William Golding's classic novel Lord Of The Flies is one of the most frequently assigned books in English literature classes. Many of us, including myself, find that it's difficult to read a book, especially for the first time, without some additional help. Watching a movie based on the book is a definite help for me. Also, if English is not your first language, if you read a novel for the first time, you can easily miss some of the subtle nuances of the language. Certainly that's the case for me if I pick up a novel in, say, Swedish, in which I would miss everything!

So having someone fluent in English read the book to you can make the reading experience more enjoyable. You are forced to slow down and enjoy the author's writing style much better. I found this when I blogged about Brave New World and 1984. It's great that there are so many wonderful YouTube videos available that can help you to do this.

Lord Of The Flies is the story of a group of British pre-adolescent boys (they'are ALL boys), ages 6 to about 14, who survive a plane crash in the Pacific Ocean during World War II, and somehow manage to make it to a deserted island, which (fortunately for them) has enough food and water for all of them. This is a world without adults, who are busy fighting World War II (the book suggests the war ends in an atomic bomb - which of course is how the war in the Pacific did end), leaving the boys to fend for themselves.

So what type of society will the boys create? Will they live happily ever after, free of adult supervision? Or will they descend into savagery and cruelty? If you have never read the book, I won't answer these questions. These questions have been debated for many centuries, from books such as Aristotle's Politics and Plato's Republic, to Robinson Crusoe, Brave New World, and 1984.

The Tom Hanks movie, Cast Away, draws heavily from Lord Of The Flies, but in that case, he only had to deal with his own survival. There's a watermelon symbol, called Wilson, in the movie, to whom Tom Hanks talks. This is a pretty innocent conversation. In Lord Of The Flies, the boys end up talking to a dead pig's head. The head is surrounded by buzzing insects, and is the symbol for Beelzebub, the Devil. Much more scary.

Watch the movie (1963) updated somewhat from the book:

Listen to the audiobook:

Lord Of The Flies (crash course):

Study Guide (Thug Notes):

Study Guide (Spark Notes):

Study Guide (Shmoop):