Lord of the Flies

World is full of all kind of books: big, small, old, new, paperback or hardback. Even though we all know the saying ''don't judge a book by its cover'', we still very often buy book because of its look, size or recommendations. Of course we all have different preferences. However, I can't understand when people say that the bigger the book, the better it's going to be. I've learned over some time that often the most extraordinary story can hide in a tiny or old and poorly looking book. This exactly describes the books in which I found some of my favourite stories. So I want to share with you my thoughts on one of my most recent but already beloved discovery.

Lord of the Flies by William Golding (1954)

In 1940 when England entered World War II William Golding joined Royal Navy. This fact is very important because Golding's experience in WWII had effect on the way he saw the world. His service and all the events that happend over that period of his life inspired him to write his first novel Lord of the Flies.

 

Lord of the Flies tells a story of a group of English boys marooned on an island after their plane was shot down during a war. Boys are alone, there are no grownups who can help them in this difficult situation, so they have to create a new world and life for themselves. 

That's when boys show to each other how different they are. This leads to dividing into fractions. While some behave peacefully and work together, others rebel and seek only anarchy and violence. The protagonist Ralph together with Piggy and some of their followers are trying to create a nice and peacefull place to live, they are making some rules to keep everything in order. However, Jack and his followers care only about freedom, wild life and after some time they start behaving outrageously. 

At some points story gets so intense that while reading I even needed to but book aside and take a deep breath. Cruelty is desribed with all the details.

 Although the novel is fictional, author wrote it to show real-life brutality of WWII. But in my opinion, it not only represents WWII, but our modern-day society as well. Especially differences between people.

There are some people like Ralph, who want to make world a better place to live. They try not for themselves, but for others. Peace, kindness, loyalty are very important to them. Unfortunately, only minority of our population behave this way.

The majority of human beings are like Jack. They seek for power and attention, but they don't want to use it for good purposes, all they care is their image in society.

Also there are people like Piggy, who are kind, inteligent, always trying to help, but most of the time nobody wants to listen to them, usually they are outcasted.

What I have learned from this novel is that we are destroying our world, we cause so much damage because of our behaviour and the way we see the world. We don't need to look for enemies or beasts, because the most horrible ones hide deep in our souls, that is why we forget what is truly valuable.

My favourite quotes:

• “Maybe there is a beast… maybe it's only us.”  
• “The thing is - fear can't hurt you any more than a dream.” 
• “The greatest ideas are the simplest.” 
• “People don't help much.”
• “This made you think; because thought was a valuable thing, that got results.”

 

Another point I want to talk about is movies based on Lord of the Flies. Books and movies are inseparable these days, but I'm extremely sceptical when it comes to movies based on books. In my opinion, if someone is making a movie and their inspiration is the book they must tell a story as it's written in a book. I hate when producers keep the main idea, but their plot gets very different compared to the book.

There are two movies based on this novel and I want to talk about them shortly

Lord of the Flies by Peter Brook (1963) Watch it here

 Even though I mentioned that I don't really like movies based on books, but this one actually was really great. First thing I liked is that this movie was made by English producer and actors were English boys. Ir reflected characters in the book perfectly: the language, the manners, their conversations about afternoon tea were just like in the book. Two more things that I loved were pictures which were shown at the very beginning, it made this story extremely realistic and other is moments with sound of the flies troughout the movie. That sound made it impossible to forget what book adaptation that film was.

Lord of the Flies by Harry Hook (1990) Watch it here

This movie I didn't enjoy at all. I didn't like that boys were American, the way they spoke and cursed a lot didn't pictue the book at all. And plot itself wasn't really like in the book, it had quite a lot of differences which I didn't like at all.

There was one thing that was not included in any of these films. The boy with the mulberry-colored birthmark is not in the film. The first big fire that destroys the trees on one side of the mountain does not occur. And while reading a book we can understand that this little boy dies in the flames. In my opinion, it is quite an important scene, because it was like the beginning of all those horrible events.

What I understood once again is that any movie can't make you feel the way book does.

All in all, I recommend this book to everyone, because it's such a masterpiece.