Ralph- Ralph is a tall, blond boy who establishes himself as
 the leader soon after the boys crash on the island.  He 
 struggles against Jack for the respect of the boys.  
 Throughout the novel he is the advocate of order and 
 civilization.
 
 Jack- Jack is the leader of the boy's choir.  Ralph puts him 
 in charge of hunting and maintaining the signal fire.  
 Eventually he revolts against Ralph and leads a savage pack 
 of boys to the far side of the island.  Jack is unconcerned 
 with order but thrives on the thrill of the hunt.
 
 Piggy- Piggy is an obese boy with bad vision which forces him 
 to wear thick glasses.  He is picked on by the other boys 
 because of his weight.  Despite his physical weakness, Piggy 
 is very intelligent. He befriends Ralph and socializes well 
 with the littluns.  Piggy is killed by Jack's tribe near the 
 end of the story. 
  
 Simon- Simon is a Christ-like figure.  He doesn't socialize 
 much with the other boys, and is neither liked or disliked by 
 them.  He spends much of his time wandering alone in the 
 jungle.  Simon is the only character who converses with The 
 Lord of the Flies.  He is killed by the other boys on a 
 stormy night. 
 
 Roger- Roger is Jack's closest friend.  He is a good hunter, 
 and is very sadistic.  He tortures pigs, and Piggy.  Other 
 than his cruelty, Roger has few characteristics.
 
 
 Sam 'n Eric- Sam and Eric are twins who are so similar that 
 they are referred to as one person by the other boys.  They 
 do what they are told by both Ralph and Jack.
 
 Little'uns- The little'uns are set apart as a different 
 society than the older boys.  They lack recognition and 
 interest of the severvity of the situation.  They are all 
 frightened and depend on the older boys as gaurdians.   
 
 Percival- Percival is the only individual that Golding 
 singles out of the little'uns to their personify their 
 emotional status.  He displays their fear of the beast, 
 and progressive mental derangement.
 
 
 

    The book opens after the airplane crashes on the deserted 
 island.  The airplane was shot down because there is a war 
 currently taking place.  Ralph and Piggy are the first 
 characters that you are introduced to. They find each other, 
 and begin talking to one another on the beach.  They discover 
 that the pilots are deceased, and therefore there are no 
 adults on the island.  This fact gives them both much 
 delight.
 
    Ralph and Piggy explore the island untill they find a 
 conch shell.  Ralph blows the shell, calling out to the 
 other boys who were scattered around the area.  Jack and 
 his boys' choir arrive, marching in formation, wearing their 
 uniforms.  After most of the boys had congregated, an 
 election takes place to decide who should be the leader of 
 the group.  Ralph and Jack are the leading candidates.  
 Ralph wins because of his initiative in gathering the boys, 
 and his possesion of the conch shell.
   
   Ralph's first duty as leader is to appoint Jack the 
 leader of the soldiers and hunters.  He did this so that 
 Jack's feelings would not be hurt because of his loss of 
 the election.  Then Ralph, after promising not to, tells 
 the other boys Piggy's dispised nickname.  
     
    The meeting disperses and Ralph sets out with Jack and 
 Simon to explore the island.  When exploring, they stumble 
 across a wild pig.  Jack prepares to kill it, but is 
 unable to bring himself to slaughter the helpless animal. 
 
    The boys reassemble to create the rules and 
 punishments for breaking them.  The only rule they decide 
 on is that whoever holds the conch shell must be heard by 
 the others.  At this meeting a little'un describes a 
 beast that he saw the night before in the jungle.  The 
 older boys reassure the little'uns that it was only a 
 nightmare, but the seeds of fear had already taken root.  
 During this meeting they also organize the construction 
 and maintenance of a signal fire.  The fire is built and 
 lit using Piggy's glasses.  The flames soon become out of 
 control and it is suspected that one of the little'uns was 
 burned because of their negligence.
 
   Ralph and Simon erect three huts upon the beach while 
 Jack hunts and the others swim in the lagoon.  Ralph 
 complains the Jack about the unwillingness of the boys 
 to work.  Jack's obsession with killing the pig becomes 
 evident when Ralph requests that the choir boys build 
 huts instead of roaming the jungle in search of food.  
 Meanwhile, Simon wanders off in the jungle alone.
 
   The boys become delusional in the tropical heat and 
 Piggy alone recognizes that they are only mirages.  The 
 little'uns become sick from the overripeness of the fruit 
 and suffer from chronic diarrhea.  Percival stays in a hut 
 weeping for two days refusing to eat or speak.  Jack and 
 his hunters finally catch and kill the pig.  They roast 
 the pig, and have a feast upon the flesh of their kill.  
 
    Ralph once again calls a meeting to lecture them about 
 their inability to set rules and stick with them.  The 
 fear of the beast is spreading faster, and Ralph tries to 
 allievate it with common sense in a hope to allay them 
 with him.  Jack, on the other hand, uses the fear of 
 the beasts to destroy any chance for Ralph's success.  
 Darkness once again falls upon the huddled masses of 
 little'uns, and they begin to tell stories of monsters.  
 This spreads more panic and fear within the group.  It 
 is then that the meeting becomes disorderly, and the 
 meeting dissasembles with Jack as leader.  Only Piggy, 
 Simon, and Ralph are left.  Ralph becomes disheartened, 
 and wishes to give up his chieftainship.  Piggy and Simon 
 talk him out of this.  
 
