The beast in each of us. "Lord of the Flies"

I enjoy reading. Everyone knows this.
As a child, I read in general all the letters that caught my eye, from Fenimore Cooper, to the inscriptions on banknotes in the languages ​​of the fifteen brotherly republics, as well as instructions for electrical appliances and the editorials of the local press.

Now I also read, but selectively.
And when I come across a really good book, and even a well-known one, read well by everyone except me, I am surprised and happy.

So, a few months ago, I read Golding's Lord of the Flies for the first time. The first reaction was fear, the fear that arises when one comes face to face with the darkness that lives inside a person.

And then, some time later, when I took Yuri Burlan's training in system-vector psychology, I realized that the characters in this book perfectly illustrate what I learned at the training.

And I re-read the book again. Let me briefly recap the plot.

There is a war going on. The plane on which the children were evacuated crashes, and its underage passengers find themselves on a desert island. None of them knows where they are, and it is not known how soon they will be rescued, or if they will be rescued at all.
The island, in principle, is quite suitable for life, it has a source of fresh water, fruits grow, wild pigs are found. Children have every opportunity to survive.

And they begin to survive as best they can.

For starters, the children scattered throughout the jungle gather together.
The first people we meet are the tall, fair-haired Ralph and the fat, short-sighted Piggy.

Ralph understands very well what needs to be done in such circumstances. Independent and dexterous, he feels the need to make a reasonable base for everything, the children feel trust in him, are ready to obey him and follow him.

But in addition to the leader Ralph in the tribe (it can be called that), a leader appears - a tall, skinny red-haired boy named Jack Meridew. Jack would love to be in charge himself, but Ralph has the confidence of the majority. Ambitious Jack has no choice but to lead his small group - the boys' choir, of which he is the headman, declares himself the hunters of the tribe.

The third most important character is Piggy. This flat-footed, fat, short-sighted boy knows exactly what to do - his aunt explained everything to him. He shows miracles of sanity, although he expresses his thoughts for a long time, tediously, with many unnecessary details.

Immediately a small systemic digression.
At first glance, we can see that in the small space of the island, the urethral leader Ralph and the skin leader Jack met. Ralph naturally feels responsible for the pack's survival. Proud Jack cares about his status. He experiences severe discomfort next to Ralph, who is confidently stepping forward, and he simply does not notice skin flickering and attempts to limit Jack. Cute fat Piggy is a pronounced bearer of the anal vector: he teaches, puts things in order and shares his knowledge with members of the tribe.

The guys are sure that they will be saved, but while the ship is on the way for them, they must play enough! They want the adventure to be amazing!

“We need rules and we must obey them. We are not savages. We are English. And the British are always and everywhere the best. So you have to behave properly."
This is Jack speaking. (it is the skin people who create the law, the skin is the limitation)

Urethral Ralph is also for life according to the law - the law of justice, when from each according to his ability and to each according to his lack. Everything else falls away like a husk, for complete uselessness.

After the first weeks of chaos and confusion, life on the island is slowly getting better. A fire is maintained on the top of the mountain, huts are built on the shore, hunters drive game.

But, alas, not everything is so smooth: most of the guys are happy to chat at meetings, but do not want to take part in real work. The huts are built only by Ralph and a boy named Simon. And shelters are needed, simply necessary - some of the kids cannot sleep at night, because they are afraid of the Beast, which can come from the sea, and eat them ...

Relations develop, the tribe splits into two halves: the hunters led by Jack, and the rest of the guys, including the kids led by Ralph.
Faced with a childish reluctance to work, Ralph, feeling for others, builds huts all day long himself. While Jack is on the trail of a pig, besotted with a desire to make himself famous. Skin-visual boys scream at night in fear of the nightmarish Cannibal Beast.

Separately, it is worth mentioning about the sound boy Simon. Silent, withdrawn, he cannot find words for meetings, it is hard for him to speak in public, he reacts painfully to sharp sounds. "Laughter hit Simon hard and shattered his resolve." But it is Simon, with his sound vector, who, like no one else, understands the nature of the Beast, which children are so afraid of and all the time tries to say that the Beast is not in the sea and not in the jungle, but inside a person.

Fault

The children were tanned, their skin was weathered, their hair grew out and became tangled. Clothes hung in tatters. They are more and more reminiscent of savages, but above them "invisible, but strict, the prohibition of the former life hovers." They are still "held by the hand of civilization."

And then misfortune happens. Their signal fire, which the hunters were supposed to maintain day and night, went out, went out just at the moment when a thin line of smoke from the chimney of a passing ship was visible on the horizon. Lost chance for salvation. But the hunters killed the pig.

This causes conflict between Jack and Ralph as it becomes increasingly clear that they have completely different priorities and goals. Golding says of them: "two worlds of feelings and concepts, unable to communicate."

The classic confrontation between the leader and the selfish intriguer kozhnik. They are close to each other. Skin Jack hates urethral Ralph, and Ralph just doesn't notice his ambitions, as long as his antics don't harm the pack...

Lord of the Flies

One day, Simon stumbles upon a dead pig's head left by the hunters as a sacrifice to the Beast and hears her voice.

