Sir William Golding CBE FRSL

Best known for writing The novel Lord of the Flies, the Nobel Prize-winning British author playwright and poet sir William Golding CBE FRSL sadly died 19 June 1993. He was born 19 September 1911 and published another eleven novels in his lifetime. In 1980, he was awarded the Booker Prize for Rites of Passage, the first novel in what became his sea trilogy, To the Ends of the Earth. He was awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1983. As a result of his contributions to literature, Golding was knighted in 1988. He was a fellow of the Royal Society of Literature. In 2008, The Times ranked Golding third on their list of “The 50 greatest British writers since 1945

Lord of the Flies was first published 17 September 1954. The book focuses on a group of British boys stranded on an uninhabited island after a British aeroplane crashes in a remote region of the Pacific Ocean. The only survivors include Two boys—the fair-haired Ralph and an overweight, bespectacled boy nicknamed “Piggy”— who find a conch, which Ralph uses as a horn to convene all the survivors to one area. Ralph is optimistic, believing that grown-ups will come to rescue them but Piggy realizes the need to organize: And Ralph is elected “chief”.

Meanwhile The members of a boys’ choir, led by the red-headed Jack Merridew, form a separate clique of hunters. Ralph establishes three primary policies: to have fun, to survive, and to constantly maintain a smoke signal that could alert passing ships to their presence on the island and thus rescue them. The boys establish a form of democracy by declaring that whoever holds the conch shall also be able to speak at their formal gatherings and receive the attentive silence of the larger group. Jack organises his choir into a hunting party responsible for discovering a food source. Ralph, Jack, and a quiet, dreamy boy named Simon soon form a loose triumvirate of leaders with Ralph as the ultimate authority. The boys discover fruit and wild pigs for food and use Piggy’s spectacles to create a fire.

Sadly, Despite this promising start the situation gradually get worse and The semblance of order quickly deteriorates as the majority of the boys turn idle. Piggy is quickly made into an outcast by the older boys. Simon, in addition to supervising the project of constructing shelters, feels an instinctive need to protect the “littluns” (younger boys). The older boys give little aid in building shelters, spend their time having fun and begin to develop paranoias about the island. Jack, who has started a power struggle with Ralph, gains a level of control over the group. A ship travels by the island, however the signal fire goes out and vessel continues without stopping. Ralph angrily confronts Jack about his failure to maintain the signal. Jack assaults Piggy, breaking his glasses. Piggy persuades Ralph to remain leader in order to protect him from Jack.

One night, an aerial battle occurs near the island while the boys sleep, during which a fighter pilot ejects from his plane and dies in the descent. the twins Sam and Eric, now assigned to the maintenance of the signal fire, find the dead pilot. Later Jack leads Ralph and Roger, to explore the other side of the island, where they discover a mountain of stones, Castle Rock, and they also discover the dead parachutist” Jack then tries unsuccessfully to turn the others against Ralph, before forming his own tribe. Roger and the older boys abandon Ralph to join Jack’s tribe. Jack’s tribe continues to lure recruits from the main group by promising feasts of cooked pig. Jack’s tribe begin to paint their faces and enact bizarre rites, including sacrifices to the beast.

Ralph and Piggy decide to go to one of Jack’s feasts and witness Jack and his followers conducting a sacrifice to the imaginary Beast who rules the island whom he dubs “Lord of the Flies”. The boys start displaying feral, warlike behaviour as any semblance of order breaks down. Then When Simon discovers the truth behind “The Beast” he finds himself in great danger from the other tribe members. Jack and his rebel tribe steal Piggy’s glasses the only means the boys have of starting a fire. Ralph, journeys to Castle Rock to confront Jack over Piggy’s glasses accompanied by Piggy, Sam, and Eric. However the tribe capture and bind the twins under Jack’s command. Then Ralph confronts Jack, while Roger confronts Piggy with tragic consequences. Ralph manages to escape, but Sam and Eric are tortured by Roger until they agree to join Jack’s tribe. Sam and Eric warn Ralph that Jack and Roger intend to hunt him and behead him. Jack orders his tribe to begin a hunt for Ralph and Ralph faces a fight for survival as he tries to escape Jack’s rampaging savages.