The philosophy that was present throughout the book and that I found most interesting is that these children get so savaged when they are torn from their natural habitat. At first it seems like a real adventure story but then there comes in a realistic twist that makes it barbaric. The realistic part is that human beings live by rules and laws, but when they fall apart the only quality humans possess is human instinct. The way I interpreted it was that Ralph represented this civilization and that Jack becomes everything but civil.
Another fact that is valuable to this book is that William Golding writes this simple story in such a way that it becomes very interesting to read.
In class we discussed what it is that creates a literary environment for young adolescents? The fact that the boys go through a psychosocial development is in my opinion one of the reasons why this is suitable for young adolescents. Civilization plays a significant role when growing up and therefore this book is precisely the kind of book young adolescents should read. The next quotation shows the mental state of Jack after he has murdered a pig, it shows the first sign of the loss of civilization: 'His mind was crowded with memories; memories of the knowledge that had come to them when they closed in on the struggling pig, knowledge that they had outwitted a living thing, imposed their will upon it, taken away its life like a long satisfying drink.' ( Golding W., Lord of the Flies, Chapter 4,1954) The start of becoming a savage is an important sign that Golding uses to try and make clear that his attempt to savagery is to object against Governmental, parental and other obligations children experience while they're growing up. ( see sources)
Another aspect that I noticed while reading this book was that the term 'Lord of the Flies' is in fact a pigs head (covered in flies) on a wooden stick as an offering to 'the beast' (again from the savage Jack). Although later on it becomes some sort of symbol when Simon sees the Lord of the Flies in his dreams and that it is telling him that evil lies within everybody. How cruel it is that Simon gets killed by the other boys when he wants to tell the other boys that 'the beast' does not exist.
I believe I can identify myself with Piggy, although this may sound strange as Piggy is a chubby boy who gets picked on. Piggy is the one boy that stays rational and is clever enough to understand and tries to fix the situation instead of playing in the lagoon. When 'the hunters' take Piggy's glasses I felt really bad for him since he cannot see anything without them and that makes Ralph's group helpless because now they cannot make fire.
The ending in my eyes was a bit strange since the fire ( that was set by Jack and the hunters to scare Ralph away from the woods) also found the eye of the officer. So it was both a good and a bad ending because Piggy and Simon were both already murdered by the other boys, but the naval officer did find them and the other boys luckily survived this. The only part I liked about the ending was that
Ralph was rescued since he was the (civil) leader from the beginning on.
Wordcount: 523
Appendix: Photograph of the word web we made about 'The Lord of the Flies'
Additional source beside class discussions and notes made during PP:
Rosenfield, C.(1961) 'Men of a smaller growth, A Psychological analysis of William Golding's Lord of The Flies' , Gale Literary Research Centre.
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