“- And you imagined that I could be tracked down, killed? - said the head. For a few moments, the forest and all other vaguely guessed places in response shook with vile laughter. But you knew, right? That I am part of you? An inseparable part! Is it because of me that nothing worked out for you? What happened because of me?
And the laughter broke out again.
- And now, - said the Lord of the Flies, - you go to yours, and we will forget about everything.
Simon's head shook. His eyes were closed, as if in imitation of this dirty trick on a stick. He already knew what he was about to find. The Lord of the Flies swelled up like a balloon.
- That's just funny. You yourself know very well that there, below, you will meet me, - so what are you doing?

Simon travels to the summit to find out who or what the entire tribe believes is the Beast. And he finds what he is looking for: it turns out that the “beast” is the corpse of a pilot entangled in a parachute. He runs to the guys to tell them that there is no one to be afraid of at the top ...

Tragedy

A thunderstorm begins, excited by hunting and eating, the hunters dance and sing their wild songs. A gust of wind raises the parachute with the corpse of the pilot, and, having noticed this, excited, frightened, united by their warlike unity, the members of the flock turn into a bloodthirsty crowd.

“Desire was born out of horror - greedy, sticky, blind.
- Beast - beat! Throat - cut! Release the blood!
The blue-and-white scar lashed out again, and a yellow explosion erupted. The kids, squealing, rushed from the edge, one, not remembering himself, broke through the ring of the elders:
- It's him! He!
The circle became a horseshoe. Something obscure, dark crawled out of the forest. A hoarse cry rolled ahead of the beast.
The beast tumbled, almost fell into the center of the horseshoe.
- Beat the beast! Cut your throat! Release the blood!
The blue scar did not descend from the sky, the roar was unbearable. Simon was shouting something about a dead body on the mountain.
- Beast - beat! Throat - cut! Release the blood! Beast - finish!
The sticks clattered, the horseshoe crunched and closed again in a screaming circle. The beast knelt in the center of the circle, the beast covered its face with its hands. Trying to block the annoying noise, the beast shouted something about the dead man on the mountain. Here the beast made its way, broke out of the circle and collapsed from the steep edge of the cliff onto the sand, to the water. The crowd rushed after him, glass from the cliff, they flew at the beast, they beat him, bit him, tore him. There were no words, and there were no other movements - only tearing claws and teeth.

United in a fit of animal fury, bound by the unity of a wild dance, the hunters kill Simon, mistaking him for the Beast.

It's getting worse and worse

Jack builds fortifications on the hunter's playground and becomes a real tyrant: he beats and punishes those who contradict him. He makes a sortie and steals Piggy's glasses so that he can light a fire with the only remaining lens. Poor Piggy, left without glasses, does not see anything.

“- I will go to him with a horn in my hands. I will raise the horn. I will tell him - so, they say, and so, I will say, you, of course, are stronger than me, you do not have asthma. And you see perfectly, I will say, you see with both eyes. But I'm not asking you for my glasses, I'm not begging you for them. And I will not beg you, they say, be a man. Because it doesn't matter if you're strong or not, honesty is honesty! So give me back my glasses, I'll tell you, you have to give back!"

Alas, this is Piggy's last speech, the negotiations turn into a fight, during which Piggy dies. Eric and Sam, Ralph's last supporters are bound, Ralph is left alone and hides in the bush.

Last hunt

... He is driven like an animal to be killed. He looks at the hunters from the hideout, and sees painted savages, not the guys with whom he ended up on the island. The savages set fire to the jungle to smoke Ralph out of his hideout.

The whole island is engulfed in flames, and finally, at the very last moment, according to the laws of the adventure genre, when dozens of pointed spears have already been pointed at Ralph, a boat with a patrol sails.

Ralph, driven and lonely, remains the leader in this situation.
Let Jack almost destroy him physically, but to the question of the officer "Who is your boss?", Ralph answers "I". He feels really responsible for everything that happened on this island with these children.
What about Jack? “The little boy in the remnants of an unthinkable cap on red hair, with broken glasses dangling from his belt, stepped forward, but immediately changed his mind and froze” ...

Such are the system games.

The duration of the action is not defined. As a result of a nuclear explosion somewhere, a group of teenagers who were being evacuated find themselves on a desert island. Ralph and a fat boy with glasses, nicknamed Piggy, are the first to meet on the seashore. Finding a large shell at the bottom of the sea, they use it as a horn and call all the guys. Boys from three to fourteen years old come running; the last formations are the church choir singers, led by Jack Meridew. Ralph suggests picking a "chief". In addition to him, Jack claims leadership, but the vote ends in favor of Ralph, who offers Jack to lead the choristers, making them hunters.

A small detachment of Ralph, Jack and Simon, a frail, faint-hearted chorister, goes on a reconnaissance mission to determine if they have actually made it to the island. Piggy, despite his requests, is not taken with them.

Climbing up the mountain, the boys experience a sense of unity and delight. On the way back, they notice a pig entangled in the vines. Jack already raises the knife, but something stops him: he is not yet ready to kill. While he hesitates, the pig manages to escape, and the boy is ashamed of his indecisiveness, swearing to himself that he will strike a fatal blow next time.

The boys return to camp. Ralph calls the meeting and explains that now they will have to decide everything for themselves. He proposes to establish rules, in particular, not to speak to everyone at once, but to let the one who holds the horn speak, as they call the sea shell. The children are not yet afraid that they may not be rescued soon, and they are looking forward to a fun life on the island.

Suddenly, the kids push forward a frail boy of about six years old with a birthmark on half his face. It turns out that at night he saw a beast - a snake, which in the morning turned into a liana. The children suggest that it was a dream, a nightmare, but the boy stands firm. Jack promises to search the island for snakes; Ralph angrily says that there is no animal.

