Lord of the flies --> final Entry

William Golding’s book, Lord of the flies has been adapted to a film twice. Once with his blessing in a 1963 black and white film, and then colored in 1990. We’ve now watched the oldest movie, and I though the book was best! In the movie the children are played primarily by non-actors, and I think this give the film a natural feel. But I felt that the film just rushed trough the whole story, and didn’t quite capture the whole meaning of the book. Anyhow I think the characters in the book were a lot like I’d imaged - on film.

The ending is a bit different in the film; in the book the last scene is really ironic. The ending in Lord of the Flies is not particularly happy. The officer says that he is unable to understand how upstanding British lads could have acted with such poor form. Ironically, though, this “civilized” officer is himself part of an adult world in which violence and war go hand in hand with civilization and social order. He reacts to the savage children with disgust.. Similarly, the children are so shocked by the officer’s presence, and are now psychologically so far removed from his world, that they do not instantly celebrate his arrival. Ralph, whose life has literally been saved by the presence of the ship, weeps tears of grief rather than joy. For Ralph, as for the other boys, nothing can ever be as it was before coming to the island of the Lord of the Flies.In the end of the movie, I was left feeling that the film was just about boys trying to survive on an island.

Golding shows how civilization on the island breaks down and leads to anarchy and terror "because the boys are suffering from the terrible disease of being human".

The book has a lot of symbolism and contrasts. The contrast between good and evil, kindness and cruelty, civilization and savagery, responsibility and anarchy. The good of mankind is represented by Ralph and Piggy, with the conch their symbol of authority; the evil savagery of mankind is represented by Jack and his hunters, with the beast, or "Lord of the Flies", as their symbol of savagery. The beast stands for the evil that is present in all human beings, and Simon and Piggy, or rationality, are almost helpless in its presence.
Fortunately, there is also Simon, a symbol of vision and salvation. He is able to see the beast as it really exists. Unfortunately, when he tries to bring the truth to the savage ones, he gets killed.
The novel functions throughout on a symbolic level. The boys, in their variety of personalities, symbolize mankind as a whole. Ralph is the symbol of rational, but fallible, mankind. He tries to establish an orderly society, based on rules, authority, and knowledge; but he struggles against the forces of evil (The Lord of the Flies) throughout the book. Jack, his counterpart, is the symbol of emotion and savagery. He lives for the hunt, rules as a dictator, and is guided by evil purpose.
Unfortunately, he knows the base level of human beings and successfully appeals to it through hunting, dancing, and fear. Each boy has a close follower. Ralph has Piggy, who is an intellectual and a true, wise friend; he is destroyed by the evil hunters. Jack has Roger, who in his sadistic nature has the power to destroy and he kills Piggy. Simon occupies a central position in the symbolic scheme, for he represents truth, vision, and moral understanding. Unfortunately, he is quiet and shy and has difficulty speaking out. When he does try to tell the savages the truth about the beast, they refuse to listen and literally tear him apart, as if to blot out his message.

Without parents and teachers to guide them, the boys give in to their laziness, violence, irresponsibility, and selfishness and tear apart. Their inner Beast takes over them, beginning with Jack, and that Beast drives them to more violence and less civilization.

Ironically, though, at the end of the novel, the Navy men take the boys off the war of the island and into a bigger, more "civilized" war out on the sea.