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.

Exposition - Lord of The Flies

’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.’’

The first three lines didn't say much, and they really didn't catch my interest. The only thing the first lines said, to me, is that the book is about a hurt little kid who is lost somehow. 

The Plot

Lord of The Flies is a novel written by Nobel Prize winner William Golding. The beginning of the novel is about two children called Ralph and Piggy. In the very first pages we find out that there has been some kind of plane crash, leaving Ralph and Piggy on an uninhabited island. There were other kids on the plane with Ralph and Piggy, and by blowing into a conch they found on the island, they were able to make a noise loud enough to get the attention from the other survivors on the island. The children rapidly decides that it would be best if they work together, and they decide it would be best if they had a leader, since there are no grown-ups around. The kids decide to take a vote deciding who should be the leader of the group. The "battle" for becoming is between Ralph and another kid named Jack. Ralph wins the election and is thereby appointed leader. 

The kids agree to start a fire to alert possible passing boats of their presence. While making the fire most kids help out getting firewood, but after gathering enough resources they bump into another problem, they have nothing to ignite the fire with. Then Jack comes up with the idea of using Piggy's glasses as fire starter. Unfortunately the fire is not smokey enough to get attention of passing passing boats. 

The main characters

Ralph is the child who the first lines in the novel is about. Judging by the first part of the book Ralph is one of the older kids on the island and he is a person who is not afraid to take charge and lead the pack. He is voted leader of the group and he seems to have a rather tough personality. He often picks on Piggy, which makes him seem like a rather mean person. Apart from that he seems to be a very positive kid and he always tell the other kids that everything is fine and that they are going to be rescued soon enough, so make the most of the time on the island!

Piggy is the first kid to team up with Ralph in the book. They meet at the very beginning and Piggy plays a big part in the establishment of the community with the other children. However, he gets very little recognition from the other kids. They pick on him, they call him Piggy (which isn't his real name), they take his glasses as equipment to light the fire and they don't give him credit for the work he does. He seems to be a rather troubled child. He grew up with his aunt after his father died, the circumstances regarding his mothers inability to take care of him is, for now, unknown.

The Title
The title didn't directly catch my interest, although I think it is an appropriate title for the book. The title is most likely used to explain Ralph's position within the group of children on the island. He is the lord while the other kids (with a few exceptions) are the flies, and all they do is run around doing nothing.

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.’’

The first three lines did not really appeal to me in an instance. By these three lines you can figure out that the book is about a schoolboy who is lost somewhere, and you kind of sense that the novel will be some kind of adventure.

The plot

The novel Lord of the flies is written by William Golding. In the very beginning of the novel you get to know that it is about two boys who have survived a plane crash and also that they are stranded on a deserted island. The boys are British, and soon they find a conch that they use to create a sound to call some other boys that they have seen on the island. The boys that arrive to them aged 6 to about 12 years old.

The boys decide that they need to have a leader, since there are no adults. They decide to vote whether Ralph or Jack should be the leader, and Ralph end up winning the vote since he was the one that brought them all together. At first, the boys are not sure whether they are on an island or not, and therefor Ralph and two other boys, Jack and Simon go around the island to find out. After they find out that they are on an island the boys go back to the others and decide that they have to make a fire and keep it going at all times so that they can get rescued in case a ship sails by the island. One day a ship sails by the island, but it does not see the boys due to the fire being out. When this happens Ralph freaks out and call the boys too another assembly.

Main characters

The two main characters in the book are Ralph and Piggy. The boys are around the same age, and I would guess they are both approximately twelve years old.

Piggy is often described as fat in the book. Piggys real name is not Piggy, but the boys calls him that after he tells Ralph that he was called Piggy at his old school, and that he really didn’t like it. He then asks Ralph not to tell anyone, but Ralph gladly tells everyone anyway. I get the feeling that Piggy hasn’t had an easy life. He doesn’t have any parents, and he lives with his aunt. He also has asthma, and really bad sight, and gets bullied at school. Despite this, Piggy seams like a really caring person. He is the one who asks everyone about their names, and when a little boy is too shy too speak up in front of the group, Piggy encourage and helps him.

After a voting, Ralph receives the leader role of the whole group. Ralph is a typical leader, who can catch and keep the groups interest while he is speaking. Ralph tries to give the impression of him being strong and a good leader. He tries to act tough and cool, but you can tell he is probably really scared and insecure. Ralph is also a bully, who likes to be mean too Piggy, but although he is a bully, sometimes it feels like he tries to be nice too the boys and make the best of the situation for all of them. I feel like he is the one that is most eager to get the boys rescued from the island.

The title

The title Lord of the flies is a quite interesting title, and I think the title catch the readers attention. After only reading a third of the book, I am not sure why the book is called that, bur I assume it is because Ralph is the lord since he is the leader, and that all the other boys are the flies, since they act a little animal-like.