Lord Of The Flies Annotated Bibliography

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Annotated Bibliography: Lord of the Flies, by William Golding

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Significance of title: The Lord of the Flies means the Devil.

Author: William Golding

What's important about the Author?: The author, William Golding, released Lord of the Flies a short time after he fought in World War II. During World War II he saw the effects and after effects of combat which influences his writing. Golding wrote Lord of the Flies as a citizen of England which took place from the scene of the nuclear war in England.

Plot:

1. An evacuating plane of school boys is shot down, and stranded on a tropical island. There they discover a conch and appoint Ralph as the leader and Jack as the hunter.

2. Ralph, Jack, and Simon scout the island and decide to build a fire signal. With little interest in maintaining a fire they become careless and cause a large pile of dead wood to burn wildly. Also one of the smallest boys from the group mysteriously vanishes.

3. The majority of the group is happy to be living without any adults and horsing around all day, but Ralph takes responsibility and complains that they should build shelter and attempt maintain their fire signal. The hunters return empty handed on their first attempt at fresh meat.

4. A ship is sighted, but Piggy and Ralph notice that the fire signal has gone out. Raging with angry, Ralph wishes to blame Jack, but he had just caught his first kill. Piggy is not impressed with Jack and criticizes him but Jack slaps him across the face.

5. Ralph calls a meeting by blowing the conch and soon it becomes apparent that the little boys also known as "littluns" are being troubled by nightmares of wild and savage beasts or monsters. The older boys try to be reasonable and ask where such a beast would hide during the day when a "littlun" suggests that it is hiding in the sea-this abruptly terrifies the entire group of stranded boys.

6. After the meeting when all the boys are asleep, there is a battle going on high above the island. A dead parachutist drifts to earth while Sam and Eric are sleeping on their watch duty. When they wake up they are terrified when they see the parachute's enormous silhouette in the dark making strange flapping noises. They mistake the parachutist for the beast and rush back to camp reporting that they have been attacked.

7. The boys send a team of explorers to search for the beast. Ralph and Jack spot the parachute and misinterpret it to be a deformed ape. When reporting back to the rest of the group Jack claims that Ralph is a coward and should be sacked, but the other boys refuse to side with Jack. Boiling with anger Jack calls his hunters to join him as he runs down the beach. Ralph gathers the remaining boys and orders them to construct a signal fire on the beach instead of the mountain, but before the task is complete Ralph and Piggy are the only two boys that remain in the original group.

8. Jack becomes the leader of his new tribe of hunters and organizes a hunt to go after the sow. The sow's is killed and it's head is proped on a sharpened stake in the jungle as an offering to the beast. Later Simon confronts the fly covered head and has a terrible vision in which the head seems to be speaking. In this vision the voice belongs to the Lord of the Flies. It says that Simon cannot escape him, because he exists in all men. Simon then faints. After waking up Simon goes to the mountain and discovers the dead parachutist. He then realizes that the monster exists within the boys, but not in reality. Simon rushes back to the group where even Ralph and Piggy have joined in on Jack's feast. Seeing Simon's shadowy figure causes the boys to panic and kill the figure with their bare hands and teeth what they believed was the beast, but is the poor body of Simon.

9. Jack's hunters later attack the remaining members of Ralph's group and steal Piggy's glasses in the process. Ralph's group travels to Jack's lair to try and reason with Jack. But Jack orders Sam and Eric to be tied up and then fights with Ralph. Jack's hunter, Rodger, then rolls a boulder down the mountain and crushes Piggy along with the conch. Ralph is then barely able to evade the torrent of spears and make it out alive.

10. The next day Ralph hides while the hunters go on a manhunt looking for him. Jack then orders the hunters to ignite a fire to draw out Ralph, but Ralph stays in the forest and destroys the sow's head. Eventually Ralph is forced onto the beach and collapses in exhaustion. When Ralph looks up there is a British naval officer who noticed the large fire that had spread across the island. The British officer is amazed by the group of savage boys and asks for an explanation. Ralph is incredibly lucky that he is safe, but begins to cry after thinking about what has happened on the tropical island. The other boys begin weeping as well and the British officer turns his back so that the boys can let it all out.

Theme(s): Civilization vs. Savagery- The entire story has the theme of living like a well organized civilization or becoming wild and savage-like. This conflict exists within all human beings and can be expressed in numerous ways: good vs. evil, order vs. chaos, the civil life vs. the savage life.

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