Lord of the Flies

Hello all. Well, I hope you don't expect any promises because I'm just gonna right when I want to, but yes, I'm writing again. Let's say that gap was some sort of service to the dramatic effect of a character's transformation. Or something. And that I then would be  the Unreliable Narrator. Great excuse, huh. Well then, now that that is settled, you've read the new description of this blog. It's different. So on that note, Lord of the Flies. I finished this book maybe a week ago. Here it is.

Lord of the Flies was written by William Golding in 1954.

It is a coming-of-age book, but with a few twists. First of all, the kid's 12. That's tragically soon. His name's Ralph. We don't do last names in Lord of the Flies, unless you're Merridew, of course, in which case you would be a complete nuisance, and we don't like that. So twist number two could be that they (the boys, only boys) are stuck on an island after a plane crash (very Lost-esque, surprisingly so, though Lost, I think, is quite incapable of thinking up such endearing names as Simon.) Twist Number Three could be that they go crazy, I suppose. Oh, and yeah, this has spoilers. Watch out.

So we have our twists, we see that Ralph and the boys are going to grow up, and we see that it is tragic, it being too soon and through some crazy island craziness. And no, none of them (the boys) act with antic dispositions intentionally. You trust the boys to be sincere. They're all very much too young to lie. Well here's something about me: The Characters are the most important aspect of a book. The Characters are the most important aspect of a book! THE CHARACTERS ARE THE MOST IMPORTANT ASPECT OF A BOOK! Must I say it again? Shout it? No? Alright then.

So the characters are the most important aspect of a book. Right, well, yes, that and everything that is piled into that word "characters". This is the contrast between the characters, the introduction and presence of certain characters for the sole purpose of complementing other characters or inducing new perspectives int that happy mind of a reader, the development of the characters, the relationships between the characters, the characters being interesting people themselves, and voila, there already is an amazing book. If you have characters, you have a book. If you love your characters, your readers will love them, or at least notice that they are very much lovable. If you hate your characters your readers will hate them and love to hate the. So, characters are the most important aspect of a book. You have to get intimate, personal.

Who's interesting then? Well, Ralph, obviously, and Jack, obviously. But then more than those two, Simon! And the conch! (yes, I do consider that shell a very much live character) And if we're accepting the conch as a character, why not then the Lord of the Flies. That may be it. After them, there's Roger, who's just plain evil, Piggy, who's just plain annoying, and Samnerice, who are just plain cute and just plain kind. Of course that name makes him/them interesting, as well as their extreme loyalty, but honestly, Ralph, Jack, and SIMON.

Ralph comes out in the beginning. He has a golden young body past round baby bellies and premature of teenage awkwardness. He has a mildness about his mouth and eyes. There is no devil in him. Oh, I loved Ralph, love Ralph. Him and his fair hair that he always has to put back and can't put up because then he'll look like a girl. Ah, Ralph. Well, he becomes very much interesting in that he changes in the most subtle ways. Most everyone else gives up in the book. It's all very clear: childish innocence to savage savagery. Simple. But then there's Ralph. He was innocent, I guess, and childish to some extent. Well, he stands on his head when he's happy, and laughs at Piggy's name and makes fart noises with the conch. But, he does have something else. "We have to keep the fire going. It's the most important thing." That's not very kid. That's very adult, I think, and adults hide change much better than kids. Well, I've drawn it out long enough. So you know Ralph's curtain? The one in his head? One of the most interesting images in that book? Wonderful. Piggy finisheds his words. The ideas are vaguely there but slipping away, and Ralph denies it. He resists it, and he resists all chaos, savagery. That's why he's so good. Of course he slips. He joins the chanting once in a while, eats meat, but he's still good. We sympathize with him. But that curtain. That's important. Remember it, for it is so applicable. Remember Flowers for Algernon? Charly? Same thing. Remember Memories of Summer? Same thing. Remember Monet and his decaying vision? Remember his grasping at colors, his visors and labels? Same thing. It's recurring guys. Grab on to that memory. Apparently it slips.

So Jack. He's plain obnoxious. You feel sorry for him. I mean, when he has tears running down his face, when he loses that first revolution? You have got to give him some credit. He could sing C sharp after all... That was meant to be sarcastic. Jack. He is exciting; that's for sure. The standoffs between him and Ralph, crazy stuff huh. The scene at the Castle Rock with spears, tying up Samneric, at the voting sessions, when the fire goes out, all of it's furiously intense. Thrills to watch those two together with their low voices and dry responses and challenging tones and gentle grimaces. And the people that come between them... Oh, man 'tis dangerous when the baser nature comes between the pass and fell incensed points of mighty opposites, no? Yeah, I guess this really doesn't contain any spoilers, or much at least. If you haven't read it you must be so lost at what I'm blabbering on about.

