Lord of The Flies is one of the best-known books of the post-war years. A group of young boys, the oldest of whom is twelve, and the youngest six, are marooned on a desert island, and almost immediately a battle for supremacy takes place among the principal characters. Violence and death follow. The schoolboys are in a plane which has been shot down during what the reader assumes is a war set in the near future. Generically, therefore, Lord of the Flies can be seen as a dystopian or anti- utopian novel.
             During an atomic war, an aircraft carrying a group of about thirty pre-adolescent boys crashes on an inhabited coral island in the Pacific. The crew has been killed, and the boys are left on their own. They begin to collect themselves into a society of food gatherers under their elected chief, Ralph. A routine of duties is arranged and, at first, the boys live peacefully. Soon, however, differences arise as to their priorities. The smaller children lose interest in their tasks, the older boys want to spend more time hunting than carrying out more routine duties such as stoking the fire and building shelters. A rumor spreads that a "beast" is lurking in the forest and the children have nightmares. Jack, promising to fulfill the children's desire for a reversion to primitivism, is chosen as the new chief, and the two society splits into two sections: those who hunt and who become savages, and those who believe in rational conduct. Ralph gradually finds himself an outcast, and in the end the army of hunters tracks him down on orders from Jack. Just as Ralph is about to be killed by the "savages," a naval officer arrives with a rescue party.
             Certainly the novel Lord of the Flies is a pessimistic one. Although the boys begin by electing a leader, Ralph, and call frequent meetings, using a conch shell as a symbol of authority, their attempts at re-creating "civilization" quickly founder. Jack Merridew, who is in charge ...