Ralph convinces the guys that, of course, they will be rescued, but for this you need to build a large fire on the top of the mountain and keep it up so that they can be seen from the ship.

Together they build a fire and set it on fire with Piggy's goggles. Maintenance of the fire is taken over by Jack and his hunters.

It soon becomes clear that no one wants to work seriously: only Simon and Ralph continue to build huts; hunters, carried away by hunting, completely forgot about the fire. Due to the fact that the fire went out, the guys were not noticed from the ship passing by. This becomes the occasion for the first serious quarrel between Ralph and Jack. Jack, who just at that moment killed the first pig, is offended that his feat was not appreciated, although he recognizes the justice of Ralph's reproaches. Out of impotent rage, he breaks Piggy's glasses and teases him. Ralph struggles to restore order and assert his dominance.

To maintain order, Ralph gathers the next meeting, now realizing how important it is to be able to correctly and consistently express his thoughts. He again reminds of the need to comply with the rules established by them. But the main thing for Ralph is to get rid of the fear that has crept into the souls of the kids. Having taken the word, Jack suddenly utters the forbidden word "beast". And in vain Piggy convinces everyone that there is no beast, no fear, “unless you scare each other,” the kids do not want to believe this. Little Percival Wims Madison adds further confusion by claiming that "the beast comes out of the sea." And only Simon reveals the truth. "Maybe it's us..." he says.

At this meeting, Jack, feeling his power, refuses to obey the rules and promises to hunt down the beast. The boys are divided into two camps - those who personify reason, law and order (Piggy, Ralph, Simon), and those who represent the blind force of destruction (Jack, Roger and other hunters).

That same night, the twins Eric and Sam, who were on duty at the fire on the mountain, come running to the camp with the news that they saw the beast. All day the boys search the island, and only in the evening Ralph, Jack and Roger go to the mountain. There, in the false light of the moon, they mistake for an animal the corpse of a paratrooper hanging on the lines from a downed plane and, in fear, rush to run.

At the new meeting, Jack openly reproaches Ralph for cowardice, offering himself as leader. Not receiving support, he goes into the forest.

Gradually, Piggy and Ralph begin to notice that there are fewer and fewer guys left in the camp, and they realize that they have gone to Jack.

The dreamer Simon, who has chosen a clearing in the forest where he can be alone, becomes a witness to a pig hunt. As a sacrifice to the "beast", hunters impale a pig's head on a stake - this is the Lord of the Flies: after all, the head is completely covered with flies. Once seen, Simon can no longer take his eyes off "these ancient eyes that inevitably recognize", for the devil himself is looking at him. “You knew... that I am part of you. An inseparable part, ”says the head, as if hinting that it is the embodiment of evil that generates fear.

A little later, the hunters, led by Jack, raid the camp to get some fire. Their faces are smeared with clay: under the guise it is easier to create excesses. Having seized the fire, Jack invites everyone to join his squad, enticing them with hunting freemen and food.

Ralph and Piggy are terribly hungry, and they and the rest of the guys go to Jack. Jack again calls on everyone to join his army. He is confronted by Ralph, who reminds him that he was elected by the main democratic way. But with his reminder of civilization, Jack contrasts the primitive dance, accompanied by the call: “Beat the beast! Cut your throat!" Suddenly, Simon appears on the site, who was on the mountain and made sure with his own eyes that there was no animal there. He tries to talk about his discovery, but in the dark he is mistaken for a beast and killed in a wild ritual dance.

Jack's "tribe" is located in the "castle", on a rock resembling a fortress, where, with the help of a simple lever, stones can be thrown at the enemy. Ralph, meanwhile, is trying with all his might to maintain the fire, their only hope of salvation, but Jack, who sneaked into the camp one night, steals Piggy's glasses, with which the guys made fire.

Ralph, Piggy and the twins go to Jack in hopes of getting the glasses back, but Jack greets them with hostility. Piggy tries in vain to convince them that "the law and that we be saved" is better than "to hunt and destroy everything." In the ensuing fight, the twins are captured. Ralph is seriously wounded, and Piggy is killed by a stone thrown from the fortress ... The horn, the last stronghold of democracy, is broken. The killing instinct triumphs, and now Jack is ready to be replaced as leader by Roger, personifying stupid, bestial cruelty.

Ralph manages to escape. He understands "that the painted savages will stop at nothing." Seeing that Eric and Sam have become sentries, Ralph tries to win them over to his side, but they are too scared. They only inform him that a hunt is being prepared for him. Then he asks them to take the "hunters" away from his hiding place: he wants to hide near the castle.

However, fear turns out to be stronger than notions of honor, and the twins betray it to Jack. Ralph is smoked out of the forest, not allowing him to hide ... Like a hunted animal, Ralph rushes around the island and suddenly, jumping ashore, stumbles upon a naval officer. “We could have looked more decent,” he reproaches the guys. The news of the death of two boys shocks him. And imagining how it all began, he says: “Everything looked wonderful then. Just Coral Island.