Well, Simon now, I guess. Well Simon was my favorite character. It's tough, this one, since he drops out pretty soon in the book, but the time he has on stage is priceless. He comes out in these bits, these random, short indentations. These passages thrown in irrelevant to the previous and insignificant to the following, filled with mesh and grass, those creepers, all the butterflies and that kind of stuff; these are the ones where Simon, or maybe sometimes you just guess it's him, comes out by name, and then it's done and that's that. "He squatted down and parted the leaves and looked out into the clearing. Nothing moved but a pair of gaudy butterflies that danced round each other in the hot air. Holding his breath he cocked a critical ear at the sounds of the island; the sound of the bright fantastic birds, the bee sounds, even the crying of the gulls that were returning to their roosts among the square rocks, were fainter. The deep sea breaking miles away on the reef made an undertone less perceptible than the susurration of the blood." Stuff like that. I love it.
He's so wonderfully strange and wise and peaceful. He's a pure boy. Those comparisons between him and Jesus though; well think whatever you want, but it's kinda stretching it, don't you think? Simon definitely has some descriptions, settings and does some things and has things happen to him that are remarkably similar to Jesus, but still, it's Simon. If Simon was Jesus, it's be too tragic; not that what happened to Jesus wasn't tragic. But at least we have Christianity now. Well, in that case, I guess LOTF would be the Bible.

Well, regardless of that wonderfully random tangent, Simon, is still a very unique character, amongst the others within the book and within all characters. You hardly ever get multiple people claiming the same sub character as their favorite in the book. Sort of like Jo from Great Expectations. They're just arresting. They're staggering in their goodness, strangeness, uniqueness, loveliness. Simon is definitely lovely if nothing else. He's wonderful. And one last thing on Simon. That obvious scene, with the Lord of the Flied. It's obvious for a reason. It's awesome. When you reread it eight times and think about it, put yourself in his head and outside and in the island and in the real world at all the same time, you get these understandings. You realize what it all is, and the tragedy and unprecedented and simple truth of it all, that theory of flies and death and a stick sharpened at both ends. It's his sub-conscience., or even deeper, a very real part of his brain, a very tangible thought that he had blocked away, repelled, is boomeranging back and shooting itself with full forth. That's what happens when you're too good. It catches up to you in the most awful ways. Only the most noble suffer truly, right? Finny from A Separate Peace? Him on his separate plain, being pulled down by stupid bone marrow, all because he never feared and he never hated, and he saw the enemy as who they were, misled humans, mistaken friends or potential friends, and Finny could be friends with Oscar the Grouch if he wanted to: same thing. You get pulled down, and if you try to stand up again, this is what happens: you get chanted at. It's awful y'all, but you could at least stay the martyr hero. Finny didn't punch Gene like we all wanted him to. LOTF is harder to relate to, I guess. None of us secretly want to have those painted faces, or at least I hope none of us do. But still, we would, I guess, want to have fun on the island. The pig said to have fun on the island. Well, Simon climbed a mountain instead. Hoorah! Very Moses, might I say. So yeah, Simon's pretty chill.

Who else? Right, the conch. How could I forget. Right, curtain. Creepy! Well, yes the conch is white and pure, as all good things are. You can't really get tired of it though. Gotta love the classics. It's creamy too though. And pinkish. Now that's respectable. When Piggy and Ralph found it, it's so absolutely obvious that this was going to be the dominant symbol in the book. It was, though there were a bunch of other things (the masks, the rocks, the fruits, the fires, the pigs, etc.) Still, the conch is by far the best and most consistant. It was the third character. Ralph, Piggy, and then the Conch. It makes sounds. Like a trumpet. That's some civilization for you. A sound, almost musical. That's comforting. It's smooth, it's fragile. It's fragile! Let's say that again. Yes, fragile, and they just pass it around. Gotta love boys right? No dainty fears. Well, peace, sanity, civilization, childhood must be shared. It's Ralph that has the conch. It doesn't count on the Castle Rock though. Very sad, isn't it. We see the Conch so significantly playing as a main figure in this book, but it diminishes. They grow up, remember? Then it shatters. Honestly, I cared more about the Conch than anything else in that scene.  I just love the conch. I could go on for hours. I will say one thing though. The Conch was a Ralph thing, not a Simon thing. Piggy would've liked it, but on account of his ass-mar and all. He's too boring for it anyways. Ralph has a dwindling hope, that is more dependable than absolute hope, and definitely better than lost Jack-esque folk. Simon had the island. The good island. And Simon had himself. And Simon had Ralph. But he didn't have the Conch. He wasn't very human actually. Neither was the Conch. Hmm. Something to think about.

Well, that's good enough I suppose. I'll leave you all with some quotes.

"You know perfectly well you'll only meet me down there - so don't try to escape!"
"Wave after wave , Ralph followed the rise and fall until something of the remoteness of the sea numbed his brain. Then gradually the almost infinite size of the water forced itself on his attention. This was the divider, the barrier."
"If I blow the conch and they don't come back; then we've had it. We shan't keep the fire going. We''l be like animals. We'll never be rescued."
"Fun and Games"

Read folks, Read.