Quicklet on Lord of the Flies by William Golding (Book Summary)

ABOUT THE BOOK

What do you think of when you picture a group of 6 to 12-year old boys? How do you imagine their behaviors to be, and how do they interact with each other? Perhaps like most people, you may envision harmless, tame, typical playful and somewhat innocent boys, just content to play and be around each other instead of “the bossy, rule-establishing grown ups.” However, you may be surprised to find quite a drastically different group of young boys in William Golding’s Lord of the Flies, making the novel a successful—if not also controversial—work of art.

Lord of the Flies, William Golding’s first novel, was published in 1954. (www.nobelprize.org) Written in 12 chapters and in third-person narrative, it recounts the events surrounding a group of young English boys on a deserted island during World War II. Golding’s own war experience comes through in the novel as themes of the human condition, good and evil, government, and innocence stand out in rather explicit ways. Indeed the concept of original sin comes into play as the boys gradually lose their innocence and generally give into chaos and madness.

MEET THE AUTHOR

A current San Francisco Bay Area resident, Natacha Pavlov has been an avid reader and writer since her early years spent growing up in Brussels, Belgium. She earned her B.A. in Comparative World Literature from San Francisco State University and constantly flirts with the notion of earning her Master’s/PhD someday. She has French-English non-profit translation experience and looks forward to increasing her writing through various platforms in the near future. Although the list keeps growing, she has interest in reading and writing about classics, mythology (of any/all traditions), horror/gothic fiction, 18th and 19th century French novels, Middle Eastern history and politics (particularly Palestine-Israel) and early Christianity.

Fueled by her culturally diverse heritage, her educational and personal interests have led her to engage in extensive travel and to live in places such as Paris, France and Jerusalem, Israel. Amidst all, pens, papers and books have always proven loyal companions. And she won’t lie… chocolate has always helped too! She strives to keep exploring the world through books as well as further travel experiences that will ensure continued growth.
You can read about some of her experiences in Jerusalem at www.aneasterinjerusalem.blogspot.com.

EXCERPT FROM THE BOOK

Lord of the Flies tells the story of an unspecified number of young boys between the ages of 6 and 12 who—after their plane is shot down—are left alone on a deserted island. The ones named are Ralph, Piggy, Jack, twins Sam and Eric (Samneric), Simon, Maurice, Roger, Bill, Wilfred, Harold, Robert, Percival, Johnny, Henry, Phil, Walter, Stanley and the mulberry-marked boy. To maintain order on the adult-free island, a leader named Ralph is elected, who in turn chooses Jack, a bully, to rule over the hunters-to-be choir boys. Piggy, the fat socially-challenged kid who everyone teases, finds a conch that is used to call everyone to assemblies and to identify the person holding the conch as the sole speaker during meetings. Soon after, Ralph starts a fire in hopes of sending out a rescue signal, but which gets out of hand and leads to the disappearance of a littlun. As time passes, Jack becomes increasingly savage, thirsting for blood and wanting to hunt down a pig. Jack eventually leads the boys on such a hunting expedition and comes back with a pig.

BOOK OUTLINE
+About the Book
+About the Author
+Synopsis
+Key Terms and Definitions
+Chapter-By-Chapter Commentary & Summary
+Additional Resources