The child's psyche is a system that is rather difficult in its structure, which is hardly amenable to logical interpretations. Young imagination, at times, can create truly paradoxical pictures, and burning events in childhood can leave an indelible scar on a fragile subconscious, and if we are talking about war, such an impression can have the effect of an exploding bomb. It is probably not for nothing that William Golding begins his work “Lord of the Flies” with a war, a terrible nuclear war that literally swept over all living things. It is unlikely that such a controversial event can evoke other emotions than disgust, anger, despair, revenge, bloodthirstiness ... All this is more than overflowing with the content of the book, and therefore "Lord of the Flies" is not just another tropical adventure, but the story of the gradual decline of man, history opposition of humanity and bloodshed. The book was published in 1954, but has anything changed significantly since then?!

"Lord of the Flies" is sort of the result of a classic English heritage about traveling and staying on a tropical island. A similar basis has already been met in the novel about "Robinson Crusoe" by Daniel Defoe, and especially in the book "Coral Island" by Robert Ballantine. It was this story that became the pro forma for "Lord of the Flies", but in its reverse version. While the boys Ralph and Jack arrive on Coral Island, like messengers of Western civilization, to wean the indigenous population from their bloodthirstiness, cannibalism and primitive life, a group of English guys find themselves on a desert island depicted in "Lord of the Flies" and drown in swamp of barbarism and the decline of humanity.

The two central characters in Lord of the Flies, Ralph and Jack, are ordinary boys whose name Golding borrowed from Ballantyne, thus alluding to the similar circumstances in which they found themselves. But Goulding goes further, and under the pretext of the outbreak of a nuclear war, leaves a group of children on a desert island after a plane crash. At this moment, a new civilization is born within a group of ordinary children, but the newly formed society is completely devoid of such rules and foundations as morality, honor, mutual understanding and mutual respect. The story unfolds against the backdrop of a struggle between two principles: the image of human madness finds its personification in the form of Jack Meridew and his paramilitary children's choir; they are opposed by an alliance in the person of the already mentioned Ralph, the universal laughing stock of Piggy and the innocent Simon.

However, initially the reader observes the idealistic scheme of the social structure. All the kids share a common desire and aspiration to be rescued from the island, and this desire is richly seasoned with friendships and a thirst for adventure in the best traditions of the pioneer troops (or rather the Boy Scouts in a Western way). Setting rules and laws looks like some kind of fun, which is why a simple seashell gets such an important parliamentary status. Using her as a bugle, Ralph calls general meetings to make vital decisions. Only the one who is currently holding this horn in his hands has the right to speak.

Another symbol of maintaining a civilized order in society is a bonfire erected on a hill. And at that moment, when Jack and his hunter friends allow it to go out, there comes a turning point in the coexistence of divergent ideologies. Now Jack is only interested in hunting pigs, and he uses the primordial instincts of all the other inhabitants of the island (the desire to be fed and protected) for his own benefit, thereby "biting off" a good part of the supporters of Ralph's ideology under his wing. From now on, for a new social group, murder takes on the image of a sacred ritual in which bloodthirstiness, gluttony and madness are integral components. The image of a Homo sapiens in the person of Jack loses all its connecting elements, and it is replaced by a creature, albeit human-like in form, but absolutely formless, greedy and hungry in nature. Freedom in the wild is the main tenet of the group led by Jack.

While the horn and the fire can be considered symbols of the democracy of Ralph's society, the social neoplasm led by Jack also has its own symbol - the Lord of the Flies. The head of a killed pig impaled on a stick is a vivid example of demonism and the embodiment of evil. The apogee of spiritual impoverishment occurs during a terrible ritual in which the innocent Simon, the symbol of Christ, is entangled in devilish races to the cries of “Beat the Beast! Cut your throat!" Thus, the murderous insanity takes on a new, human dimension. Simon is killed in the heat of hatred, the next victim is Piggy - the last stronghold of civilization, after whose death its symbol, the horn of democracy, is also destroyed. In the end, human ferocity finds another victim in the face of Ralph and falls upon him with all its might.

Paradoxically, it is at this moment that salvation comes to the boys in the form of a naval officer. But the fact is that the point of no return has already been passed, the person has lost his face, his base features have been revealed to the world, so salvation for him is only formal, while his spiritual component has long been melting in the hellish cauldron.

Surely, the experience of working as a school teacher helped William Golding so reliably convey such diverse images of children on paper. In addition, the writer is frankly good at not only describing the island, but also the dynamic development of the plot. His skillful use of alliteration deserves special mention. Undoubtedly, his work occupies a worthy place among the classics of world literature.

This story really inspires fear in the reader with its painfully realistic depiction of evil as the other side of human nature. Some will surely say that each work has its own place in history, so Lord of the Flies was more relevant at the time when it was actually written. In 1954, the world consciousness was still digesting the consequences of the terrible crimes committed by the Nazis; The Cold War was only gaining momentum, and Hiroshima and Nagasaki were shrouded in radioactive dust. Does this end the list of human crimes on a global scale? I doubt. Every year we witness the military escapades of the dominant powers, in which hundreds of thousands of citizens who are unable to defend themselves die. Isn't that a crime against a person?! Looking at the angle from which the modern world is rolling into the abyss of violence, it is hardly worth questioning Golding's pessimism, poured out on the pages of the novel "Lord of the Flies".

William Golding's novel Lord of the Flies, at first glance, has little to do with horror. After all, what does yourself This work? social drama? Dystopia? Adventure novel — robinsonade? Of course!

But Lord of the Flies is also a book about Horror. The very thing that is hidden in every person and is just waiting for an opportunity to come out...

