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William Golding begins his first novel, Lord of the Flies, with many obvious distinctions of a piece of commercial fiction, but it soon develops into something deeper than that.
The story opens with two boys found on a beach after a mysterious plane crash. The early descriptions of the boys were entirely stock characters. There was a fair haired boy, Ralph, with casual movements and mischievous, almost arrogant, actions who quickly and (in the most clichéd way possible) took the protagonist role. The other boy could not have been more of a stock character, even down to his name, Fatty. His chubbiness, spectacles, curiosity and relentless questions quickly contrasted the traits of Ralph. While Fatty questioned and spoke nonstop, Ralph quietly and wittingly grabs a conch from the bottom of a pool and blows. The conch brought together the other survivors of the plane wreck as would be expected in a typical commercial story. The conch brought numerous kids, and a typical antagonist. As any reader would guess, when it came time to find a leader Ralph was an obvious favorite. As all works (commercial and otherwise) need an antagonist, this was the clear spot in the story where one would step up. Jack, one of the oldest boys and head of the choir, stepped in for the vote as chief. While Jack and Ralph quickly worked together on a voyage to see if they were in fact on an island, time would quickly damage the relationship between the chief, Ralph, and the one who thirsted for control, Jack. Their stay on the island under their new chief began with numerous great ideas, but their utopian illusion would soon fall apart.
Illusions began with the fear of unknown creatures, and moved on to belief in civilized living without adults. Ralph, as chief, took the ideas of what they needed to do on the island (fire for rescue, shelter, and hunting pigs) and distributed jobs amongst the kids. He was approached by one of the younger kids (lilluns) that shared his fear of the “beastie”. This is the novel’s first sign of disillusionment, the lilluns believe the boy but the older kids believe there is no beastie on the island. The theme continues when that child went never turned up after sharing his fear, whether swallowed in the fire on the mountain or taken by the beastie the reader has yet to learn. While the older kids attempted to brush this lose aside, the lilluns recognized his absence and maintained their fear of beasties.
As any kids faced with the situation of survival in a land without adults, what was said was not always accomplished, and duties were abandoned and forgotten. Ralph and the boys decided the need for a signal fire and shelter was pertinent. All of the boys began making shelter, but as time went on (an unspecified amount, to continue the illusion) the lilluns moved on to playing (as any little boy would) and it was left to Ralph to build them. Angered by the fact that the boys did what ever they wanted instead of what was needed to do (maintain signal fire, keep living areas clean) his frustration reached a peak when their first chance of survival was missed when the signal fire went out. Jack, who was in charge of the hunters, was overcome by thirst for blood that he took all the boys from the fire with him to hunt. Their excitement when they caught a pig was met with Ralph’s rage and realization that they needed to live like he said earlier, and not whatever way they wanted. This illusion was a main part of this reading and if he continues believing that he can have a grown up civilization without the grown ups he will continue to struggle.
Golding appears to take a stock story and add deep themes of illusion and thoughts of an ideal society amongst boys to add to the mystery and desperation of the island.