    That night two aircraft involved in the war engage in 
 a dogfight.  There are many explosions but the sleeping 
 boys are not awaire of the commotion.  One airplane is 
 blown up and the pilots corpse floats down into the 
 jungle.  The firewatchers, Sam and Eric, wake up and 
 discover the body of the dead pilot.  They think it is the
 beast and flee in terror.   
 
    They alert the other boys of the danger and tell of 
 their escape from the beast.  Ralph, with a party of 
 boys with wooden spears, goes into the jungle search for 
 the beast.  While searching, they come upon some caves
 on the other side of the island.  They search these caves 
 but find nothing.  The search party forgets thier purpose 
 and disbands.  
 
    They party goes back to the signal fire to see that 
 Sam and Eric, who were in charge of maintaining it, were 
 gone.  The party rebuilds the fire under Ralph's order.  
 
    Jack organizes another hunting party.  They soon come 
 upon a wild boar and pursue it.  In the confusion Jack is 
 stabbed with a tusk and receives a small injury.  The pig 
 escapes into the jungle.  Darkness falls and Simon 
 volunteers to go back to the beach to tell Piggy that 
 they will not return to the huts till very late.  Ralph, 
 Roger, and Jack continue searching alone and come upon the 
 corpse of the parachuter.  They believe that it is the 
 beast and flee in terror.  
 
    The next morning Jack blows the conch and calls and 
 assembly.  During this meeting he confirms the existance 
 of the beast, and says that Ralph is a coward and unfit 
 to remain cheif.  When the other boys refuse to vote 
 Ralph out of power, Jack becomes enraged and decides to 
 start his own party on the other side of the island.  He 
 walks off alone.
 
    Ralph and the boys rebuild the signal fire.  When they 
 have completed the job, they find out that many boys have 
 wandered off to join Jack's party.  
 
    Jack's party has covered themselves in warpaint and 
 begin another hunt.  They succesfully catch and brutally 
 kill a pig.  They decapitate the pig and place the 
 pighead on a pole as a gift to the beast.  After the 
 killing of the pig, Jack and a few boys raid Ralph's 
 camp. They steal burning sticks from the fire and invite 
 the boys to a pig roast at his side of the island.
 
    Meanwhile, Simon is alone in the jungle.  He comes 
 upon the pig's head and it begins to speak to him.  The 
 head tells Simon that the evil is inside of the boys, and 
 threatons Simon until he passes out.  When Simon wakes up, 
 he descovers that the beast is not a monster but only the 
 corpse of a pilot.  He runs back to Jack's party to tell 
 the boys the news.
 
    All of the boys attend Jack's feast in the evening, 
 even Ralph and Piggy.  Jack invites those at the pig 
 roast to join his party, and most of the boys agree to.  
 As darkness falls and a storm approaches, Jack and his 
 party begin dancing.  The primal dance incites a fury in 
 the boys and all join in the mayhem.  Simon walks in on 
 the party during the dance.  They boys, in their maddened 
 state, think that he is the beast and mob him.  Simon is 
 savagely torn apart by them.  The storm breaks after he is 
 dead and the boys run for shelter.
 
    The next morning Ralph and Piggy wake to find that 
 everyone but Sam and Eric, and a few little'uns have 
 joined Jack.  Ralph and Piggy are deeply troubled and 
 disturbed by the slaying of Simon.
 
    At castle rock, Jack rules his tribe with an iron 
 hand.  He punishes all that oppose him and the boys cower 
 under his reign.  That night, Jack and a party raid 
 Ralph's tribe again and steal Piggy's glasses.
 
    The next morning Ralph and his boys go to castle rock 
 to get Piggy's glasses back from Jack.  Jack's tribe 
 mock them and throw rocks at them until Jack and a 
 hunting party appear from out of the woods.  Jack tells 
 Ralph to leave his side of the island, and Ralph asks for 
 Piggy's glasses back.  They two argue and get in a fight.  
 When they are separated Jack orders that Sam and Eric be 
 disarmed and bound.  This act enrages Ralph and he begins 
 screaming at Jack.  The two begin fighting again.  Piggy 
 interupts the fight and tries to pursued the boys that 
 they must preserve justice and order.  The other boys 
 mock him.  Roger, on castle rock, pushes a boulder down 
 the slope at Piggy.  Piggy, who can't see without his 
 glasses, is crushed.  The other boys start throwning 
 spears at Ralph, and he runs away into the jungle.
 
    Ralph hides in the jungle while Sam and Eric remain 
 with Jack's tribe.  Ralph finds the pig's head in the 
 jungle.  He is disgusted by it, but arms himself with the 
 stick that it was mounted upon.  Ralph sneaks back to 
 castle rock where Sam and Eric tell him of the hunt that 
 Jack has organized to catch him.  Ralph sneaks away and 
 hides in a thick thicket.  
 
    In the morning, he hears that Sam and Eric have told 
 Jack where he was hiding.  Jack's hunters can't get at 
 him in the thicket, so they set it on fire in an attempt 
 to smoke him out.  Ralph bursts out of the thicket and 
 flees into the jungle.  Jack and his party pursues him.  
 Ralph runs away from the hunters in the jungle until he 
 is forced out into the open at the beach.  He collapses 
 with exhaustion on the beach.  Looking up, he finds that 
 a friendly naval officer is standing over him.  Jack and 
 his party burst onto the beach and stop at the sight of 
 the officer.  The officer is upset to find out that some 
 boys had died.  Ralph and the other boys burst into tears 
 at realization of what they had done.