Center for Teaching & Learning

A plane full of prep school boys crashes onto an uncharted island. The pilot dies. At the realization that there are no adults anywhere on the island, the normally orderly society begins to disintegrate, as the hope of being rescued dwindles.
Lord of the Flies is dense with sensory descriptions of the tropical island, and the main characters, Ralph and Piggy. This is one of my favorite books ever because it captures the themes of friendship, leadership, and the connections—and disconnections—between society’s norms and basic human nature. Narrating in third person, Golding depicts Ralph’s original feeling of power, and, as civilization begins to crumble, his anger at Jack, another boy, for breaking off from their clan to start a wild pig-hunting tribe on the other side of the island.
The dialogue is very realistic; it sounds like kids talking to one another. Nobel-Prize winner William Golding also displays his talent for incredible visuals. His writing is almost like poetry. I could see the beach where the boys had their gatherings, the dense, dark jungle behind them, and the open ocean, where they longed for a ship to take them home.
The twists and turns in the plot of Lord of the Flies are amazing. One moment, they have seen a boat on the horizon, sprint up the mountain to try to make a flare, and the next, the vessel has vanished. Then, one of the kids thinks he has seen a beast in the water, and the boys get frightened and eventually panic.
The ending felt almost abrupt to me. I had been living inside this great story about the flaws in human nature that lead to the destruction of society, and then it ended. I wished it either were longer, or the ending didn’t come so fast.
But Lord of the Flies is still was one of the best books I have read. I would recommend it to kids who like a reading challenge, but also want a compelling adventure and the satisfaction of going inside the heads and hearts of unforgettable characters.
Jordan
Publisher:  Penguin Group, 202 pages