Golding, William - Lord of the flies

Lord of the Flies - William Golding

Chapter one: The Sound of the Shell

After an air crash, a group of young English schoolboys land on an Pacific island. They were to be saved from a nuclear war, but their aircraft crashed. All the boys are scattered over the island. It is a beautiful scenery with many fruits and coconut palms.

Two young boys, a fat one named Piggy and a fair boy named Ralph, meet each other and consider what they have to do. Piggy, the fat boy is a very reasonable person while Ralph only wants fun. While they walk round the island they find a shell in a lagoon. Piggy has the idea that they can blow into the shell and that will make a loud noise and call the other scattered boys. By and by the other boys arrive, at last a choir with their leader named Jack. All boys decide to elect a chief. Ralph wins the election. Jack envies Ralph because of his new chief position. But Ralph says to Jack that the choir still belongs to him. And Jack calls his group „The Hunters“.

Three of the boys, Ralph, Jack and Simon, want go on an expedition and find out if this is an island or mainland. As they come to the mountain they see that it is indeed an island. At their return they see a pig but nobody has the courage to kill it.

Chapter two: Fire on the Mountain

After the three boys have returned to the platform where the other boys are, they give a report about their expedition. Then all boys arrange important arrangements and rules. The most important rule is that the one who holds the shell in his hand during the meeting has the right to speak. Then a little boy says that he has seen a beast and the little boys are afraid of these monster. But Ralph calms them down and says that there is no beast. But they don`t believe him. Then Ralph says that his father works in the army and if they make a big fire on the top of the mountain a ship would see it and his father would save him and the other boys. They run on the mountain and make a big fire. They light the fire with Piggy`s glasses. Very quickly the big fire burns down. A glimmer sets the mountain on fire but they can escape.

Chapter three: Huts on the Beach

Jack wants some meat to eat and hunts pigs in the jungle. He sees a pig but he can not kill it, he only wounds it with his spear. When he comes back to the beach he finds Ralph and Simon who are building several huts for shelter. Two huts are in position, but shaky, and the other one is only a ruin. Ralph is very angry about Jack because he does not help him and has fun going hunting. The other boys already have left him and they are bathing, or eating, or playing.

Chapter four: Painted Faces and Long Hair

The boys are between six and twelve years old. The smallest boys are called the „littleuns“ and the older boys are called the „biguns“. Ralph is the oldest boy followed by Simon, Robert, Maurice and Jack. Two boys, Roger and Maurice get bored and destroy the sand castles of the littleuns. Roger also throws stones at Henry. Jack and the „Hunters“ prepare themselves for hunting. They paint their faces black and it looks like a war mask. Meanwhile Ralph, Simon and Piggy are having a bath in the cold water. Suddenly Ralph sees smoke of a ship at the horizon. But immediately he sees that the fire on the mountain is not burning and he runs quickly to the fireplace on the mountain; Simon and Piggy follow him. As they come to the fireplace, the fire has gone out. After some time the hunters come back. They carry a dead pig which is bleeding heavily. Ralph is very angry about the hunters because they left the fire alone. He cries that he saw a ship but it could not see the smoke, because the fire has gone out. Jack answers that he is hungry and that he wants pig meat to eat and not only fruit and fish. Then Piggy criticizes Jack and Jack knocks him down. The result is that Piggy`s specs fall on the ground and one glass breakes. After that Jack apologizes for his bad behaviour and that he left the fire alone. Ralph is very upset and sits on the ground and says nothing. The boys light the fire and grill the pig. Then they all eat the grilled pig all together and after that Ralph proposes a meeting to rearrange the rules.

Chapter five: Beast from Water

Ralph wants to arrange ananother meeting, but this meeting must not be fun, but business. He wants to agree on the rules again because the community is falling apart and he wants to put things in order. But at the end of the meeting they discuss the beast, because some boys, especially the littleuns are afraid of the beast from the water, which a little boy allegedly saw. Then Piggy takes the conch and shouts at the congregation that everything is in a muddle and that nobody is keeping the rules they have agreed upon. Jack disdains the rules and shouts at Piggy although Piggy is holding the conch in his hand. The littleuns are screaming because they are afraid of the beast and of this bad situation. - The meeting breaks up in chaos. All boys, except Ralph, Piggy and Simon, are going to hunt the beast. Ralph even considers to give up being chief. The three boys are very anxious about the community

Chapter six: Beast from Air

In the following night, while the boys are sleeping, a dead pilot hanging on his parachute lands on the island. Probably he was launched by an air battle. The wind drags the pilot and the parachute across the rocks till the parachute lays huddled among the scattered rocks of the mountains top. The twins , Sam and Eric (Samnerics), are sleeping on the top of the mountain. In theory one should be asleep and one on watch. They wake up and look around. Suddenly one of the boys sees the dead body of the pilot and thinks it`s the beast. The two boys run to the camp where the other boys are and report the horrible story that they saw the beast. The biguns decide to search for the beast and kill it. But they don`t find it but a rocky place to build a fort. They forget the beast in excitement of exploration and the hunting corporation breaks up. Ralph commands to light the fire on the mountain on again.

