A gripping story whose characters and ideals haunt long after the last page has been turned. “The greatest ideas are the simplest” That is a comment made by the narrator in ‘Lord of the Flies’ and the statement encompasses the book itself. During an unspecified war period a plane transporting young schoolboys to safety is destroyed and its child passengers are stranded on an island without any adult supervision. One expects a typical children’s literature plot line, a merry story of British boys making it out in the wild, surviving, evolving and learning to appreciate their parents and a good bath. ‘Lord of the Flies’ takes a very different route, exploring power struggles and what one will do unattended. It is difficult to say who is good and who is bad as the numerous boys stumble around the island and discover each other and their surroundings. There is the fair-headed Ralph, built like a hero and his aptly named sidekick Piggy, the brains of the group. They soon encounter Jack, a prefect and choirboy stranded with his choir, the definite antagonist. Jack and Ralph, at first staunch supporters of each other grow cold and in Jack’s case jealous and they learn to loath each other entirely. The paradisiacal island experience turns into a burningly dark and sinister ‘adventure’. The fascinating development of these young boys without any authority, as even Ralph isn’t listened too, makes it hard to discern who is protagonist and who truly is the antagonist. The book isn’t simply a coming of age story in an unusual setting; it tackles the true meaning of evil and good and what it means to be bad. Even the angelic Ralph makes fun of Piggy and ridicules him, even though he was elected to make sure ‘no one was too mean’. As a reader one is constantly confronted with Ralph’s, Jack’s and Piggy’s thoughts and decisions having to judge if they are malicious or heroic, human or animal. The novel portrays the truth, one is never purely good or bad and in the rare occurrence that a person is purely good they are broken by society. As the innocence is brutally whipped out of the characters it is taken from the readers too and neither boys nor reader will ever be the same. The book leaves one craving for more, getting up and leaving it for a minute seems a torture as the story doesn’t leave ones head. It is as if the reader is also stranded on this island, a ghost merely observing in horrified silence. The book spans several months however it doesn’t once become tedious as Golding successfully planted clues and hints for the events to come. With every new event taking place one wants to re-read all the sections leading up and causing the ‘current’ horror. The characters develop at an incredible pace, all giving in to there worse sides or being forced along, it is eat or be eaten, survival of the fittest and natural selection in its most barbaric and terrifying form. The momentum of the occurrence reminds of Morten Rhue’s ‘The Wave’ or any revolution leading to a dictatorship. With Ralph representing a democracy slowly succumbing to corruption and pollution, Jack a self-righteous dictatorship rallying everyone through persuasion or force and uncompromising fear. Poor Piggy is Ralph’s conscience or Jiminy Cricket but he isn’t listened too until it is almost too late. ‘Lord of the Flies’ is enjoyable for both the young and the old. As a youngster the story subtly and symbolically teaches the horror that humans are and the primal savage that lives in all of us. It is a horrific adventure, the type that you read under the covers with a torch and have to leave the nightlight on afterwards. For adults the story is a gruesome mirror human nature, history and society. Everyone will be able to recognize his or her own characteristics in the characters from Ralph to Jack. The story will make you want to shake the characters and asking ‘why they would do such a thing? Do they have no idea of the consequences?’ as well as making you wonder how you would act in such a situation and how you would have acted with 12. The story simply doesn’t leave you and if this is good or bad is as vague as its characters however it must be said that William Golding writes a beautiful tragedy with descriptive lyrical language simple enough for a child and scaring enough for an adult. The violence is so often symbolic and barely described that this won’t cause nightmares, but being inside these character’s minds will leave no one untouched.