When we are stranded on an island with no shelter and not many provided resources, we might have to make some very hard decisions, and we will face challenging situations, but we must overcome them in order to survive. In Lord of the Flies by William Golding, a group of boys is stuck on an island by themselves, and try to make it out alive. At first, the boys are enjoying life without rules and adults telling them what to do, but soon afterward, they didn’t know what to do with this sudden freedom. After a while, it was getting hard to live without a leader, so jack and Ralph both try to prove worthy of being the leader. Then, the main characters think there is a beast in the woods, and do all kinds of weird things just to get rid of it, accidentally killing one of their friends in the process. After many hard days, and a couple of fights for the leadership role, another one of the friends died. It was getting hard to survive, but they couldn’t give up. There is a forest fire and Ralph finds a man who has transportation back to society. When asked what happened, Ralph broke down and the rest of the boys arrived. Knowing they will be rescued, they realized how hard it was throughout the entire journey and that they were safe, at last.
Even in the kindest people lurks an indescribable darkness that can be brought out during specific events. In Lord of the Flies, the main characters’ evil sides are shown while they are trying to survive. In chapter 8, when the boys killed the sow, we can see that this is a completely barbaric action that is neither civilized nor justifiable. Sometimes, people are just doing these things out of fear. We know that the main characters used to think there was a beast in the forest, and because they were scared of that beast, they decided to do a reckless thing in order to show that they were brave. This sounds terrible, but this is a normal occurrence in everyday life. People can do mean things for a completely insane reason, but that’s life. The Lord of the Flies was not an actual beast, but it was the beast inside of Simon, and is similar to the beast inside of everyone else. This monster is completely inside our heads, but it makes us do bad things without even realizing the consequences. For example, Jack did very violent things just to be in charge, which might have been because of his inner evil. Although there is a dark side of human nature, and we should acknowledge it, that doesn’t mean we should embrace it as part of us.
People who are civilized would act very differently from people who are barbaric in the same situation. At the beginning of the story, all the main characters were civilized, while towards the end, they became much more barbaric. Civilized people follow rules and laws, while barbaric people are too busy hunting for food or killing animals to think about rules. The two main leaders in the story, Jack and Ralph, both categorize indifferent sections. Well Jack leads the group to hunt animals, a very barbaric action, Ralph tries to set up bonfires or find a way to get back to society. Although being civilized is safer, sometimes barbaric actions can help us sooner. Getting help in a civilized way like Ralph did might take some time to be effective, while Jack is taking the boys hunting, which is an immediate source of food, that can keep them alive longer. When these two categories are combined, it would be much easier to survive. However, civilized actions are not usually mixed with barbaric actions because people tend to think that it is just not right to have civilized people be allies with people who are supposedly out of their minds. For example, the guy that rescued the boys was civilized, and he could tell that the main characters were not exposed to human contact for a very long time. Even though this is true, he was able to help them, showing that civilization is still necessary in everyone's life.
From the beginning of the novel to the end, many of the characters changed perspectives and personalities. Some of these changes are for good, while others are for the worse. One of the changes that significantly impacted the story were the deaths of two of the main characters. Although the boys were able to be rescued, this leaves us to think about what would have happened if everyone survived. One thing the boys lost was their innocence. They had to learn how to survive on bare scraps, and to work for their food. They had no supervision, and no experience whatsoever. Although this is a bad thing, the boys also learned many life skills that they can use later on in their lives. For example, they have become more independent and know how to work for what they want. Sometimes, loss of innocence can actually help someone in the strangest ways. Although these changes were not that visible throughout the story, it is quite obvious in the end that the boys came out of the island much different than how they were when they went in.
In conclusion, Lord of the Flies by William Golding talks about a group of boys being stranded on an island and doing their best to survive. This story has a happy ending, but we still grieve for the characters who passed away on this journey. This story is quite complicated and can be hard to understand, but it teaches us many life lessons such as working in a group and not being selfish. The novel gives us things to reflect on, and shows that we should never give up no matter how hard the circumstance may be. Lord of the Flies is an amazing representation of realistic fiction novels, because although this story has some unrealistic details, most of the story is told in a way like it has actually happened in real life. Although there is not a sequel, we can still imagine what will happen to the boys once they return to society and how their lives will change after their adventure. This story has many themes such as civilization and the darkness in everyone, and these themes show us how the story has been impacted by such. Especially in chapter 8, when we are presented with so many symbols, such as the Lord of The Flies. This story is an amazing novel to read, and it has taught us many things.
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