Oct 05, 2009 04:43 PM
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We human beings often blame God, Religion, Countries and many such things for the differences that exist among us. But the question is, do these really form the reason that makes us quarrel among ourselves, fight and kill each other. And the answer is “NO”. It’s in our blood, it’s in our nature, it’s in our mind. Humans are given the power of thinking and no two human beings think in the same way, that’s a blessing for us, but it’s also a curse in disguise, when we use it harmfully.
“Lord of the flies” by William Golding contemplates on this truth. It’s based on author’s philosophy that “To restore principles in unprincipled world, restore belief to a world of disbelievers”. It conveys a moral message that this world is not a reasonable place we are led to believe, when power comes we all gets corrupted, and no matter where we live, even if among our very closed ones, we have to live with the Darkness of man’s heart.
About the Book :
LOTF was first published in 1957 and is now counted among the 100 best books of all times. The basic idea of small boys getting lost to an island on their own, can be said to have taken from the R. M. Ballantyne’s “Coral Island, 1857”, but other than that it differs completely from that book. Coral Island was more on romantic side where as LOTF is more realistically written.
The book has a life of around 240 pages, and it gets interesting with each page that follows. The description of the island is so minutely and perfectly done that you soon begins to visualize things before your eyes. And the horror created by words after the introduction of a beast on the island is so realistic that you feel the chill of it along with the boys.
The title “Lord of the Flies” is taken from Jewish demon called Beelzebub, who is also known as the Lord of the Flies. Appropriate one. LOTF’s made into a movie in 1963, directed by Peter Brook.
About the Author :
William Golding, a Nobel Laureate, has worked as an actor, lecturer, a small craft sailor( might have helped in writing a Sea- Trilogy), musician and a school teacher before he entered the arena of book writing. After Writing LOTF, his first book, he gave up teaching and became a full-fledged writer. He wrote 12 novels after that. He won booker prize for Rites of Passage in 1980; Nobel prize in 1983; and was awarded knighthood in 1988. He died in 1993.
Although LOTF is his best work, some of the other famous books that he had written includes: To the End of the World, The Inheritors, Rites of Passage.
About the Story :
A Nuclear war has broken out in Europe and an airplane carrying a group of children from a school to some safe place, gets attacked, crew gets killed and its passengers, all children safe in passenger tube, gets crash-landed in an island. These children then form a tribe of their own, with Ralph as chief, with mutual consent. The Story is being told from the viewpoint of Ralph, a 12 year old boy, but the oldest among them.
Everything works out fine in the earlier stages. The selection of chief by voting of full population, forming of groups one for hunting (with jack leading them), 2nd for creation of shelters, and other for keeping the fire burning on the mountain top with smoke as Signal for ships passing by, for rescue. But the disagreement between Ralph and Jack regarding the priority of jobs, difference of human minds, as Jack consider Hunting as the most important activity, while Ralph and Piggy (the most intellectual one) considers the fire signal for Rescue as the most important one.
Soon it results in formation of two separate tribes, with Jack and Ralph as chiefs. Then begin their small fights, which soon convert into deadly combats after Jack and his companions attack Ralph and Piggy in their sleep and stole piggy’s specs (most important thing on the whole island for its use for creation of fire from Sun’s rays). The Jack’s tribe becomes total savage, and finds killing a human, nothing more than killing a pig. It ends with Savage group, after killing Piggy, looking for Ralph in every nook and corner of the island.
As said by other reviewers (like Bookish), in the end pages you pray for it all to end; the cruelty, the savageness; but yes, as I was hoping while reading the last few pages it does end on a positive note. But before that do savage group succeeds in finding and killing Ralph and how it ends on the positive note, please read LOTF yourself to find out.
The world of boys on the island demonstrates that good and bad can exist side by side, in the darkness of human heart. One does not need to accept savageness even if there is no other way around. That good and the evil, the angel and the beast exist in our minds, and we are the reason for where our world is leading to.
Conclusion :
Read LOTF, if you can face the ugly side of human mind, if you can cope up with how innocence is lost and makes way for vice and inhumanness. I don’t think we can’t do it, especially in these days when terrorism and corruption are at their peaks. It is not a nice and comforting read, though it is in the starting few pages, but it indeed is a reality, a truth. A must read and I recommend it to all.
My Rating : 4.5
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Take Care and keep Reading and Writing
Vikky Gural
PYAR HUMEIN PHIR MILAAEGA.....
