Exposition – Lord of the Flies

The first lines of the novel

The boy with fair hair lowered himself down the last few feet of rock and began to pick his way towards the lagoon. Though he had taken off his school sweater and trailed it now from one hand, his grey shirt stuck to him and his hair was plastered to his forehead. All round him the long scar smashed into the jungle was a bath of heat.

These are the three first sentences of the novel. The first lines do not really catch my interest, because they do not tell me a lot about what will happen in the book. According to me, there is nothing interesting mentioned in those lines that makes me want to continue reading the book.

After having read the first sentences of the book, I do not know what will happen in the novel or what to expect from it. The only thing that these three sentences tells me, is that the book is about a boy who goes to school, and that this boy is lost somewhere in the jungle. Therefore, I do have a feeling that the book is going to be about something adventurous.

The Plot

The book Lord of the Flies is written by William Golding. In the beginning of the novel, we are introduced to two British boys, Ralph and Piggy, who has survived a plane crash, and they are now stranded on an uninhabited island. There were also other schoolboys from Britain on the plane. However, Ralph and Piggy do not know how many they were, what happened to them or where on the island they might be. They were separated from the other students after the incident. While Ralph and Piggy discuss what to do next, they find a conch, a shell. They use it to call the other boys, by blowing into it. When Ralph blows the conch, one child after another appears among the palms. Some of the boys are six years old and others are about 12 years old. When all the boys are gathered, they feel that they need to collaborate with each other in order to survive on the island, since there are no grown-ups. They decide to vote for a chief, someone who will lead the whole group and make all the decisions. The boys have to decide between Ralph and another boy named Jack. Ralph wins the election and therefore, he becomes the leader of the group. Furthermore, the boys agree on several rules that they must follow, in order to not create any problems. For example, only the person who is holding the conch, is allowed to speak. All the other ones must be quiet.

The boys are desperate to be rescued. If a ship comes near the island, the people on the ship may not notice the boys. They feel that it is necessary to make smoke on top of the mountain. They make a fire by building a pile of wood and then they use Piggy’s spectacles to light the fire. Jack and his group are responsible for keeping the fire going. In addition, Ralph appoints Jack to be in charge of the boys who will hunt food for the entire group. Jack and his group are the ones who have to go and hunt for pigs to get meat.

One day, there is a ship that sails by the island. However, the people on the ship can not see the boys on the island, because the fire has burned out. Ralph becomes furious, because it is the hunters’ responsibility to maintain the fire, but instead, they are out in the woods, hunting for pigs. Ralph decides to call the boys to a meeting.

Characters

There are many characters in the book. The two main characters are two British boys called Ralph and Piggy. These boys are about the same age, approximately twelve years old.

Ralph

Ralph is a boy with fair hair. He is the first guy that we are introduced to in the book. He receives the role of a leader of the group after a voting. This means that he has the responsibility to make sure that everything goes well and he is the one who makes all the decisions. He is very brave and versed in his role as a chief. He is not afraid to take charge or tell someone if they are doing something wrong. He is a strong person, but at the same time, I think he is very scared inside, but he does not dare show his fear to anyone now that he has become the leader of the group. He is also a kind and positive person, because he is constantly saying to the other boys that they will be rescued and that they should not worry about anything. This shows that he cares about others. Although he is caring, I think that he is a little mean, because he treats Piggy bad and is cruel to him. For instance, he sometimes tells him to shut up, and that is mean.

Piggy

Piggy is described in the novel as a fat boy, with thick glasses. He has been wearing spectacles since he was three years old. Furthermore, he has asthma. When Piggy was a little boy, his father died and we are not told what happened to his mother. Piggy used to live with his auntie. In my opinion, Piggy is a really nice person, because he does not swear and do not start a fight with someone else. Moreover, he is the only one who asks all the boys what their name is. I feel a little bit sorry for Piggy, because all the other boys are so mean to him. They pick on him and call him Piggy, even though it is not his real name. He does not like to be called Piggy, but they still call him that. They also call him Fatty. Piggy is very hurt by this and wants them to stop. However, nobody cares what he thinks or wants. They just laugh at him and tell him to shut up.

The title

The title of the novel Lord of the Flies, did not quite catch my interest. I am not sure why the author has chosen that title and I can not find any evidence in the text of why the writer chose it. I guess that he chose that name, because Ralph is the lord, since he is the leader of the group, and all the other children are the flies. Ralph is the lord of the flies.