Summary. "The Lord of the Flies" Golding. We read together

There are sometimes such books, the meaning of which can not reveal their brief content. "Lord of the Flies" by William Golding refers precisely to such works. It should be read in full, thoughtfully and not in a hurry. This is one of the most significant novels of the twentieth century. Things of this order are usually called "cult." This is not an exact definition, but it distinguishes a work of art from a number of similar ones.

William Golding "The Lord of the Flies". Summary

The action of this strange story unfolds in an uncertain place in the Pacific Ocean at an uncertain time. At the center of the narrative is the fate of a platoon of cadets, who are evacuated from the war zone. The plane with them aboard is catastrophic, the actors of the book are those who managed to get to the uninhabited islet alive or injured. Speaking in general terms, the history of the relationship between children who are in an extreme situation and constitutes the main plot of the work, its brief content. The lord of the flies is the head of a pig, planted on a wooden pole, all that remains of the animal killed on the hunt. There is always a cloud of insects around this idyllic idol. The interpretation of this symbol is far from unambiguous and multidimensional. One of the main thoughts of the "novel-parabola" (according to the ironic definition of the genre of his work by the author himself) is the fineness of the verge that separates man from the animal. About how quickly this border oversteps, when it comes to the struggle for existence. The struggle for life is the main driving force of everything that happens in the book, its brief content. "Lord of the Flies" gives a very pessimistic answer to the question of what will win the conflict between Good and Evil. Young inhabitants of the island probably would have broken each other. But the final triumph of Evil is prevented only by the sudden appearance in the final narrative of an adult officer trying to find those who survived in a plane crash. Only this saves from the seemingly imminent death of one of the main characters, who was already almost overtaken by the mob of his former comrades in the Cadet Corps, who was infuriated by the hunting passion. Here is such a strange symbolic story, more precisely, its brief content. "Lord of the Flies" was published in 1954 and was not immediately understood and accepted by contemporaries. But gradually gained popularity and even included in the mandatory school curriculum in many states. The novel became a classic of the twentieth century, in particular, his favorite work of American literature he was repeatedly called Stephen King. And this is absolutely not surprising.

To the cinema

Naturally, Hollywood could not pass by such a masterpiece as "Lord of the Flies". The summary of this multidimensional book has been retold several times by the language of the cinema. The most successful one should recognize the adaptation of the novel by William Golding in 1990. Despite the fact that much closer to the literary basis is the version of the British director Peter Brook, undertaken by him in 1963.