society becomes more defiant of logic. Made-up creatures from nightmares and increasing arguments led to a downfall in the productivity and unity of the group. They then stop listening to Ralph entirely because they are deprived of fun feelings under Ralph’s logical perspective of island survival. Jack believes that they should have fun hunting pigs and chanting in circles until the day they die, with no hope of rescue in sight. The kids, being the middle school group they are, answer to Jack, except for the smart Piggy and twins Sam and Eric, who are captured or killed even by the other tribe. Simon was one of the few who did his best work under Ralph, even to where his work beat him down. Simon is killed around this time by the group, as they thought he was the fake beast they feared, even when he worked for the good of the group until he died. Ralph is left to survive with the savage group hunting him for the rest of the book until the island is set on fire, catching the attention of a ship that rescues them. When they meet the officer who descended to see what was going on, he asks if they are playing at war, and they agree, even with the mentioned two deaths from this savagery. It becomes clear that the members of a functioning society are ignorant of how easily life becomes a fight for survival when all else is lost.
A good theme for the book goes something like the following sentence. Society’s flaws come from the flaws of human nature. This book shows that the human’s nature is to have fun, be lazy, and do what it wants. Society only functions when people mature. Maturing means doing stuff that you don’t want, helping others, and being aware of your mistakes. The middle schoolers in Golding’s book are not mature enough, except for Simon, Ralph, Piggy, and the twins Sam and Eric. They do their part in society but are crushed by the overbearing weight of the savages who let human nature control their every move. These savages blamed others for their mistakes, which led to increasing arguments and aggression towards others. These savages let laziness get the best of their civility, and the group suffered because of it. Other examples clearly show this message as well. In the grand scheme of things, this book is extremely cool and I would recommend it to anyone who wants more than a bad summary of it from me, and anyone who hasn’t read it at all. Just don’t tell them all the spoilers.
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What struck me the most about Lord of the Flies is its enduring relevance. Although it was written over half a century ago, the themes it addresses remain painfully pertinent today. The characters and their actions serve as a stark reminder of the potential for cruelty that lies within us all. Golding's writing is hauntingly beautiful, drawing you into the heart of the island and the minds of the boys. This is a book that stays with you long after you've turned the final page, forcing you to confront the darkness that can lurk within humanity.
In short, Lord of the Flies is a must-read for anyone who appreciates literature that challenges the way we view society and human nature. It's a haunting tale that will make you ponder the depths of human depravity and the fragility of civilization. I can't recommend this book enough, and I'm certain it will continue to be a timeless classic for generations to come.