Book Review

Fiona Jackson

January 7th, 2011

Lord Of the Flies   

Written by William Golding

Lord of the Flies is a book about a group of Bristish boys who get stranded on a desert island. At first it’s all fun and games without adults or rules, but then chaos begins to set in. Kids start to disagree about major decisions, people start to become frightened and rumors begin to soar across the island. Basically, it is a story meant to show human nature. What we resort to when we are scared and in danger. But to me it seemed like there were a lot of other hidden meanings also. The main characters, (Ralph, Jack, Piggy, Simon...etc.) go through a crazy journey in which they learn a lot about each other and themselves. It’s a little old fashioned and some of the wording is a little hard to understand at first, but I think that it’s worth it to put a little thought into it.

I mostly enjoyed this book. Like I mentioned before, you have to put some thought into the book. And it gets a little bit gruesome at parts. But I thought it was a pretty good book. I definitely think that it’s worth reading. It can teach you a lot. It shows different types of leaders, how people act under pressure, when and why people respect each other, and how children's imagination’s can run wild. For example, two of the characters, Ralph and Jack, (protagonist and antagonist) are both ruled out to be leaders on the island. And they are good people to be in charge, they are natural leaders. But in very different ways. They had very different ideas and were very stubborn about them. The book taught me about respect because one of the main characters, (Piggy) was disrespected solely because he was fat and wore glasses. So, in this books world, you have to be pretty to matter. And the ironic part about that is that Piggy was the only one who was smart enough to figure things out.

Lord of the Flies was one of those books that made you never want to put it down. You would always want to know what comes next. It was interesting, horrifying, and aggravating all at once. But in a good way. That made it more fun to read, because it always left you guessing. It made you wonder if they would get rescued, if they would all survive, or if Ralph would prove to be a good leader or not.

Sometimes when I was reading this book it got so weird and wacky that I decided that I didn’t like it. But once I had read the whole book, I realized that it was worth it to get through those parts. I think that this book is a lot of things, but of those things is a good read. It is worth your time. You come to love some of the characters and hate others. You learn a lot from this book and it makes you wonder about a lot.

Overall, I liked this book and recommend it to anyone who is wondering about reading it. It taught me a lot and helped me understand human nature better. I took a lot of time thinking and analyzing this book and it was really interesting. The writing style is great, William Golding makes you feel as if you are really there on the island with them. The characters are defined well, you get a clear picture of them in your head. I hope that if you decide to read it, that you enjoy it as much as I did.