Lord of the Flies is the book that all of us have read at some point during our high school years. Even though it is one of the books we “have” to read, it is one that you will actually want to read again and again. Lord of the Flies was written by Nobel Prize Winning British author, William Golding in 1954. It is a young adult fiction and psychological fiction.

Lord of the Flies begins with British school boys stranded on an island after their plane was shot down attempting to evacuate them from the raging war. Although the time period is not said in the novel, we can assume it is during one of the World Wars as Ralph, the protagonist of the story, explains his father is a navy man and will come to rescue them. Ralph and another main character, Piggy, find a conch shell on the beach and use it to summon any other boys that might also be stranded on the island. As time goes on, more and more boys show up on the beach. All of the boys choose Ralph as their leader, and Ralph appoints Jack to be in charge of a group of boys that will hunt for food. Ralph decides they should light a large signal fire to alert passing ships of their presence but because of them being so young none of the boys pay attention to the fire, and it gets out of hand.

As time goes on the boys become more and more like animals. They start to hallucinate, turn on each other, and get caught up with killing wild animals. To truly understand the severity of isolation from the outside world that these boys are facing, you have to read the book. Every time you reread it, something new comes to your attention that you had not noticed before. I would highly recommend this book to anyone interested in the way that people turn on each other for power and prestige. This book was adapted into two film versions, but neither will compare to the book and the imagery that it has.