Lord of the Flies book report

——八中 高一 李松如

This is the first time I read the book, Lord of the Flies, and apparently it has a very deep meaning, though I cannot fully understand it. This classic, written by William Golding, tells a story of a group of English boys whose plane was shot down, during an imaginary war, and were marooned on a tropical island. There were no grownups, no civilization, and they could do anything they wanted—anything!

At first, they got along with each other peacefully, but before long, they began to quarrel, and were divided into two factions, led by Ralph and Jack. Ralph is a 12-year-old boy who is sunny, decent, sensible, and considerate. He has two things clear: firstly, they will soon be rescued—because, his dad is in the Navy—and secondly, until they are rescued they must hang together. Jack is head of a choir—a bizarre assignment considering his dignity. He loves adventure, excitement, foraging in groups, orders—when issued by himself, and though he does not yet know it and shrinks from it the first time, he loves shedding blood. Day after day, as the beast came near, more and more boys went to Jack’s side and at last only Piggy is with Ralph. Piggy is stout, asthmatic, shortsighted, underprivileged and wise. He is the brain of the party. It is the lenses of his spectacles that kindle the fires. He is loyal to Ralph, and tries to stop him from making mistakes, for he knows where mistakes may lead to in an unknown island. In the end, Simon and Piggy were dead before Jack burnt the island and a naval officer rescued them all.

It is such a tragic story, but I think it is too pessimistic. The theme of the novel is the evil deep inside people’s hearts. While it is necessary for us to know this evil, I feel it is more necessary to know there is still kindness and beauty in everyone. Indeed, the story took place in a very special situation without civilization and grownups. Most of the kids stayed alive and I think it is lucky for us to see this. After all, they are only kids and thinking of using the conch and keeping the fire going is hard to come by children of their age.

The reason why they were divided into two groups was that a leader needs to protect his people from harm, but Ralph had failed, as he had been unkind to Jack and his hunters. Jack could provide meat but could not protect them either, for the beast is the evil in everyone’s heart. Jack valued cruelty, his so-called dignity, and the power to control others. Jack wanted to be the chief, but Ralph took the place of chief. Jack thought Ralph only commanded others but never participated in the work. He thought he was a coward. It was Ralph’s arrogance, Jack’s cruelty and the little ones’ uncertainty and fear that lead to the tragedy. In my opinion, Ralph can be a good leader when there is peace and civilization and Jack can be more suitable on the island, if he can be less cruel and desire not so much.

About the characters, everyone has their own striking personalities. Of all, I like Ralph best, for he is optimistic, courageous and faces the difficulty determinedly, never giving up. He believes that they will be rescued. He finds the conch, calls the assembly, builds the huts, kindles the fire, goes for the beast, and tries hard to protect them. But under the circumstances and with his arrogance, he can’t succeed. I like the bright side of him and we should learn from his actions when we’re in trouble.

I like the book, for it is serious, the talk is natural, it is written with taste and liveliness, and the descriptions of scenery are enchanting. The influence of the book is enduring and Lord of the Flies and its writer, William Golding, will remain immortal.

Henrik Comments: This was a well written book report. There wasn’t much I needed to change, but one thing you should be aware of is the need to put a space after punctuations, such as periods and commas. While it isn’t such a big issue right now, make sure you are aware of this in your future assignments. As for the content of your essay I think you did a good job explaining your views of the novel and some of the important parts of it. But while you state that you haven’t understood the deeper meaning of the novel, I believe that after reading this report that you do already know what it is. Even though people are good and innocent there is an evil horror that hides deep within us all.