2,3. Boekverslag door Een scholier 4210 woorden 26 mei keer beoordeeld. William Golding. Eerste uitgave 1954

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1 Boekverslag door Een scholier 4210 woorden 26 mei ,3 143 keer beoordeeld Auteur Genre William Golding Roman Eerste uitgave 1954 Vak Engels General Information I ve read a novel by William Golding: The Lord of the Flies. Faber & Faber in London first published it in The book I ve read is published by Wolters-Noordhoff, which is located in Groningen, in The book has 223 pages and 8 pages of background information about the writer. My first impression I always have difficulties with finding a book for a reading report because most of the books I see I immediately find boring after reading the cover. But when I found this book in the multimedia centre (strange word for such a small place) I was immediately interested. On the cover it said that the book was about children dropped out of a plane on an uninhabited island and that these kids had to survive on their own. It also said that the children would become bloodthirsty savages. Well, if that doesn t sound interesting. So I thought: I have to read this. It is very rare when I find a book that s interesting according to me and it was also about time that I found one because there were only 3 weeks left before the horrifying date of 15 March. I expected to read a book that would describe how children would react in an isolated situation without grownups. I thought that they would try to be rescued and that one of the group would step forward as a leader. My prediction was rather good at first sight but in my head I already made a whole different simulation than that is described in the book. In the book they almost did not cooperate with each other. While I thought they would do their utmost to work as a team. In my simulation I also thought they would have to do a lot of afford to get some food. But in the book it looked if there was inexhaustible source of fruit trees. But such things will always happen because if you could predict the whole content of a book, why should you read one. The characters The main characters are: Ralph is really the main character. The largest part of the book is about him. When they are just a few hours on the island, Ralph and Piggy call an assembly on a conch. The boys then vote who should be their leader. All the boys choose Ralph to be their leader. But Ralph loses his leadership at the end of the book to Jack. Ralph is a little bit shy at the beginning because he has to tell everybody what should be done. After a while he gets used to it to tell everybody what should be done. He is a very kind person and doesn t really lose his temper quickly. Almost all the boys have respect for him. Pagina 1 van 7

2 Even when almost all the boys are in Jack his tribe they are when he is talking to them. Piggy is a fat boy with glasses. His role in the group is to look after the little ones. He isn t capable to do hard work because he has to watch his asthma. Almost everybody has a pick on him because he is different from the others especially Jack hates him. After a while he will get more respect from the others. That is also because there are only a few people left in Ralph s group. So these people will have to get a better relation with Piggy because they will need his help. After a while Piggy gets more self-assured and dares to say more. Jack wanted to become the leader of the group in stead of Ralph and for that reason he doesn t like Ralph. A few times he tries to take over the leadership from Ralph but the first few times he doesn t succeed but at the end he can convince the group that they should join his tribe and that they should leave Ralph s. Jack is also the one who says that there should be a lot of rules. He thinks that if you don t have rules you won t be able to survive on the island. You could compare Jack with the devil because he is only trying to sow discord and making people do what he wants them to do and he seems to find it joy able when others suffer pain. Simon is a quiet boy on the background of the story. He doesn t have much contact with people but he is the first one to discover that the beast they are looking for is not a living thing but that they are their own beast. Roger is a boy with an evil character. He likes to make people suffer and becomes Jack's right hand when he starts his own tribe. He doesn t go really well with Ralph. He also hates the young ones because he thinks that they don t help the others and they are only in the way. Narrative space The story takes places on an uninhabited island. This really influences the story because now they have to look for their own food and they don t have modern facilities like a shower or TV and they also have to build there own shelters. This story really needs this environment of an uninhabited island because otherwise it wouldn t make sense. It is also important that the island is located in the South Pacific. If the island would be in the North Atlantic all the boys would starve to dead because of the climate. I think the writer chose an island in the south Pacific because it is more attractive to fantasize about that as a reader and maybe he was too lazy to come up with a good idea how the boys could overcome the climate of the North Atlantic. Time frame The story takes place while a nuclear war is going on. This isn t really important for the story. It is just the reason why this group of boys is on this island. But the writer could also have made up another reason of how these boys got on the island. After they are dropped out of the plane they do not have anything to do with the rest of the world anymore, they are isolated, they are on their own. On the beginning of the book the time progress is from day to day. But then there is a huge jump of days or maybe even a jump of a few weeks. After this jump in time the story is told day to day again. I think the book has a closed ending. The story is about these boys surviving on an island and at the end a battle ship picks them up. So they do not have to survive anymore. That part is over. But you do not know if Jack, Roger and the others will be prosecuted because of the murder on Simon and Piggy. And how will their parents, if they are still alive, react when they get back? Point of view An all-knowing writer tells the story. Sometimes he enters the mind of a person but most of the time he Pagina 2 van 7

