Winner - Joshua Schlanker
The Lord of the Flies
As an occupied nine year old, the thought of an A-Level related book seemed
absurd. Lord of the Flies is a 1954 classic dystopian novel by Nobel Prize winner
William Golding. His book is the inevitability of what children get up to without
parents. It is a brilliant blood-pumping story. With a slow start about two children
with a shell, the plot becomes more gripping as arguments break out, punches and
insults are swung, and people are killed.
As the book deepens, the reader can only become more related to Ralph, a young
ambitious child who is keen to be rescued. What Ralph sees is a mirror image of what
Golding is placing into the reader’s mind. A picture of security led by hope then
squandered by betrayal and power. It will bring a tear to your eye, likewise for me.
As I read it, I thought of the book as a masterpiece and connected to it strongly.
Golding’s ability to use objects in the story to show certain events or situations
amazed me. For example the Lord of the Flies is the bloody, severed sow’s head that
Jack impales on a stake in the forest glade as an offering to the beast. This
complicated symbol becomes the most important image in the novel when Simon
confronts the sow’s head in the glade and it seems to speak to him, telling him that
evil lies within every human heart. Also, things like the conch, showing democratic
power, and Piggy’s glasses, showing the science and intelligence of man. Due to its
use of fast dialogue and action-packed pages mixed with its “read between the lines”
ideas and messages, this is what has led me to like this book so much.
The central concern of Lord of the Flies is the conflict between two competing
impulses that exist within all human beings: the instinct to live by rules, act
peacefully, follow moral commands, and value the good of the group against the
instinct to gratify one’s immediate desires and enforce one’s will. This conflict might
be expressed in a number of ways: civilization vs. savagery, law vs. chaos and even
the broader heading of good vs. evil. Throughout the novel, Golding associates the
instinct of civilisation with good and the instinct of savagery with evil and a will for
power. This will for power is portrayed by Jack Merridew. Leader of a boys’ choir and
a stereotypical red-head, his manipulation of the many finally leads to a manhunt for
the few as he grows stronger and gets more support. He is hungry for power and he is
the ultimate antagonist set for the adventure ahead.
This book may have its critics but it will stay one of the most influential books of all
time. I think this because it has not necessarily changed my life, but it has changed
my outlook on life and how the wider world works. Once you start you wouldn’t be
able to stop.
2nd - George Haddon
Sherlock Holmes
I am a big fan of reading and I read every night for at least half an hour. When I was asked to write
about a book that has changed my life, I thought I would have a nightmare thinking of a book that
has changed it but the book I’m reading currently, Sherlock, is the book that stands out most of all.
After watching the television series and buying the book in Waterstones, I have fallen into detective
land and can’t put this book down for a minute. My mum often tells me to turn my light out at night
as I can’t stop reading the tales of the famous consulting detective!
The best way for me to summarise this book is probably to re-word the blurb.
‘After the famous Reichenbach Fall, Holmes appeared gone for ever but just because this time he is
faced with the deadly Professor Moriatey, he isn’t planning to die just yet! As mysteriously as he
departed, he returns with the same lust for solving crimes as he did two years back! Now he and Dr
Watson are back in the well-known flat of 221B Baker Street, ready and eager to snap up any
mysteries that the thrilling yet dangerous city of London gives them!’
How has this book changed my life?
As everybody knows, Holmes can slightly be a bit cocky and impatient when people can’t keep up
with his abnormal intellect. Normally, Watson is the person that Holmes gets a bit impatient with as
they’re colleagues in solving crimes. Sherlock often says to him ‘You see but you don’t observe’ and
that comment struck me that maybe that’s what we all need to do. Now I try to observe better than
I used to but a flaw to this is that often observing cannot be as important or helpful than when
Holmes observes specific tyre marks in the dirt or a mug with its handle facing to the left. Regularly,
you can upset someone or break friendships if you discover secrets or things that someone doesn’t
want to share so if I ever do observe something private, I won’t spread it!
Reading this book has also encouraged me to watch the news more as Holmes discovers most
mysteries by switching on the news. I now watch the news more regularly so I can keep up to date
with all exciting, thrilling and devastating news from around the globe.
One last thing that I have learnt from this book is to listen much harder to what people have to say
as every little thing matters whether it’s to help to catch a criminal or simply to learn new vocabulary
in English lessons. Also, it has confirmed to me that no question is silly to ask as if you honestly want
to know something, no one can stop you from knowing!
I would recommend anybody that is in to crime stories and thinking outside the box to read this
book, as Doyle uses both in this gripping yet heart-warming novel!
3rd - Rhys Williams
The Boy in the Striped Pyjamas
The Boy in the Striped Pyjamas was definitely the book that increased my passion for
reading. It gripped my attention from the start to the end and made me want to read
on. My favourite part was the relationship between the two main characters, Bruno
and Shmuel.
It was very sad especially at the end when we find out that Bruno had been taken to
the gas chambers. There were also some happy parts when the boys made friends
and played together.
All around them there was death and misery in the camp and, although they were
from different sides, they managed to become best friends.
It is the first book I’ve read where I began to understand the different themes an
author was using: the contrast between the innocent children from opposite sides
being friends against the atrocities being carried out on the prison inmates by
German soldiers.
Since reading this book my views have changed in many ways. Firstly, I now look for
themes and contrasts in other books I read. Also it has affected my interpretation on
how we treat each as human beings, making me think about war and the
consequences of why we do it along with the human suffering involved with war and
the cruelty.
The book reminded me of the many lives taken by the Nazis .70 years ago was the
liberation of Auschwitz. This has had significant coverage in the media recently and
reading the book has allowed me to have a more informed opinion of what happened
in German concentration camps.
Honourable mentions: Thomas Hotton, Matthew Stevens,
Scott Lockie, Will Walker, Xander West, George Harris, Elliot
Sanfilippo, Andrew Coker, Ben Mayhew, Ben Shinnick, Jack
Wilson, Oliver Clayden-Smith, Adam Oakey, Adam Duffy, Matt
Yeoman, Finlay O’Connor.