Lord of the Flies Literature Analysis

Plot Summary:

A plane full of school boys crashes on a desert island killing the adult pilots and any grown up for that matter. They nominate this tall blonde cool looking dude called Ralph for those very reasons and because he blew a conch shell that drew everyone to that spot on the beach. His advisor and brains of the island group is a boy nicknamed Piggy. Things work out well at first. They create shelters and maintain a signal fire on the top of the mountain. People are assigned to hunt under Jack as their leader.

As days turn into weeks however, things begin to degrade and soon Jack revolts and begins his own tribe at the end of the island and raids Ralph’s remaining camp for fire. Soon Ralph and Piggy are the only ones left who want to be rescued and as they attempt to reason with Jack, his tribe shoves a boulder down the path that kills Piggy. A man hunt soon begins to kill Ralph, but just as all seems lost, the British Royal Navy lands and rescues them from the island.

Theme:
            The theme of the book is the inner struggle of our beastly wants and our intellectual pursuits such as morals. This is exemplified by Simon’s talk with the boar’s head on the spear.

Tone:

            The tone can be seen as bitter and solemn as seen in the dialogue between Simon and the boar’s head and how Simon is killed in the frenzy fire and how his body drifts off to sea.

Five Literary Elements:

            Setting: The setting takes place on a desert island free of authority, needed to support/create reason for the theme of the novel.

            Symbol: The degradation and then destruction of Piggy’s glasses and then Piggy himself represents how the culture on the island is becoming more animal than human.

Tragedy: The deaths of the marked boy, Simon and then finally Piggy show how shocking the changes in the boys are over the course of the book.

Imagery: The description of the painted boys, the pig’s head and the dead parachutist all add the feel of how the island paradise is turning into a nightmare.