Chapter seven: Shadows and Tall Trees

The biguns continue to search for the beast. They see a pig and Ralph can hurt it with his spear, but Jack gets wounded by the pig during the hunt. All boys are very excited because of the wounded pig. Ralph is very proud of his heroic attack of the pig and the boys discuss this exciting experience. Then they encircle Robert, one of the younger boys, and imitate the hunt- scene. But it gets serious; Jack almost hurts Robert with his knife. But still nothing dangerous happens. The boys decide to continue the hunt, but in the evening only Ralph, Jack and Roger continue to search for the beast. The three boys climb onto the mountain and see the dead body of the pilot, rocking in the wind. They think it`s the beast and run down the mountain to the camp in panic where the other boys are waiting.

Chapter eight: Gift for the Darkness

The next morning Jack calls a meeting again and asks who wants Ralph not to be a chief because Ralph is a coward and not a proper chief. But the meeting does not vote out Ralph and so Jack declares himself and his hunters independent of the rest and runs away. He arranges a new meeting with his hunters on the other side of the island and decides to hunt. Ralph and the remaining boys decide to make the fire on the beach and not on the mountain any more because of the beast which lives over there. Ralph and Piggy are very anxious about this new situation but they think they could survive without Jack and his choir. Meanwhile the hunters are hunting a big pig and decide to invite all boys to a feast. Jack cuts off the head of the beast and sticks it on a stick as a sacrifice for the beast. After that they want to light a fire to roast the pig but they have nothing to light the fire. They decide to attack the other boys and get some burning branches. They run to the camp with painted faces and take some burning branches and invite them all to their feast. All boys accept this invitation. During this time Simon is alone walking through the jungle and as he sees the head of the dead pig, sticking on a stick, he dreams a horrible nightmare in which the pig head speaks to him.

Chapter nine: A view to a Death

While the other boys are eating the roasted pig, Simon finds the dead pilot hanging with his parachute in the trees. He decides to report to the others what he has seen and runs to the fire where the other boys are celebrating. As Simon comes out of the jungle to the platform, the boys are dancing a hunt dance. They encircle him and he has to imitate the pig. He shouts something about a dead body, but the tribe does not take any notice of his warnings and dances round him. Some boys take their spears and hurt him with them by mistake and Simon dies. The boys don`t realize that Simon is dead and continue celebrating their feast.

Chapter ten: The Shell and the Glasses

The next day Piggy and Ralph and some littleuns are sitting on the beach where the huts are standing. Ralph and Piggy are very affected by this accident. The hunters are still on the other side of the island in their new castle rock. They want to grill a killed pig but they have nothing to light the fire. So they decide to attack the others once again and rob Piggy`s glasses. In the following night they carry out their plan and rob Piggys spectacles after a violent fight against Ralph and Piggy.

Chapter eleven: Castle Rock

The next day Piggy is very angry about the hunters because now he can hardly see and besides they only had to ask for fire. The four boys, Ralph,Piggy and the twins Samnerics decide to get Piggy`s glasses back. As they come to the castle rock there is a hard fight between Ralph and Jack. Jack hates Ralph because he tries to convince the other boys to come back to his camp. Jack commands his tribe to kidnap the twins Samnerics and make them join his tribe. Meanwhile Roger rolls a big rock down the mountain. The rock takes Piggy with it and Piggy smashes on a rock in the water. While some hunters are torturing the twins, the rest of the tribe hunts Ralph through the jungle. Some spears hit him and he gets wounded, but he escapes.

Chapter twelve: Cry of the Hunters Now Ralph has to run for his own life. The hunters spread out in a line across the island and track him down. But he hides in the jungle and defends himself with a spear. The hunters have no chance to catch him and so they light the jungle in which he is hiding. But the whole mountain catches fire and Ralph runs to the beach where he falls on the sand. As he looks up he sees an officer who says to him after some questions: „We will take you off“ And so all boys are rescued

The end