Golding got the idea for the plot from The Coral Island, a children's adventure novel with a focus on Christianity and the supposed civilising influence of British colonialism.
[8][9] Editor Charles Monteith worked with Golding on several major edits, including removing the entire first section which described an evacuation from nuclear war.
Ralph fails to convince the boys that no beast exists, while Jack gains popularity by declaring that he will personally hunt and kill the monster.
Jack and his followers set up an offering to the beast in the forest: a pig's head, mounted on a sharpened stick and swarming with flies.
That night, Ralph and Piggy visit Jack's tribe, who have begun painting their faces and engaging in primitive ritual dances.
The officer expresses his disappointment at seeing the boys exhibiting such feral, warlike behavior, then turns, "moved and a little embarrassed," to stare at his cruiser waiting offshore.
[5] Lord of the Flies portrays a scenario in which upper-class British children quickly descend into chaos and violence without adult authority, despite the boys' attempts to establish order and co-ordination.
[5] Lord of the Flies contains various references to The Coral Island; for example, the rescuing naval officer describing the boys' misadventures as a "jolly good show.
[15] Some examples of symbolism in Lord of the Flies are the signal fire, Piggy's glasses, and the conch shell, which can be read as representing hope, reason, democracy and unity, among other interpretations.
The novel is styled as allegorical fiction, embodying the concepts of inherent human savagery, mob mentality, and totalitarian leadership.
[7] E. M. Forster chose Lord of the Flies as his "outstanding novel of the year", and it was described in one review as "not only a first-rate adventure but a parable of our times".
[7] In February 1960, Floyd C. Gale of Galaxy Science Fiction rated Lord of the Flies five stars out of five, stating, "Golding paints a truly terrifying picture of the decay of a minuscule society ... Well on its way to becoming a modern classic".
[20] Lord of the Flies presents a view of humanity unimaginable before the horrors of Nazi Europe, and then plunges into speculations about mankind in the state of nature.
Lord of the Flies was included on the American Library Association's list of the 100 most frequently challenged books of 1990–1999, for its controversial stance on human nature and individual welfare versus the common good.
[22] Lord of the Flies has been contrasted with the Tongan castaways incident from 1965, when a group of schoolboys on a fishing boat from Tonga were marooned on an uninhabited island and considered dead by their relatives.
The group not only managed to survive for over 15 months but "had set up a small commune with food garden, hollowed-out tree trunks to store rainwater, a gymnasium with curious weights, a badminton court, chicken pens and a permanent fire, all from handiwork, an old knife blade and much determination".
[24] In 2003, Lord of the Flies was listed at number 70 on the BBC's survey The Big Read,[25] and in 2005 it was chosen by Time magazine as one of the 100 best English-language novels since 1923.
In April 2023, the BBC announced that the British production company Eleven Film would produce the first ever television adaptation of the novel, written by screenwriter Jack Thorne.
In October 2014 it was announced that the 2011 production[36][failed verification] of Lord of the Flies would return to conclude the 2015 season at the Regent's Park Open Air Theatre ahead of a major UK tour.
[citation needed] Kansas-based Orange Mouse Theatricals and Mathew Klickstein produced a topical, gender-bending adaptation called Ladies of the Fly that was co-written by a group of girls aged 8 to 16 based on the original text and their own lives.
[39] Author Stephen King named his fictional town of Castle Rock after Jack's mountain camp in Lord of the Flies.