Plot: By: William Golding
plot summary- As the war is raging on, schoolboys from England were traveling in a plane together when suddenly the plane was shot down. There was only one adult on board, the pilot who, sadly, did not make it. Ralph, the chief of the group, and piggy were seen first on the island. We then meet the rest of the boys who are identified throughout the text as “hunters” and “littleuns.” After expedition of the island, they decide that in order to be rescued, they had to light a fire that was seen for miles in order for ships to see it as they pass by. As they light the fire, one of the little boys, could not be found later, was presumed burned to death in the wildfire. One day, as the boys are messing around on the island, a ship passes by, and unfortunately, the fire went out because of the hunters paying more attention to slaughtering a pig. Turmoil starts to gather between the boys because of this. The topic of a beast arises in the little ones. That same night, a battle takes place above the boys sleeping and one man parachutes down onto the island. Because of this, the twin boys, Eric and Sam report that the beast attacks them, which was only because they were terrified of the sound of the parachute flapping in the wind. Jack, deemed himself the leader of the group of hunters, kill a pig and put its head on a steak. When Simon comes back to the pig, the head was crawling with flies and apparently it speaks to him. Simon, seeing a vision of the Lord of the Flies, comes to an understanding that the beast is not a real thing, it is merely inside each and every one of them. When Simon returns home, they see a shadowy figure in the distance, and kill him with their bare hands and teeth. Realizing what they had done, Ralph and Piggy go after Jack and his goonies, when Jack orders Roger to push a boulder off of the cliff, killing Piggy as well. Ralph runs to hide from Jack and his pals. Jack lit up the entire island’s forrest in fire to push ralph to the beaches to escape. This, in turn, ended up helping Ralph when a British naval officer is standing on the island because of the massive amount of smoke on the island. The officer asks what happened on the island, and all of the boys began to weep at the horror that took place.
A discussion of why we should think differently about this book and how it may seem irrelevant to today’s kids
This book is one that is taught in many classrooms across the county. Although, there is a lot about the novel that I think should not be included in modern classrooms. For example, working together towards a common goal is a piece of socialization that a lot of teachers strive for. This book, however, shows us the opposite. It shows us that working together can turn into chaos and mass destruction. We are shown a group of young men that needed to work together to survive, yet, they still were not able to do it, even if it meant life or death. This is not something that we want our students learning
A discussion of how you could teach this differently to make it more relevant to students. Think about current social issues, as well as about adolescent development
One social issue that comes to mind is the issue on race. Racial segregation, whether intentional or not, is still happening in classrooms. People tend to herd towards people that are similar to them, thus the separation. This book shows us that, in certain situations, we will be forced to work with people of different races, ethnicities, and backgrounds. We have to be able to put aside our differences and work together as a functional group. This can be references to future jobs, further education, and even sporting teams. It is important that we teach this book because, although it is one with a rather sad outcome, the kids were forced to work with each other and that might happen in our future lives.
Theme #1: Evil
The book being centered around children speaks a lot about the evil within ourselves. The beginning of the book shows us Ralph, who like the others, wants to maintain a just society with a hierarchy built in and one with which rules are followed and balance is maintained. All is going well amongst the kids, until disagreement strikes and power hunger begins to form inside of them. The fighting, power hunger, and real hunger mixed together served as a recipe for disaster, especially for Piggy who did not make it off the island. They were faced with a situation they were not prepared for and had to answer questions that they were never prepared to ask. Thus, the killing of Piggy came at no surprise. The inherent evil within us when we are asked to make decisions about our wellbeing vs others is a major theme of the book. This was a learning point for the kids as well because they will forever remember the “savagery” they had to turn to and the mistakes they made due to lack of humility.
“Maybe there is a beast… Maybe it’s only us” (189).
“And in the middle of them, with filthy body, matted hair, and unwiped nose, Ralph wept for the end of innocence, the darkness of a man’s heart..” (202). “Which is better– to have rules and agree, or to hunt and kill,” (180).
Middle School Connections: Puberty. Puberty is a word that is essentially banned from the mouths of our young adolescents, but it is a topic that is of the utmost importance in middle schools. Kids are going through so many phases, and often when one student is struggling, they lash out in hostile ways instead of talking through their issues to gain a better understanding. We need to have those conversations with our students as well as their care givers because of the evil acts taking place instead of the healthy conversations.
https://www.gse.harvard.edu/news/ed/19/01/girlhood- This is a link to a resource that talks about why middle school girls are still struggling in the classroom. As a side note, I would like to point out that this topic can be discussed with the boys too, because they are going through just as many changes as the girls are.
Theme #2: Peer Pressure
We all know that peer pressure happens, and it happens to everyone no matter how hard we try. But what we need to make clear to our kids is the importance of doing the right thing when pressured to do something else. This is apparent in Lord of the Flies when the hunters started to kill more than survive. The thrill of the hunt and the love for being more powerful than their prey was the mentality of Jack and the hunters. As the story progresses, we are faced with most of the kids who are on Jack’s side of savagery and killing one of their own, rather than the other side of doing what was right all along. The peer pressure of survival was too great for most of the kids, and for that their innocence was taken from them.
“Kill the pig. Cut her throat. Spill her blood.”
“… the mask was a thing on its own, behind which Jack hid, liberated from shame and self-consciousness” (60)
“Memory of the dance that none of them had attended shook all four boys convulsively” (148).
Middle School Connections: peer pressure, no matter the form, is happening to our students in more ways than even when we all grew up. There are so many pressures from social media, from other peers, and even from some care givers that are pressuring our students to look a certain way, act a certain way, and be a part of certain groups/crowds. Insecurities are running wild throughout the middle school ages because of the hormonal changes that are taking place throughout their bodies, therefore it is easy to want to look “cool” in front of our peers to gain social acceptance. Teachers, administrators, and care givers should be extremely cautious about how they react to their students’ actions regarding peer pressure. We should be extremely cautious and informing about the effects of peer pressure on our kids.
https://www.uofmhealth.org/health-library/abl0972- This is a resource on how to navigate around kids and peer pressure.
Connections to current events: One current event that comes to mind relating to Lord of the Flies is the storming of the capital. Racial segregation, and segregation in a general sense, is still happening to our country today. Claiming that it is not, is ignorant to the events happening around us. Violence amongst different peer groups seems to be popping up lately, especially with the election being close by.
https://time.com/5929978/the-u-s-capitol-riot-was-years-in-the-making-heres-why-america-is-so-divided/- This is a link to an article about why we are still divided today.
https://drwendyjames.com/the-psychology-of-mob-mentality-and-violence/#:~:text=If%20the%20group%20behavior%20is%20violent%2C%20the%20larger%20the%20group,psychological%20theories%20address%20crowd%20behavior.- This is a link talking about violence/mob mentality and the psychology behind it. To understand is to know
Who students can talk to:
People in the community that can talk with the class about the themes in the books could be advocates for racial equality and the benefits of working together. One name in particular that pops up is Ciara Taylor. Ciara is the founder of the group Dream Defenders, which is an organization that fights for social justice and boldly challenges the status quo. This is someone who most likely would not be entering schools to talk books with students, so someone like a guidance counselor, or social worker that is highly knowledgeable about topics of racial equality and working together.