As a result of a plane crash, English schoolchildren find themselves on a desert island and, despite the absence of adults, at first they live well. However, soon everything goes to hell: civilized boys run wild, worship a disgusting "god", even to the point of murder. The plot of "Lord of the Flies" is well known to everyone, which is not surprising: this novel by Golding is recognized as one of the most important literary works of the 20th century.

"Lord of the Flies" is so multifaceted that it is difficult to talk about it. The novel reveals a variety of topics, each of which is interesting and significant in itself. Intertwined in one work, these themes acquire an even deeper, philosophical, almost sacred meaning.

So, "Lord of the Flies" is an allegorical novel-parabola, in other words, a parable about human nature, irrational and fearful despite the voice of reason. The work also touches on issues of religion, and with the Nietzschean motif “God is dead”, because the phrase “Lord of the Flies” is a literal translation of the name of the pagan god Beelzebub, who in Christianity is associated with the devil. And the very mention of the beast refers to the biblical "Revelation of John the Theologian", which tells about the end of the world and the death of mankind. By the way, the original title of the novel "Lord of the Flies" can also be translated as "Lord of the Flies", but this option did not take root in Russia.

Lord of the Flies is also a social drama: a strong and intelligent leader gradually becomes an outcast; a weak and clumsy fat outcast is not only tyrannized, but eventually killed. This is also a dystopia that reveals the true essence of people, which manifests itself even in seemingly innocent children. We see an attempt to build an exemplary society, which turns into collapse, degradation, a real nightmare. This is an adventure novel, a robinsonade with an ideal setting - an island with excellent conditions for life. Finally, this is a book about childhood, about cooperation and rivalry, about friends and enemies: "Height was spinning, friendship was spinning"; "They are[Ralph and Jack] looked at each other with amazement, love and hatred"; “And this strange thread between him and Jack; no, Jack will never quit, he won't leave him alone".

It must be admitted that Lord of the Flies is rarely spoken of as a horror, more often paying attention to the religious and philosophical meaning of the work. Therefore, we will try to restore justice and consider only one aspect - horror.

The beast comes out of the waters, the beast comes down from the sky

And there is a lot of horror in Golding's novel. And above all - the beast, one of the key images of the work and one of the most terrible monsters in the history of horror literature.

Already in the second chapter, a baby with a birthmark half his face whispers about a snake-beast that "comes out of the waters." Soon the child dies in a forest fire, arranged through an oversight. By the way, this tragic accident also penetrates to the depths of the soul, especially the hysterical Khryushino: “Here is that kid, the one on the face with a mark, I don’t see him. Where is he?"

Then there are more and more vague allusions to the beast, which comes in dreams and imagines itself in the interweaving of vines. “Something big and scary is coming under the trees”; “You feel as if you are not being hunted at all, but you are being hunted; as if behind you, in the jungle, someone is always hiding". A primal fear of the dark and the unknown is unleashed, which even Jack, the embodiment of masculine strength turning into cruelty, recognizes. Horror grows chaotically, flickers in the broken and often incoherent conversations of the boys, in some omissions, silences - and this makes it even more tense. And worst of all, neither the characters of the novel nor the readers know for sure whether the beast exists or not. Goulding deliberately confuses the narrative, forcing the atmosphere.

The attempt to track down the monster is successful. By the will of evil fate, they stumble upon a dead parachutist stuck on a rock and terribly “bowing” because of the wind. On the other hand, in the depths of their souls, children believe in the beast - which means they will certainly find it in everything, anything. At the same time, no one, even the sensible Ralph, listens to the insightful Simon, because he is "with regards." It is Simon who first realizes that "the beast is ourselves." And he finds the courage to climb the mountain and find out the secret of the “monster” that has settled there.

Another amazing episode in terms of tension and degree of horror is Simon's meeting with the Lord of the Flies.

“Directly against Simon, the impaled Lord of the Flies was grinning. Finally Simon broke down and looked; I saw white teeth, blood, cloudy eyes, and I could no longer take my eyes off those ancient, inescapably recognizing eyes. There was a painful pounding in Simon's right temple.

“Stupid little boy,” said the Lord of the Flies, “stupid, stupid, and you don’t know anything.

For a few moments, the forest and all other vaguely guessed places in response shook with vile laughter.

“But you knew, right? That I am part of you? An inseparable part! Is it because of me that nothing worked out for you? What happened because of me?

- We'll finish you. It's clear? Jack and Roger and Maurice and Robert and Bill and Piggy and Ralph. Let's finish you. It's clear?

The mouth swallowed Simon. He fell and lost consciousness.

This moment causes irrational fear. We know it's just a pig's head on a stick that Jack left as a gift to the beast. We know that the conversation takes place in the inflamed brain of the "nutty" Simon, overheated in the sun. But we are still afraid, we are afraid of the Lord of the Flies and his words, even if we are reading the novel for the tenth time and we know what will happen next. After this scene, a sickening lump remains in the chest, the lips dry up, the tongue sticks to the larynx, as if you yourself are standing hypnotized in front of the vile, omniscient Lord of the Flies.

Images from the movie "Lord of the Flies"

(Great Britain, 1963, dir. Peter Brook).

Long hair, painted faces

Simon's guess ("the beast is ourselves") brings us to another nightmare: savagery, rapid degradation awaits those who are cut off from civilization.

From the very beginning, the little Robinsons took the plane crash as an opportunity to have fun playing on a wonderful island, "like in a book." The boys even mention Robert Ballantyne's novel Coral Island (it is known that Golding originally conceived Lord of the Flies as an ironic commentary on this naive work).

