Lord of The Flies - Summative Journal

For the past fews weeks our group has been finishing up "The Lord of the Flies". Most of our discussions has been revolved around the power distribution among the leaders, and the symbolism throughout the book. We all thought that the book contained very deep meanings and how it closely relates to our present society.

The order on the island is very fragile as the rules are set by merely young boys. Jack believes that Ralph lacks the intelligence to make executive decisions and relies on Piggy for all the answers and announces to the group, "[Ralph's] like Piggy. He says things like Piggy. He isn't a proper chief" (pg.138). Jack has repeatedly opposed Ralph's right to rule and separated from the group saying, "I'm going off by myself. [Ralph] can catch his own pigs. Anyone who wants to hunt when I do can come too" (pg.140), which tempted many of the boys to join him.  Furthermore, by rebelling against Ralph's leadership and Piggy's ideas that formed democracy, Jack creates the illusion of being an omnipotent leader because no one opposes him, thus the boys are even more convinced to join his party. Now with Jack having most of the power, his tribe obeys him without question and their actions become unjust. Their minds are all being devoured by bloodlust and they even stab Simon to death mistaking him as the beast and drop a boulder on Piggy. But even with their unjust actions, the tribe had no opposition and had the power to do as they pleased. This situation relates to the gangs in our society. By doing things that break the law, gangs give off the illusion of being powerful and many individuals who desire the sense of being powerful join which empowers gangs even more.

One of the key symbols in the book is the title itself, "The Lord of The Flies". Its meaning is the devil and we've discussed how it's portraying the darkness within everyone. The beast is nothing more than fear that is manipulating the thoughts of the boys into thinking that something is there. Piggy, being the sensible one, even says, "that's a clever beast... if it can hide on this island" (pg .94), because he too hasn't come to the realization that it's nothing except merely fear. The fear hides itself well deep within the boys hearts, being able to manipulate them and exploit them to savagery. Simon was the first to realize this when he talked to the pig's head on a stick, or the Lord of the Flies. It said to Simon, "You knew, didn't you? I'm part of you? Close, close, close! I'm the reason why it's no go? Why things are what they are?" (pg.158). All the mayhem was created by fear and that fear is engraved in each and every one of the boys' hearts. This fear of a beast led the tribe to killing Simon, killing Piggy, and driving them to their primitive instincts to hunt. This fear led to nothing but violence and death but their mindset was consumed by fear that they could no longer make rational decisions.

We all thought that this was a great book that had plenty of deeper meanings. It required a lot of insight to really draw out all the key aspects of the book and I think it helped us really understand the concepts of darkness, violence, etc.