Lord of the Flies

1. What is the summary/synopsis of the story?

The story “The Lord of the Flies” written by William Golding in 1954 tells the story of a
group of young boys aged 6-12 years old stuck on a deserted island, in the midst of world war.
With no adults around but a 12-year-old Ralph, being the eldest within the group, selected to be
the chief, and a jealous chief-aspirant Jack assigned to lead the food hunters formerly choir
members, the boys started their battle towards survival. Ralph, being the chief, thought of ways
on how they can be rescued such as building a signal fire with the use of Piggy’s eyeglasses.
Jack’s group, instead of maintaining the fire, decided to devote their energies into food hunting,
with that, the fire that was built went out right before a ship passed by the island leaving them
unnoticed. Right after this incident, a dead man attached to a parachute landed in the island and
caused confusion and shock among the boys as it was mistaken to be a beast. Simon, a
consistently good and caring member of the group believed that the beast isn’t real at all but
Ralph and Jack decided to roam around the island and kill the beast but found nothing. When
they got back to the group, Jack proposed that the chief must be replaced but none agreed,
moments after, some of the members, mostly those who are formerly choir members followed
Jack and they continued hunting. As Jack’s group continue hunting, they slaughtered a pig, cut
off its head, and jammed it onto a stick in the ground as an offering for the beast, not knowing
that Simon was watching them. Simon stared at the head, called it “The Lord of the Flies,” as it
tells him that the beast is within each and every one of them, after hallucinating, Simon passed
out, gets bloody nose, and wakes up covered in sweat, blood, and dirt. Looking like that, Simon
showed himself up to the boys, trying to tell everyone about the non-existent beast but he is
unrecognized, was mistaken as the beast, and the boys attacked him until he was dead. Simon’s
body washed out through the sea that night. From here, everything drastically fell down, Jack’s
crew attacked Ralph and Piggy and stole Piggy’s glasses for them to create fire, Ralph wanted to
talk it out with Jack but ended up running for his life after Piggy got killed by Roger with a huge
boulder. Whilst running, Ralph bumped into a naval officer and the boys were rescued leaving a
trace of how savage and cruel the group of young boys have become.

2. Identify symbols (at least 2) in the story and explain what they represent.
 Some of the symbols in the story are the characters themselves, each and every character
symbolizes a trait/meaning. For example, Ralph represents civilization and order, with the use of
the conch shell, Ralph wanted civilization and order to dominate within the group, the conch is
used to gather the members and whoever has the shell will have the chance to speak up within
the group, therefore, as well as Ralph, the conch shell also represents civilization and order and
in addition, power or authority. Jack, on the other hand, represents wildness and violence, as
stated in the story, Jack focused on hunting and killing which he found exciting, contrary to
Ralph’s proposition which is civilization and order, Jack was a rebel because he wasn’t given
what he wanted, to be a chief. Also, we can read and watch in the story that Jack led all the
attacks stated in the story. Moreover, the fire that was built represents salvation and destruction
at the same time. Salvation because it was supposed to be used as a fire signal to attract rescuers
but destruction because just like how the forest was destroyed because of the uncontrollable fire,
the young boys’ behaviors, as they lose hope, their behaviors goes out of control as time passes
by.

3. Major take-away and reflection in relation to our course ETHICS.

Ethics as defined in the presentation given by our professor Mr. Mondigo III, is the
philosophical study of morality and morality refers to beliefs concerning right and wrong, good
and bad – beliefs that can include judgments, values, rules, principles, and theories. The story
written by William Golding aims to show the conflict between savagery and civilization of
human beings. Because of lack of guidance from elders, no one was able to teach the boys
ethical behaviors. It showed how humans’ darkness grows in times of hardships and survival. We
can see in the story that the longer they stayed in the island, the meaner they become. At a young
age, they were able to do such heinous things because of lack of guidance and because there are
no one to learn from about what right and wrong is. After reading/watching the story, I’ve
realized how cruel and savage humans can be.