LORD OF THE FLIES



Author:


William Golding

First edition:


Lord of the Flies, 1954

Main illustrators:


Lapointe


In short:


A group of children are evacuated from England in a plane. But it's war time, and the plane gets shot in the middle of the ocean. The children are left all alone in an uninhabited island. There, the boys create their own society, following the ideal novel of Ballantyne, The Coral Island, in which three children manage not only to survive but also to civilize a deserted island.
However, this ideal society degenerates from democratic and rational to tyrannical, bloodthirsty and evil. Two leaders emerge and they begin to hunt one another.
Ralph, Jack, Simon, Piggy, Roger, Bill, Robert, Harold, Henry, Sam and Eric are a few of the boys who are trapped on the island, and each one reacts to freedom and lack of rules in a different way.
"Kill the pig. Cut his throat. Bash him in". Some boys are violently killed by what supposately were their friends... Their nightmare ends up with the appearance of some adults, who take them back to England, where war is still going on.


Selection of edition:


Sa Majesté des mouches, illustrated by Claude Lapointe, Gallimard, 1982.
Sa Majesté des Mouches, illustrated by Claude Lapointe, Gallimard, 1997.


More about Lord of the Flies:


Golding's views are rather pessimistic, for in the book human nature is clearly shown to be violent. This reflects the mood of post-war. The values that the boys have been raised by turn to nothing when they are left on their own, far from the constraints of society. Golding is quite clear on this point: "Within the child are the seeds of evil that will eventually flower".

Unlike Robinson Crusoe, who is also left marooned on a desert island, Lord of the Flies shows how rationality and civilization do not rule.


Adaptations:


Being the book such a best-seller, the film versions did not take lobg to appear. The first was directed by Peter Brook in 1963, and the second, by Harry Hood, in 1990.



Critical analysis:


Marie-Hélène Weber, Robinson et robinsonnades : étude comparée de "Robinson Crusoe" de Defoe, "Le Robinson suisse" de J.R. Wyss, "L'Ile mystérieuse" de J. Verne, "Sa majesté des mouches" de W. Golding, "Vendredi ou les limbes du Pacifique" de M. Tournier, Ed. universitaires du Sud, 1993.


On the internet:


A site consacrated to Lord of the Flies