The island is ours! Stunning island. As long as the adults don't come for us, we'll have fun! (...) We need rules and we must obey them. We are not savages. We are English. And the British are always and everywhere the best. So you have to behave properly.".

The protagonist of the novel Ralph is the embodiment of rationality, civility, "correctness". He is the only one who understands that "except for the rules, we have nothing", that the fire must always smoke, sending a distress signal. He is the first to notice the terrible signs of degradation: “Ralph realized with disgust how dirty he was and stooped; he realized how tired he was of always brushing off tangled hair from his forehead and in the evenings, when the sun was hidden, noisily rustling dry leaves, going to bed.; “Suddenly he realized that he was used to all this, got used to it, and his heart skipped a beat”.

The hero-antagonist Jack, who led the hunters, and then “pulled” all the inhabitants of the island into his savage tribe, feels completely different. He comes up with the idea of ​​painting faces - at first it's just a disguise for hunting, but then it turns into something more: “The mask was already living an independent life, and Jack was hiding behind it, casting aside all shame”. By the end of the novel, all the boys, except Ralph, have lost their faces and names: they have become just faceless savages, painted white, green and red.

Another curious detail: Jack and his hunters come up with a kind of ritual, a hunting dance.

“Maurice, screeching, ran into the center of the circle, imitating a pig; the hunters, continuing to circle, pretended to kill. They danced, they sang.

- Beat the pig! Cut your throat! Get it!

At first it was a funny game, a joke in which even Ralph took part, thereby allowing the hidden, primal, wild part of his soul to break out. But each time the dance became more and more angrier, more and more terrible: “A ring closed around Robert. Robert squealed, first in mock horror, then in real pain.. It is clear that at some point everything will get out of control.

(Great Britain, 1963, dir. Peter Brook).

The face of death

One of the key scenes in Golding's novel is the evening storm during which Jack's tribe held a feast. Ralph, Piggy and other guys also came to the fire, attracted by fried meat, which is impossible to resist after a long fruit diet. Darkness, a thunderstorm, heated passions - all this led to the next savage dances. And it was at that moment that Simon came running, hurrying to convey to his friends the news that there was no animal.

“Kids screaming rushed from the edge, one, not remembering himself, broke through the ring of the elders:

- It's him! He!

The circle became a horseshoe. Something vague, dark crawled out of the forest. A hoarse cry rolled ahead of the beast.

The beast tumbled, almost fell into the center of the horseshoe.

- Beat the beast! Cut your throat! Release the blood!

The blue scar did not descend from the sky, the roar was unbearable. Simon was shouting something about a dead body on the mountain.

- Beast - beat! Throat - cut! Release the blood! Beast - finish it!

The sticks clattered, the horseshoe crunched and closed again in a screaming circle.

The beast knelt in the center of the circle, the beast covered its face with its hands. Trying to block the annoying noise, the beast shouted something about the dead man on the mountain. Here the beast made its way, broke out of the circle and collapsed from the steep edge of the cliff onto the sand, to the water. The crowd rushed after him, glass from the cliff, they flew at the beast, they beat him, bit him, tore him. There were no words, and there were no other movements - only tearing claws and teeth..

Subsequently, Piggy and the Erikisam twins will shamefully deny their involvement in the "dance": “We were standing next to each other. We didn't do anything, we didn't see anything. (...) We left early, we were tired”. And only Ralph will find the strength to admit that it was a murder. Simon's death is a turning point in history, a point of no return, after which the horror of everything that happens will only grow.

Piggy. Fat and awkward, with "asthma-kakassima." We do not even know his name, while we remember the names of minor characters - Henry, Bill, Percival. However, he is smart, and even Ralph admits this: “Piggy knows how to think. How great he is, in order, everything will always turn in his thick head. But which Piggy is the main one? Piggy is funny, fat-bellied, but he cooks a bowler hat, that's for sure ". In addition, it was thanks to Piggy that the boys were able to kindle a signal fire - with the help of his glasses, which became one of the symbols of rationality, order, and hope for salvation.

It is clear that nothing good awaits the boy, nicknamed Piggy, on the island, where there are pigs that bleed. The hunter Roger, an obvious sadist, a gloomy "double" of the harmless Simon, who at the beginning of the novel simply threw stones at the kids, commits a deliberate murder of a person. He drops a stone block on Piggy.

“The stone went over Piggy from head to knees; the horn shattered into a thousand white fragments and ceased to exist. Piggy, without a word, without a sound, flew sideways off the cliff, turning over on the fly. The stone jumped twice and disappeared into the forest. Piggy flew forty feet and landed on his back on that same red, square boulder in the sea. The head split open and the contents spilled out and turned red. Piggy's arms and legs twitched a little, like a pig's when it is first killed. Then the sea again slowly, heavily sighed, boiled over a block of white pink foam; and when it receded again, Piggy was gone.”.

Together with Piggy, the sea shell “dies” - the horn with which Ralph called meetings, another symbol of reason and order. An attempt to create a civilized society has failed: a horde of boys has turned into a primitive tribe, ruled by the leader Jack, who obeys primitive and cruel laws. Ralph is alone.

Shot from the film "Lord of the Flies"

(USA, 1990, dir. Harry Hook).

Finished...

