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00:00Oh man, this tropical island is a lot hotter than I thought it would be.
00:08Moby, can you get me some of that water?
00:11Moby?
00:12Ah!
00:13Ah!
00:14That is not funny at all.
00:25Dear Tim and Moby, my English class is reading Lord of the Flies.
00:30Can you tell me more about this book?
00:32From Anna.
00:33Lord of the Flies is a novel by British author William Golding.
00:38It was the first novel of Golding's career and also the most famous.
00:42It tells the story of a group of British schoolboys stranded on a tropical island in the Pacific
00:47Ocean.
00:48Well, actually, it's not just an adventure story.
00:53I mean, it's exciting, but the book is about a lot more than just kids exploring an island.
00:59Lord of the Flies was published in 1954.
01:03That was at the peak of the Cold War, the struggle between communist countries like
01:07the Soviet Union and Western democracies like the United States and Britain.
01:11It was also less than ten years after World War II.
01:16Golding served in the British Navy during the war and was amazed at mankind's capacity
01:21for aggression and cruelty.
01:24He felt that all wars were caused by something evil and violent hidden beneath our civilized
01:30exteriors.
01:31Lord of the Flies starts at the beginning of an unnamed war.
01:35A group of English schoolboys, ages six to twelve, are being evacuated from their homes
01:40when their plane is shot down and crashes on the island.
01:44There's plenty of food and water, but the boys' troubles are just beginning.
01:49Hold your horses, I'm getting to the good part.
01:52One of the older boys, Ralph, takes control of the situation.
01:56He's helped out by Piggy, an overweight, awkward boy who's also the smartest and most logical
02:01of the bunch.
02:02Ralph tries to organize the boys into a kind of productive, democratic society.
02:08Anyone can speak his mind and help the group come to a decision as long as he's holding
02:12the conch, a large white seashell.
02:15Ralph tries to keep everyone focused on eventually being rescued.
02:19He urges them to keep a fire going in hope that the smoke will alert passing ships.
02:25Well, pretty soon Ralph's orderly system starts to break down.
02:31First off, the boys are terrified of a mysterious beast they think is lurking somewhere on the
02:35island.
02:36And a boy named Jack becomes increasingly jealous of Ralph's status as chief.
02:42Jack decides to become leader of his own group.
02:45He offers the boys freedom from the responsibilities that Ralph has placed on them.
02:50With Jack, these boys spend most of their time hunting the wild pigs that live on the
02:54island.
02:55They paint their faces and chant and dance like members of a warrior tribe.
03:01The signal fire goes out, and Ralph and Piggy's pleas for reason and unity are mocked and
03:07ignored.
03:08Things get worse as the other boys become extremely cruel and violent.
03:14I'm not going to tell you how it ends.
03:15You have to read it for yourself.
03:17Anyway, you can see that Lord of the Flies isn't just an adventure story.
03:22In fact, it's an allegory, a story with two meanings, literal and symbolic.
03:28On one level, the book is about boys on an island.
03:31But on another level, it's about abstract ideas, like human nature and the struggle
03:36against evil.
03:37In an allegory, objects, characters, and events stand in for different ideas.
03:44For example, the mysterious beast symbolizes the dark, violent part of the human soul that
03:49causes people to turn against one another and make war.
03:53The conch symbolizes mankind's attempts to establish civilization and order.
03:58And Piggy stands for reason and logic, which helps people attain these goals.
04:05That's what I meant when I said it wasn't really an adventure story.
04:08It's about a lot more than just a group of stranded boys.
04:12Anyway, that's all I have to say.
04:14Now go read the book.
04:19Cut that out.