3 only describes what is happening and tells what people are saying. I think this is a very good way of telling a story. Now you are allowed to observe and judge on your one about what is good about people and what s bad. In this way you can form your own opinion about persons and you are not biased with the thoughts of person. The style The style of the author seemed to be a bit difficult in the beginning but after a while you are so obsessed with the story you just know what the words mean. The writer uses a large variety of words, which is fun to see as an independent learner. This way you learn many new words. William Golding uses easier words in his dialogues than in the rest of the story. This is of course because the persons in the story are young. But you see a clear difference in style between his dialogues and the descriptions he makes about all the happenings on the island. The Theme I think that the theme of this story is that there is and that there always will be some kind of evil in every human being. And this evil will reveal itself easier when there is no authority around to watch over you. The author did a great job telling what he means with this theme. At the beginning everything goes rather well and it looks like things are going to be organized very clearly. But after some time people want to make their own decisions and don t like the things their leader is saying. People start to hate each other for stupid reasons. People want be different than others. People want to have more power over others. People want to have the feeling that they can decide about everything even about life and death. People will do almost everything to get these things no matter what. That is what the author is trying to tell. That there will always be people like that on earth. All this relates very clearly to the title. If you would look for a synonym for: Lord of the Flies. You will find that these few words have the same meaning as Satan. And Satan stands for all the evil that lies in the human race. Literary history The author of my book is William Golding. He was born in 1911 at the 19th of September. Golding was very interested in science and literature. After primary school he went to Oxford to study natural science. But soon he switched to English literature because he found this way more interesting. After he graduated in 1934 he started to write but when his writing wasn t a great success, so he started to teach English. When the Second World War broke out he joined the navy. He participated in the landing on Normandy in France. Golding survived the war but it had changed him for good. In 1954 his first book was published. His first book the Lord of the Flies was immediately a great success. In 1963 a movie came out based on the story of the Lord of the Flies. In the year 1983 Golding got a Nobel price for literature and in 1988 he got the title of Sir William G. Golding. Sir Golding died in 1993 at an age of 83. Here follows a list of all the works of Golding: BOOKS: The Lord of the Flies (1954) The Inheritors (1955) Envoy Extraordinary [novella] (1956) Pincher Martin (1956) Free Fall (1959) The Spire (1964) Pagina 3 van 7

4 The Hot Gates [essay] (1967) The Pyramid (1967) The Scorpion God [novella] (1971) Clonk Clonk [novella] (1971) Darkness Visible (1979) Rites of Passage [Trilogy vol. I] (1980) Moving Target [essay] (1982) Paper Men (1984) Close Quartets [Trilogy vol. II] (1987) Fire Down Below [Trilogy vol. III] (1989) The Double Tongue (1993) Reading experience In the beginning I didn t really like this book. But after a while it became more interesting and I couldn t stop reading. The ending of the book is the best part because then some many things happen. Ralph is on the run and tries to hide from Jack. He also tries to convince Sam and Eric to come with him and to leave Jack s tribe. So they will stand a better change against Jack. But Sam and Eric do not dare to leave. So Ralph is on his own. It is also interesting to see what Jack does when he tries to catch Ralph. He loses his common sense and puts the island on fire to smoke Ralph out. But he hasn t considered what they are going to do after they have caught Ralph because there won t be any fruit trees or pigs left. And when you think Ralph has to give up because there is no way out, a naval officer appears. If that isn t a great ending of a book, I don't know what is! The middle bit was rather boring. The boys got used to living on an uninhabited island and there were no startling disclosures. I think I would read more from this writer because I like his style and the way he presents a theme. I would advise others to read this book, because many interesting things happen and it is written very clearly. The summary The story is about a group of boys between six and twelve years old. They are being evacuated because there is a nuclear war going on. During the flight there is something wrong with the plane and the boys have to jump out. They land on an uninhabited island. Two boys who have survived the crash meet each other in the morning. They are Ralph, a blond boy at about the age of about 12, and Piggy, a fat boy with glasses who is not able to swim and suffers from asthma. They make their way through the jungle to a beach. At the beach are deep pools were Ralph starts to swim in. he finds a large seashell. Piggy is able to tell him that the shell is a conch, which can be used as a horn. They decided to blow on it to call the other survivors for a meeting to decide what should be done. A large number of children of children arrive on the beach. There is a twin called Sam and Eric and lots of small children. After a while a group of boys comes marching down the beach, under the leadership of Jack Merridew. They decided that there should be voted for a chief. The children choose Ralph as leader. Jack isn t pleased with that but Ralph tells him that he can still be the leader of the group of boys. This group of boys under the leadership of Jack are appointed as hunters. They also decided that they should explore the place where they are and look if they are really on an uninhabited island. Ralph, Jack and Simon, a boy from Jack s group, are going to walk to the nearby Pagina 4 van 7

