Lord of the Flies: Create your own country, when you have no choice.
Years ago, I read William Golding's famous novel Lord of the Flies for the first time, and have had it in my collection for as long. The plot concerns a group of English boys during World War II who have to evacuate Singapore as the Japanese Army advances down the Malay Peninsula. They board a plane to escape, but it is shot down by Japanese gunners and crashes into the ocean.
The boys have to swim to the shore of an uninhabited island, consisting partly of jungle, partly of tropical forest, and constant, oppressive heat; and they have to eke out an existence until the British Navy locates them and rescue them. From the start, the author Golding leaves hints about the boys' personal qualities.
Right away, 12-year-old Ralph assumes leadership over the other boys, without taking a vote. A fat, near-sighted boy nicknamed Piggy becomes Ralph's advisor, even as he endures derision from the other boys. They all attend an elite sort of school, with Establishment trappings, where leadership- training starts early; so the boys already have a few things going for them, even with no grown-ups around.
First of all, Ralph and Piggy assemble the boys to find out how many are in their group and to get their names. Then, they tell the other boys that they need to start a fire and hope that a passing ship will see it. Ralph tells the boys to collect wood for it, and to keep it burning night-and-day, in order to hasten their rescue from the island. They use Piggy's thick glasses to start the fire.
Under Ralph and Piggy's leadership, the boys establish a semblance of order and progress. To call them for a meeting, they decide they need something official, and pick up a disused conch-shell on the beach. Ralph tells them that, when he blows into the conch-shell, the boys know that they have to assemble on the beach.
They have to deal with a worst-case scenario, since the plane has crashed with no surviving grown-ups, they have to take the initiative and manage by themselves, until the grown-ups come to rescue them. The boys have to act like grown-ups, themselves. Thanks to having grown up in a leadership-level social class, they have already picked up some of the know-how from parents, school-masters, and their Church education. Some of the boys sing in the Church-choir.
Unfortunately for Ralph and Piggy, another boy named Jack, assisted by a creepy classmate named Roger, form their own group and oppose Ralph and Piggy. They call themselves "the Hunters," and lure the other boys into a hunting expedition. The Hunters want to hunt, engage in tribal rituals, and "have fun". At one point, they let the fire go out. They daub themselves in tribal paints, carry spears, and hunt down a pig. They corner it and thrust it to death, leaning on their spears, and listen to its death-squeals. Jack also spreads rumors about a monster on the island, creating an atmosphere of terror among the youngest boys, which is his intention.
It is now night-time on the desert-island. The boys have reached near-exhaustion, even as Jack and Roger whip them up into a frenzy. They also accidently break the conch-shell, which had a role of maintaining an organizational connection between the boys. The Hunters steal Piggy's glasses, in oder to restart the fire and roast their pig; and before the Navy finally arrives to rescue them, worse things happen.
Critics have interpreted Lord of the Flies many ways. It is provocative enough to invite opinions of every stripe. Their judgments are a dime-a-dozen, as far as I'm concerned. Stick with the basics, I'll say. Ralph and Piggy have primarily the task of creating a microcosmal nation. The leaders have to provide for their group, maintain order, defend themselves, and keep things organized.
The other side rebels against an orderly system. It wants to invent enemies, co-opt everyone else in their invention, and basically spread fear and confusion. It hatches conspiracies against its leaders and lets the basic functions of the nation run down. As Jack gains power, he sits on his own throne and lets others wait on him. For me, Lord of the Flies is a study of the battle between nationhood and dictatorship.