Introduction to Lord of the Flies

1) Introduction to Lord of the Flies

-Plot overview

      The book starts with a crashing of a plane escaping from the war when it was unfortunately shot down by the enemy's warplane. Two boys, Ralph and Piggy who were the first to meet, used a conch they found to call on the other survivors on the island. Soon, everyone met up and they appointed Ralph as their leader, and Jack, who was in charge of the choir ensemble, to be responsible for the hunting of food. When they explored the island and found out they were alone, they decided to start a fire, using its smoke as a signal to alert passerby of their existence on the island. 
      Ralph decides that whoever holds the conch would be allowed to speak and nobody was to interrupt him. However, rivalry sparked between Ralph and Jack when their ideas of what to do did not match one another, with Ralph wanting to be rescued, while Jack only wants to have fun on the island. When the boys lighted the first fire, they did not think it through and had a part of the forest burnt down, even seemingly killing one of the younger boy. Also, because of Jack's immaturity and his strong desire to hunt, he let the fire out when there was a ship that passed by, wasting a chance for the boys to get rescued and further increasing the tension between Jack and Ralph.
     Furthermore, the boys began to ignore Ralph's orders, and only wanted to do what they felt like doing, leaving the work to Simon, Ralph and Piggy to do. Jack was also usually the one who influenced the other boys to do what they wanted e.g. Jack bringing his hunters to hunt even when they were not tasked to. 
    The 'beastie', the imaginary creature that was started by the younger boy who had a birthmark on his face and had went missing in the fire was also a key factor of why most of the boys submitted into savagery.  The 'beastie' was started by the younger boys who had nightmares about the 'beastie'. Although the nightmares was dismissed by the older boys, it still lingered on in their mind. The beastie played a bigger role in the later parts of the story when it was believed by the boys that it actually existed due to the twins Sam and Eric who had mistakenly thought they saw the beastie when it was actually just casualty of war. There was a actually a dogfight happening above the island that caused the parachutist to land on the island.
This led Jack to form a new tribe of hunters and organize a hunting expedition to search for the 'beastie'. Jack also believed that the 'beastie' would stay away from them as long as they offered a sacrifice, in which case would be a pig's head. This later caused the discovery by Simon that the 'beastie' does not actually exist and that it was the fear in every boy's heart. However, he was brutally killed the boys when he was mistaken to be the beast when the boys were doing a chant.
Ralph and Piggy, who tried to reason with Jack and his new formed tribe met a disaster when Roger, who was the most violent of them all, rolled down a boulder crushing Piggy and the conch, signifying Ralph that he has no power. Ralph was forced to escape from the rest of the boys, which led to him hiding deep in the forest. The boys were finally found when officers were on the island due to the forests being burnt down by the boys in search of Ralph.

-Main characters

• Ralph. A determined leader who knows his priorities and tries very hard to set it straight with the other boys. He was also the first person to blow on the conch, which later led to him being chosen as a leader. However, he lacked the charisma and did not manage to inspire others with his own vision. In the end, his leadership was stolen. 

• Jack. The leader of his choir ensemble. He is not afraid to share his opinions but isn't able to take feedback from others and accept other people's views, especially those who he thinks he is superior to, namely Piggy. He is ignorant and only likes to have fun, and his desire to hunt and kill later led to him being one of the first of many to turn to savagery. Ralph's leadership was taken over by him when he felt that Ralph had no rights to order him around.

• Piggy. An overweight boy who suffers from asthma. He is an orphan who was taken in by his auntie. He is very smart and usually assists Ralph in making ideas and solutions to his problems. However, he is often dismissed and made fun of because of his size and nickname. He is the most mature out of everyone stuck on the island, having the same or better mentality than Ralph. He was the one who had the idea to use the conch to draw everyone's attention on the island to them, and was the one who thought of making a meeting.

• Simon. He is a boy suffering from fainting spells that occurred plenty of times in the story. He does not share his views often in meetings and is a quiet boy. He is very caring as he cares for the younger boys and often helps Ralph and Piggy with whatever they set out to do when the other boys went to have fun.

• Sam and Eric. The twins are always together and sides with Ralph until the very end. They were also the boys who made the older boys believe that there was a real 'beastie' living on the island. At the end, they were forced to join Ralph's tribe as the other boys had hurt the twins. However, they still tried to help Ralph in escaping from the other boys.

-Setting of the story

-This story takes place on an uninhabited island during World War 2. The island had a beach, and the water drew to a point at infinity. There were coarse grass and upheavals trees and the water was shallow. The water was clear with shades of blue, green and purple. During the day, the island was very beautiful, but during the night it turns into a darker and scarier nightmare.