So, a handsome, strong, intelligent leader turns into an outcast. The finale of Golding's novel is saturated with horror: Ralph is not just injured, lonely and confused, they begin a real hunt for him. And worst of all, the Erikisem twins warned that "Roger sharpened the stick at both ends". At the same time, Ralph has the same double-edged spear in his hands, which he picked up after the destruction of the sickening idol - the Lord of the Flies. So, his head will be the next "gift to darkness, gift to the beast."

The narrative is filled with chaos, in which panic and hatred are mixed. The jungle came to life as Ralph was surrounded. Everything around him rumbled when the savages pushed huge blocks of stone at him, hiding. Ralph lost all sense of reason, and he was chased as hunters drive a wild boar screeching in horror when the whole island was on fire.

“Ralph screamed – from fear, despair, anger. His legs straightened out on their own, he screamed and screamed, he could not stop. He darted forward into the thicket, flew out into the clearing, he screamed, he growled, and the blood dripped. He struck with a stake, the savage rolled; but others were already rushing at him, yelling. He dodged the flying spear, then ran in silence. Suddenly, the lights flickering ahead merged, the roar of the forest became thunder, and the bush in its path crumbled into a huge fan of flame..

The appearance of a naval officer on the shore sums up everything that happened, puts everything "on the shelves". The adult's intervention is so sudden that it magically cuts off Ralph's tantrum and the hunters' blind fury.

“Are there any adults here?

Ralph shook his head like a mute. He turned. Boys with sharp sticks in their hands, smeared with colored clay, quietly stood in a semicircle on the shore.

- Have you played it? the officer said.

The fire reached the coconut palms on the shore and swallowed them with a noise.

Leaping like an acrobat, the flames threw out a separate tongue and licked the tops of the palm trees on the site. The sky was black.

The sobering reproaches of an adult, his calmness, his white cap and neat uniform, epaulettes, a revolver, golden buttons on his uniform - all this sets off the nightmare that Ralph had just experienced. And this is mixed with memories of how great everything was in the beginning, how beautiful the island was.

“Dirty, shaggy, with a clean nose, Ralph sobbed over his former innocence, over how dark the human soul is, over how a faithful wise friend nicknamed Piggy turned over then on the fly”.

Images from the movie "Lord of the Flies"

(USA, 1990, dir. Harry Hook).

* * *

To save themselves, the children lit a signal fire - a small, safe, controllable one. But it turned out to be useless, the idea - untenable. The adults arrived only after seeing the smoke from the fire that had devoured the fabulous island. This is the bitter truth that is read between the lines.

A tribe, a leader, painted faces, feasts after a successful hunt, dancing around a fire... It was this way that primitive people went to civilization, to progress. It was the only way to survive, to subdue the uncontrollable and dangerous nature, to overcome the all-consuming irrational fear, to resist the evil forces hidden in the souls. And the boys, who found themselves in isolation, degraded, descended to savages ... thus making a step forward, like their ancestors millions of years ago.

This is the most terrible truth of the "Lord of the Flies". The worst thing is that this is a book about all people. This is a book about us.

Lord of the Flies book review by William Golding, written as part of the Bookshelf #1 competition.

“Maybe this beast is… Maybe… it’s us.”

As you know, what we now call the book "Lord of the Flies" was originally only the second part of the work. In the first version, the events began already on board the aircraft, and the horrors of a nuclear war were also described, during which the very actions of the dystopian parable that we know so well unfolded. However, the publishers did not accept this manuscript for a long time. In the end, William Golding had only to shrug his shoulders and agree to the reduction of his creation. And although at first the public accepted “Lord of the Flies” rather coolly, a little later the book gained real success. And for ten years now, it has continued to be published, while not losing popularity, and this, no less, more than half a century.

It is important to note that Golding, a British by nationality, participated in the Second World War, serving in the navy. It was there that he saw how cruelly one person can treat his own kind, which was later reflected in the book itself. The British, being representatives of the empire, “over which the sun never sets”, have always been kind to such a literary genre as Robinsonade. Yes, and for Golding himself, being surrounded on all sides by water is a very close topic, because he served in the Navy after all. However, with all the desire to write according to the canons of Robinsonade, the author manages to go against her, which I will explain below.

I propose now to go directly to the work. So, the author tells us about children, only boys, who find themselves on the island after a plane crash. First, they choose the leader, who becomes Ralph, and then the hunters (from among the choristers, which is very important), who, in addition to their main occupation, will have to watch the fire, lit in order to be noticed by a vessel sailing nearby. Then Ralph, along with the leader of the hunters Jack and another boy named Simon, go to inspect the area to make sure that this island is uninhabited, and indeed an island at all.

After that, a real drama unfolds before us. All attempts by Ralph, seeking to restore order and progress with the help of Piggy, lead only to the opposite - complete disorder and chaos. In general, in addition to the nickname of one of the heroes of the book, the image of a pig flashes before us all the time. Even the island itself, when viewed from above, resembles this creature. An animal that is the personification of disgust and anti-civilization. If we remember the founder of Robinsonade Defoe, where the main character, thanks to his ingenuity and ingenuity, prevails over nature, then here we can observe a completely opposite picture. The closer children strive to civility, for example by building a fire, the more disorder they cause in their society (bonfire leads to fire). This is the main fear of Golding - the doom of mankind to self-destruction.

