Synopsis of Lord of the Flies

Summary of The Lord of the Flies

In the novel The Lord of the Flies, William Golding writes about a group of boys that are stranded on an island when their plane crashes. The exposition begins when two of the boys, Piggy and Ralph, find a shiny conch that is used as horn for assembling all the other boys on the island. The group of boys vote for Ralph to be the leader. Furthermore, Ralph decides to appoint John as a leader of a small group of choir boys, who will be in charge of hunting. In order to get rescued, the group of boys build a fire with Piggy's glasses at the top of the mountain. However, this goes horribly wrong when the fire burns the forest, as well as one of the youngest boys of the group.

The narrative hook is when a ship passes by the island. Ralph, Piggy and a group of boys on the beach see the passing ship. However, they realize that the fire is not making enough smoke. When they reach the mountainside, they see that John, who is in charge of keeping the fire going, has left his post. Since the fire is out, their opportunity of getting rescued is missed. Furthermore, Ralph, who has prioritized rescue over hunting, sees John with a group of boys carrying a pig. Ralph harshly criticizes John for leaving his post, and decides to call for an assembly. Unfortunately, the assembly is disastrous since so many of the young boys, or "littluns", have had dreams regarding a beast who is on the island.

The rising action begins when Sam and Eric, who are in charge of keeping the fire going, see a dead pilot with a parachute land on the island. Thinking that the dead pilot is the Beast, they rush to the beach and tell the boys that the Beast is trying to attack them. In response, Ralph and Jack decide to call an assembly. While Jack is arguing for Ralph to send a group to hunt the Beast, Ralph decides to prioritize the caring for the fire instead of hunting the Beast. The arguing between the two leaders results into Jack calling Ralph a coward. Furthermore, he tells the boys that Ralph is unfit for a leader and that he should be the leader of the boys. However, no one votes for Ralph to be relieved of his command. Therefore, John and his small group of hunters leave the beachside. Ralph summons the boys on the beach to make a new fire, but most decide to join Jack's tribe, because they favor meat to rescue. With Jack being the leader of most of the boys, he organizes a feast. Even Piggy and Ralph join the feast because the offering of meat is too good to ignore. The feast turns into chaos as the boys's savagery turns into a barbaric dance. When one of the boys, Simon, comes out of the forest, they brutally kill him. The next day, when Piggy and Ralph are back on the beachside, they realize what they have done. Nevertheless, since Piggy's glasses are the only way for the boys to make fire, Jack raids Piggy and Ralph in order to get the glasses. Since Piggy