Great movie directors tell a good story, but some of the very best know how to encapsulate the entirey of the movie’s tone and meaning within the first few minutes. Perhaps the most memorable recent example of this came in Christopher Nolan’s The Dark Knight, with its opening bank robbery scene:

After these first few minutes the viewer knows that the Joker is an agent of chaos, and that chaos and confusion will reign for the next two hours. Like a Russian nesting doll, the whole is contained in its parts.

In Lord of the Flies, William Golding tells a story of young adolescent boys stranded on an island during wartime. It is an adventure story, but Golding packs a great deal of philosophy and theology into his tale. His opening paragraph reveals a great deal about the story as a whole. It reads,

The boy with fair hair lowered himself down the last few feet of rock and began to pick his way toward the lagoon. Though he had taken off his school sweater and trailed it now from one hand, his grey shirt stuck to him and his hair was plastered to his forehead. All round him the long scar smashed into the jungle was a bath of heat. He was clambering heavily among the creepers and broken trunks when a bird, a vision of red and yellow, flashed upwards with a witch-like cry; and this cry was echoed by another.

Golding packs a great deal into his description.

• “The boy with fair hair” we will soon learn to be Ralph, who has fair hair because he is going to be one of the main characters that tries to make things right between the boys. He stands for their best chance at justice.
• We see that he has a “school sweater,” which lets us know that he attends an English prep school. His outfit is very much out of place in this setting, which clues us in that the boys, whatever their intentions may be, will be “up against it” throughout the story.
• The “long scar” refers to a large cutting made in a jungle or forest. In this case, we soon find out that this scar was made by the crash of a plane the boys were on. The “scar” in the jungle foreshadows the violence the boys will experience, and the marks their experience will leave on their souls.
• The presence of a “red and yellow” bird lets us know that we are in a tropical “paradise” of sorts. This paradise has “creepers” (a term for vines that hang from trees) in it, however. Creepers can look like huge snakes (some of the younger children will mistake them for snakes) and the use of this term should recall the Paradise of Creation and our fall into sin.
• This red and yellow bird makes a “witch-like” cry, letting us know that nature itself, despite abundant food and water, will work against the boys. They are in a hostile environment.

We see, however, a chance at reasonable order come almost right away, in the form of a conch shell. A conch is a large shell found on beaches. Ralph finds one of his own and manages to learn how to blow it, and the noise gathers the scattered boys. Golding’s choice of the conch to have this role is not coincidental. A conch is

• Intricate
• Beautiful
• Mesmerizing with its sound (if played correctly)

But the conch is also fragile. One careless moment around the rocks and the conch would shatter. With the conch as his symbol of order, Golding lets us know that he sees order as precious but also tenuous. In the world the boys inhabit, order is not the natural state of affairs. We’ll see Ralph struggle not so much with moral mistakes in his leadership, but “tactical” mistakes, such as holding an important meeting late at night, and making meetings too long. Even small mistakes such as these have big consequences. The chaos of nature waits right under the surface, ready to assert its dominance.

The book’s title is a reference to the biblical Philistine god of life, fertility, and prosperity. The Hebrews saw him differently, as a demon associated with decay and death. They called him Baal-zebub, or roughly translated, “Lord of the Flies” (2 Ki 1:2-6). Early in the story, the younger children (ages 6-8 or so) believe that there is a “beast” lurking in the forest. As the story progresses, Golding unfolds the identiry of the beast, and who exactly is “Lord of the Flies.” Possibly, the answer the story gives may surprise the students.

Have a great weekend,

Dave