In my life, I have not been much of a reader myself despite being a writer but there were few books which
left an impact in my life. Back in 2012 or so I was really hooked up with Lord of The Flies since this book was a must for my bachelor degrees.
The Plot:-As the story goes, during a wartime evacuation, a British aircraft carrying group of young children crash lands in an inhibited island in a remote region of the Pacific Ocean. The only surviving group was a bunch of preadolescence. Two boys- An optimistic the fair-haired Ralph and an overweight, bespectacled boy nicknamed "Piggy"—find a conch, which Ralph uses as a horn to convene all the survivors to one area. Ralph is optimistic, believing that grownups will come to rescue them but Piggy realizes the need to organize: ("put first things first and act proper"). Because Ralph appears responsible for bringing all the survivors together, he immediately commands some authority over the other boys and is quickly elected their "chief". He does not receive the votes of the members of a boys' choir, led by the red-headed Jack Merridew, although he allows the choir boys to form a separate clique of hunters. Ralph establishes three primary policies: to have fun, to survive, and to constantly maintain a smoke signal that could alert passing ships to their presence on the island and thus rescue them. The boys establish a form of democracy by declaring that whoever holds the conch shall also be able to speak at their formal gatherings and receive the attentive silence of the larger group.
Jack on the other hand, sets up his group as more like a hunting party and was ready go savage as per
jungle life, and so he turns out to be menacing antagonist.
One night, an aerial battle occurs near the island while the boys sleep, during which a fighter pilot ejects from his plane and dies in the descent. His body drifts down to the island in his parachute; both get tangled in a tree near the top of the mountain. Later on, while Jack continues to scheme against Ralph, the twins Sam and Eric, now assigned to the maintenance of the signal fire, see the corpse of the fighter pilot and his parachute in the dark. Mistaking the corpse for the beast, they run to the cluster of shelters that Ralph and Simon have erected, to warn the others. Since, then itself a superstition builds up among a whole crew when Jack forces other guys to hunt and sacrifice a Bog to that metaphorical beast. Sometimes later during a tension Piggy gets killed as well as an accidental murder of Simon which Jack’s rebel band thinks to be the beast. Fearing this Ralph hides into the camps, and to smoke him out Jack sets fire in the forest since Roger, the boy who killed Piggy sharpens a stick and attempts to kill and behead Ralph and take control since the ultimate symbol of control was no longer the conch which was shattered but the Piggy’s glasses which the crew had been using to create fire. Ralph desperately weighs his options for survival. Following a long chase, most of the island is consumed in flames. With the hunters closely behind him, Ralph trips and falls. He looks up at a uniformed adult—a British naval officer whose party has landed from a passing cruiser to investigate the fire. Ralph bursts into tears over the death of Piggy and the "end of innocence". Jack and the other boys, filthy and unkempt, also revert to their true ages and erupt into sobs. The officer expresses his disappointment at seeing British boys exhibiting such feral, warlike behavior before turning to stare awkwardly at his own warship.
Now why is this book still relevant for me?:- Because at the end the day humans are indeed animals if they are not under discipline or organized supervision. Also freedom and leadership always has a price to pay. This very story is connotes to the real world where propaganda could make people blind and to create crimes against his own country.
Jack as a symbolism:-Jack may have been an antagonist here but he was the epitome of that sadism and savagery which we also show when we descend into madness.
N.B.:-Stills are from 1963 live action movie based on Lord of The Flies, but the film has some minor changes.