5 mountain to have a good view over the place where they are. At the top of the mountain they see that there is nobody except themselves on the island. When they get back they tell the other boys the bad news. Ralph suggests that they should make a fire as a signal to passing ships. After Ralph s suggestion Jack yells that every one should come to the mountain to make a fire. After he has spoken he begins to run to the mountain and all the boys follow him. When Ralph and Piggy finally arrive at the mountain they see that there is still no fire. When Jack sees Piggy he takes his glasses and uses them to lighten the fire. After Piggyhas got his glasses back, he tells them that they have made a wrong fire because this fire doesn t produces smoke. But the boys have made the fire too large and the side of the mountain that is pointed to the sea caught fire. And at this side some children were playing in the jungle. The boys do not know how many of them have been killed in the fire because they had not counted all the boys at the beach. Ralph decides that they should return to the beach to make some shelters. Several days have passed and the boys get used to the life on the island. Jack and his hunters have tried to kill a pig several times but they did not succeed. So the boys have only fruit to eat. Meanwhile Simon and Ralph are the only ones who are working on the shelters because Jack is obsessed to kill a pig and the others are only busy with eating fruits and playing in the pool on the beach. Meanwhile a rumor has come up that there is a beast on the island and the little ones have nightmares about it. Ralph decides that Jack and his group will be responsible to keep a fire going all day. After a few days, while Ralph and a few other boys are playing in the pool, Ralph notices a ship on the horizon. The boys in the pool are jubilant until Piggy tells them there is no smoke signal at the top of the mountain. Angry Ralph and some other boys climb the mountain to look what has happened to the fire. They find the fire dead and abandoned. When the hunters come back from their daily hunt they are all singing. They have caught a pig. Jack is eager to tell Ralph about his triumph. But Ralph asks him what has happened to the fire. Jack answers that he needed all the hunters for the hunt this time. After Ralph has told him that this afternoon a ship had past, Jack becomes quiet. Then he becomes frustrated and hits Piggy in the face. One lens of Piggy s glasses is broken. Jack apologizes to Ralph about the fire and he and his hunters rebuild it and roast the pig on it. Ralph decides to call an assembly to talk about breaking the rules and what went wrong on the island. The boys are not keeping to the assigned places for toilets, they didn t helped with the shelters and they even let the fire go out. After discussing these topics he wants to talk about the beast. After Ralph has mentioned the beast Jack begins to speak about the thing where all the little ones are frightened of. Even some of the older boys believe that there is something out there. After Jack has spoken about the beast everybody starts to talk through each other. Ralph blows the conch to get order again but it has no use. Jack suggests celebrating the kill of the pig again and everybody goes with him. Ralph thinks it might be a good idea to give up the leadership to Jack because he thinks he has lost his order. But Piggy can convince him that he has to stay leader because he is the only one who can get them out of here. That night there is a fight above the island and a dead parachutist lands on the top of the mountain. When the twins Eric and Sam go to the top of the mountain to lighten the fire the next morning, they see something lying on the mountain and they think that it is the beast and they run back to the beach. Ralph calls an assembly to ask the boys what should be done. Jack mentions that they haven't explored Pagina 5 van 7