If you read the work carefully, you can see the allusion to the Victorian youthful robinsonade used in some moments. "Coral island", which describes the idealized good British boys (by the way, the author took the names Ralph and Jack from there), coping with any disasters that they have to face. Golding, on the other hand, built on this work a complete antithesis of the “good British boys” theory, showing readers what these “little saints” can actually be. It should be remembered that this book is filled with allegories, so the guys mean the whole society of the most extensive empire in the world at that time, and even all of humanity. In "Lord of the Flies" we see all the stages of the formation of civilization from its very inception. William Golding, having experienced the horrors of the war, wants to say that not only the Germans can be bad and cruel, and in general, nationality has nothing to do with it. Even chorus boys (and in Catholic countries this is an image of decency and modesty, which, however, Jack smashes to smithereens) are capable of such atrocities, while the only thing that keeps people from showing their terrible side is social restrictions, laws. To illustrate, here is an excerpt:

“Roger picked up a handful of pebbles and started throwing them. But around Henry there was a space about ten yards in diameter, where Roger did not dare to aim. Here, invisible, but strict, hovered the prohibition of the former life. The squatting child was overshadowed by the protection of parents, schools, policemen, and the law. Roger was held by the hand by a civilization that did not know about him and collapsed.

The symbol of law and order in the book is a shell, which gives the right to speak at a meeting to anyone who holds it in their hands. At the same time, like a flag or coat of arms, it is only a completely ordinary object, and only people add the meanings they need to such things. In addition, the shell is also a sign of power, so when it is broken, Jack loudly declares that he himself can become a leader.

Perhaps some reader will have a question: why are there no girls on the island at all? Is Golding a sexist? As the writer once answered in an interview, he “was a son, became a father, plans to become a grandfather, but he was never a girl,” so it is logical that it is more convenient and correct for him to write about the male gender. But the main reason is still that if the whole civilization is reduced to the size of a group of children, then it is more reasonable to choose boys. In addition, William Golding did not add girls to the work in order to avoid the appearance of the theme of sex in the text.

In addition to everything, the parable also contains a religious theme: the children ended up on the island after a plane crash, that is, they fell from the sky: they are, if you will, "fallen angels." However, these angels soon turn into real devils. The name “Lord of the Flies” itself is a translation of the name of the ancient pagan god Baal Zvuv (Beelzebub), known in the Christian world as the Devil. Finding themselves in the natural world, alien and completely unfriendly for boys, children begin to believe in a quick return to their “lost paradise”, to wait for Salvation in the form of adults, although at that very time they are doing things no better. At the moment when the boys dream of help, all that the "adult" world sends them is the corpse of a parachutist, which scares them even more.

Speaking about the religious side of the work, one cannot fail to mention such a character as Simon, who seems alienated and even blissful. Like any detail in this parable, this is not without reason: at the very time when the seed of cruelty ripens in the society of boys, Simon finds his “abode” and moves away from society, becoming closer to nature. It is also a fact that Simon was originally called the Apostle Peter in English. In the book, before becoming a victim of the atrocities of his own comrades, Simon brings them a good message that there is no Beast, and there is nothing to be afraid of. However, in the end, he is killed, and we are convinced that the real Beast is the children themselves.

However, not a single religion. William Golding, being a great admirer and connoisseur of ancient Greek art, could not ignore him. When writing Lord of the Flies, he was guided by tragedy Euripides "Bacchae". To make it a little clearer, I will try to briefly retell the plot of this ancient drama, and show how it has something in common with the creation of Golding himself.

The tragedy of Euripides tells of the Thebes king Pentheus, who, upon his arrival in the city, is told that all the women in the city have gone crazy: they left the city, got naked, girded themselves with snakes (the image of a serpent, by the way, is also often found in The Lord of the Flies - from the ubiquitous lianas on the island to the assumptions of children about the external appearance of the Beast), called themselves a choir of Bacchantes (the hunters in Golding's parable also consisted of choristers and wore togas, which unites them even more closely with that era) and began to praise the god Dionysus. The valiant Pentheus, indignant, orders Dionysus to be tied to a pole. However, he soon frees himself, once again surprising Pentheus, and invites him to go and spy on the women. The Thebes king agrees, and the reader at this moment realizes that this character is not so valiant (like any other person has his negative side). Women, noticing Pentheus, kill the Theban king, mistaking him for a lion (the children attacked Simon, also considering him a beast) and return to the city with a joyful face, and Pentheus' mother carries his head with her. And then they seem to be awakened from a dream - they realize who they killed. In ancient Greek tragedy, as in Golding's book, everything ends in tears, in general weeping. In The Lord of the Flies, the author uses a literary device, known since the time of Euripides, under the name “God from the machine” (“Deus ex machina” - Latin), when help to the heroes comes from outside, while it is not due to any natural causes. Here, the sailors of the navy become such a lifeline, who, however, when they saw the children, were surprised that these were their “good British boys”.

"Lord of the Flies", published in 1954, is still in demand and does not lose its relevance. In the middle of the last century, the British considered themselves the most correct, the most well-mannered, the bearers of true gentlemanly values. William Golding in his work clearly shows that they themselves could be in the place of the Germans, and there may not be a trace of their civilization, one has only to release the Beast lurking inside everyone. In many English-speaking countries, this work is included in the lists of compulsory school literature. A real mosaic of various meanings, allusions and subcontexts - it can be read from a variety of angles: as the formation and death of civilization, as an allegory of Nazism (the ritual of hunters is associated with this), through a religious prism (an imperfect world-island created by God) and even as a new legend ancient Greek tragedy. However, the book has an amazing and rare property: in any reading it remains exciting and exciting and does not let the reader go until the very last page.