Lord of the flies

牛亚婕

This book tells the story of some kids that landed on a deserted island because of a plane crash. There are a few big kids, Ralph, Jack, Piggy, Simon, Eric and Sam, and the rest are “littluns”. While waiting to be rescued they all try to keep themselves alive on the island.

At first, all the boys get along and listen to Ralph. Ralph is a sunny, optimistic and considerate boy, and he promises that all of them will be saved one day because his father works in the Navy. But only after a few days there is conflict. The boy named Jack, thinks Ralph isn’t as good as he is. Jack is the head of the choir, who loves adventure, excitement, giving others orders and blood. After a pig hunt, the boys split into two groups, one follows Ralph, and the other follows Jack. As Jack leads his group, they become complete savages, therefore no longer caring for discipline. They kill Simon, thinking he was the beast. They kill Piggy as well, when he comes to get his spectacles back. Then at Ralph’s side, all the littluns escape to Jack’s to get meat, Piggy dies, Sam and Eric are captured. Jack makes every effort to search for Ralph and kill him, but Sam and Eric are kind enough to tell Ralph. Finally when an officer stops by the island and sees them, no one except Ralph is able speak to him, because they have forgotten all about and civilization and themselves, which means, they have become complete savages.

    “Lord of the flies” means the king of all kinds of dirty things, which can be inferred to as the king of dirtiness and badness. The writer uses this as the book name, implying the reason the kids become savages. It shows how the crazy desire for food and blood can defeat civility. The kids are scared of the beast, which actually does not exist at all. The fear comes from deep inside their hearts, which forces them to believe the beast does exist. I feel pity for these children, they can choose to get along happily, or they can doubt each other and kill. Unfortunately they choose the latter. For example, when Simon rushed into their party eager to tell them he had seen the beast, they mistake him as the beast, and beats Simon dead. We find it unbelievable for children to murder, but it can be possible on a deserted island without civilization and discipline.

    There are some characters who have given me a deep impression. Ralph believes they will be rescued, and has a strong sense of discipline and order. On the other hand, he isn’t that good of a leader because he just commands others to do stuff but never finds fault in himself. The way he leads, the way he gives orders, may seem too strict to the littluns. He could have used a smoother and gentler approach to get the littluns used to it. Jack, shows me mostly his cruelness and bloodiness. He may be a great hunter, but cares nothing about civilization. He believes in their circumstance, only killing and eating will be essential to living. However, Jack could be a good chief on the island if only he could be less cruel. Piggy is kind, thoughtful and loyal to Ralph. He supports Ralph at almost everything and tries to stop Ralph from making some mistakes. In the end he is pushed down a cliff by Jack and dies.

     This makes me think. Keeping yourself alive and trying to escape are both essential on a deserted island, but does this need to be exchanged with the loss of humility? I mean, in the end all the children killed and forgot how to speak properly and behaved like savages, but no one told them to do so. No one taught them. There are cases that a group of people are stuck on a deserted island and finally escaped, but did they become savages? No. Why? Because they never forgot the fact that they come from a civilized world and the fact that they can be saved. And they didn’t fear the beast that was hidden inside their hearts——horror. So is that the fear or the thirst for blood and food, we don’t know.

     In all, I like this book. I like the writer’s writing styles, the sarcastic way he implies the kids’ situations and their actions. It deeply impacts and shocks my heart, and allows me to think about what my actions should be if I were to be in this kind of situation.

Tiffany’s Comments:

Overall I can see what you’re trying to say and there are just a few grammatical errors. I would have liked to see a little more structure to the essay. For example, one paragraph talking about the characters, and another talking about the theme or the title of the book etc. Good job!