6 the other end of the island yet. He says that that could be the hiding place of the beast. But when they arrive they only find a large rock but no beast. Jack wants to stay there because he thinks this would be a great base to camp but Ralph insists that they should go back for the fire. They decided to continue exploring and go to the mountain on another way. This way is harder to pass then they had expected and they arrive at the mountain at nightfall. Ralph wants to go back to the shelters and look for the beast the other day on the mountain the next morning. But Jack insists that they explore the mountain now. Most of the boys are tired and go back to the beach. But Ralph stays with Jack. He doesn t want that Jack think he s a coward. But when they are almost at the top Ralph doesn t dare any more. Jack continuous but comes back real soon because he is frightened too. The beast on the mountain makes it impossible for them to make a fire on the mountain. So Ralph calls a meeting. On this meeting he says something about Jack s hunters what made Jack angry. He challenges Ralph s position as chief. But everybody votes for Ralph, after the voting Jack disappears into the jungle. Piggy suggests that they should make a fire on the beach. When they made the fire everybody is happy with it but then Ralph noticed that Jack s hunters have slipped away to join Jack. Jack and his hunters go hunting and catch a big sow. They have a great feast and offer the head of the sow to the beast to put it on a stick on Simon s secret place. Simon goes there sometimes to think about their situation. Two of Jack s hunters had to go to the beach to steal fire because they don t have any themselves. Jack invites everybody that night to join his feast and to join his tribe. Everybody comes to this feast except Simon because he went to his secret place to think. He finds there the sow head covered with flies. He sees is as the Lord of the Flies. It seems to be talking to Simon. The beast tells him that the beast is nothing they can hunt on and kill, but that it comes from the boys themselves. That night clouds gather above the island. Simon decides to climb the mountain. He finds a dead man entangled in his parachute covered in flies. From the top of the mountain he sees that all the boys are at Jack s camp. He decides to go to them and tell them what he has found out about the beast. On that time it starts to rain and the boys notice that there are no shelters on this part of the island. Jack tells him that they should dance. The boys do this and almost forget about the rain. The dance they do is about acting as if they kill a pig. One person is in the middle and they act if they kill it. The dance is still going on when he comes out of the jungle. Entering the circle without knowing he became the pig. Everybody starts to attack him savagely, until he lies dead on the beach. That morning Piggy and Ralph both understand what has happened and feel ashamed of their part in the dance. Meanwhile Jack has established a new base on the other and on the island. Ralph his group is trying to keep the fire going but this is almost impossible with the four of them. That night when they lie in their shelter. Piggy s hears a sound outside. He thinks it is the beast but it is Jack and two of his hunters. They have come to steal Piggy s glasses. They break down the shelter and take Piggy s glasses. The next morning Ralph s group decides to go to Jack his camp. They take this risk because they don t have fire anymore and they can t make a new one because they don t have Piggy s glasses anymore. When they arrive at Jack s camp Ralph demands that they give Piggy his glasses back. Ralph and Jack start a fight. They fight till Piggy reminds them what they are here for. Then Jack orders to capture Sam and Eric. Piggy start to talk while some hunters try to tie Sam and Eric up. Piggy tries to explain that what they are doing is wrong. But while Piggy is talking Roger, one of the hunters, releases a great rock. The Pagina 6 van 7

7 rock down and it hits Piggy. Piggy falls on a rock near the water. He is dead. Jack doesn t really pays attention to this and tries to hurt Ralph with his spear. Ralph flees into the jungle. Ralph went back to the beach were there formal camp was. He realizes that he can t stay there alone and he decides to go back to Jack s part of the island. He sees that Eric and Sam have joined Jack s tribe because they are on the look out. Ralph appeals to them to ask for help. But they say they are not able to help him. Ralph tells them that he will be staying near Jack s camp this night. The next morning when he awakes he hears the yelling of the hunters who are looking for him. Meanwhile Sam and Eric are forced to tell Jack were Ralph is hiding. Now they know were Ralph is hiding they try to roll a rock from the Rock at Ralph s hiding place. But the rock misses. When this plan doesn t work they try to smoke him out and put the thicket were Ralph is staying on fire. Ralph is able to escape into the jungle. Ralph runs as fast as he can. But he can t decide what to do. Then on the end he makes a decision. He runs to the beach were he runs up to naval officer. He asks if they are having a war and if there are any deaths as a joke. But then Ralph answers only two. The End. Pagina 7 van 7