Movie Review
Title of the
Story and
Author:
Characters:
Setting:
“Lord of the Flies”
By: William Golding
➢ Ralph- confident, calm, and physically capable and protagonist.
➢ Piggy- a chubby, ungainly boy with a history of being bullied.
➢ Jack- Ralph’s rival for authority on the island, unattractive and aggressive.
➢ Simon- shy and timid, but has a strong moral compass and sense of self.
➢ Roger- Jack’s second-in-command and arguably more cruel and savage than
Jack.
➢ Samneric (Sam and Eric) - pair of twins and steadfast followers of Ralph
until the very end of the movie.
Place:
➢ uninhabited tropical island in the Pacific Ocean
➢ island’s seashore
Time:
➢ worldwide war (1950)
➢ daytime
➢ nighttime
Plot:
a. Exposition
a. The movie opened in an immediate aftermath of the plane crash that
forced the boys to sail towards the island. The boys discovered a conch and
used it to summon the rest of the survivors of the crash. The boys voted for
Ralph to be the group’s chief, despite the fact that “the most obvious leader
was Jack,” partly because Ralph possessed the conch. Jack reluctantly
accepted Ralph’s leadership, and the two bonded in exploring the island
together. Jack asserted himself after the humiliation of losing the vote for
chief by slamming his knife into a tree and declaring that he will be a
hunter, establishing the boys’ primary roles: Ralph will be in charge of
communication and working to get them rescued, while Jack will be
responsible for hunting for meat.
b. Rising Action
b. Each boy on the island established his role in the order of the newly
formed society, and Jack and Ralph found themselves increasingly at odds
over what the group’s priorities should be and where they should expend
energy. Ralph insisted that a signal fire must be maintained constantly in
case any ships or aircrafts pass the island, and believed the best use of
resources was in collaborative work to watch the fire, build shelters, and
gather fruit. Jack discovered a passionate enjoyment of hunting, and
allowed the signal fire to go out while killing a pig, leading to a clash with
Ralph, who has seen a helicopter that passed by while the fire was out. The
younger boys on the island expressed growing fears about a beast they
believed to come out at night to menace them.
c. After the boys killed Simon in a frenzy of fear and violent excitement, the
rift between Jack and Ralph reached a crisis point. When Jack’s tribe stole
the glasses, Ralph and Piggy thought they were coming for the conch, but
c. Climax
d. Falling
Action
at this point the conch had lost most of its symbolic power, and Jack
understood the glasses, which were necessary to start a fire, were the real
item of value. This devaluing of the conch suggested that the agreed-upon
symbols of democracy and due process no longer apply, and the fragile
civilization the boys had forged was imploding. The next day, Piggy and
Ralph went to retrieve Piggy’s glasses and a member of Jack’s tribe released
a large boulder, smashing the conch and killing Piggy. The democracy was
demolished, and Jack’s despotic monarchy was cemented. Realizing his life
was in imminent danger, Ralph fled from Jack and his tribe, who had
become bloodthirsty and increasingly sadistic under his violent influence.
d. Up to this point, the boys had maintained a fragile balance, with Jack’s
willingness to enact violence offset by Ralph’s control of the means of
lighting the fire and the symbolic power conferred by the conch. Once this
balance was destroyed, and Jack controlled both the means of sustaining
the fire and kept the boys obedient to his rule, Ralph was rendered
powerless. Unlike Ralph, who expected the boys to be intrinsically
motivated to work together, Jack was willing to exert external influence on
boys who disobeyed him, and led them by force, rather than persuasion.
Motivated by a fear of Jack’s violence as well as a mob mentality, the boys
pursued Ralph across the island, even though he poses no actual threat.
Even the twins Samneric, initially sympathetic to Ralph, gave themselves
over to Jack after he tortured them to reveal Ralph’s hiding place.
e. Denouement
e. The boys had set a fire to flush Ralph out of the jungle, which signaled
the passing U.S. Marines. The ship’s officer came on shore and the boys
realized the horrors they had endured and perpetuated. The island was
destroyed, and the boys rescued.
Conflict:
➢ Man vs. Man
➢ Man vs. Nature
Point-of-View:
➢ Third Person Point-of-View
(the audience knows the thoughts and feelings of all the characters)
Symbols and
Their
Meanings:
➢ Conch- represents reason and order. As more boys defect to Jack’s
chaotic, fascist tribe, the Conch's color fades.
➢ Pig’s Head on a Spike Being Consumed by Flies- a symbol of the
increasing savagery of the boys, on display for all to see.
➢ Ralph, Jack, Piggy, and Simon- Ralph represents order. Piggy represents
knowledge. Jack represents violence. Simon represents good, and is in
fact the only truly selfless boy on the island.
➢ Piggy’s Glasses- a symbol of control more powerful than the Conch and
conveys true physical power.
➢ Beast- represents the unconscious, ignorant terror of the boys. It did not
exist on the island before their arrival.
Theme:
The conflict between two competing impulses or human nature that exist
within all human beings: the instinct to act peacefully against the instinct to
act violently to obtain supremacy over others.