Lord of the Flies Essay

The movie Lord of the Flies by Harry Hook, and the book by William Golding are different in many ways. The major points that caught my eye were the non-existence importance of the conch; Simon doesn’t portray much of Jesus character, and the hate between Jack and Ralph.

In the book, the conch was the most praised object; from the beginning it showed leadership and authority. It was pure to the other boys; it gave them power and them civilized. It symbolizes civilization and made them feel a strong presence of their parents, or authority. Whereas, in the move, it was barely even shown, it didn’t show its power as Golding described it.

Simon is one of the most important characters, he’s the only boy whose personality is very different from the others, because he takes care of the littluns, and nobody else does. In the movie you cant really analyze him as well as in the book. You cant notice the way he portrays Jesus and they don show his kindness, and sympathy; he’s love for nature, and unselfish behavior. You can’t see how his death is similar to Jesus’ death, and how it was done as a sacrifice to kill the “beast” (Simon), which was almost the same as Jesus death. It gives an example of how no one believed in Simon, and thought that he was danger, exactly what happened to Jesus, but that wasn’t shown so well in the movie as in the book.
In the book Simon even talked with the “Lord of the Flies” which was a really important part in the novel, and in the movie it wasn’t as significant as it was in the book. In the movie it just scares everyone, and Simon doesn’t even pay attention to it, again Harry Hook doesn’t display the religious points of views as in the book.

In the book Jack and Ralph hated each other since they met, and in the beginning of the movie Jack and Ralph were friends, talked, and played around. Since the beginning Jack hated Ralph, first because he had power, the power he wanted to have, to be a leader. Also, Ralph had respect and didn’t want them to be hunting and Jack loved to hunt, but Ralph didn’t. In the start it was mostly jealousy, but then it become really difficult for the two of them to cooperate, and be a group, that’s why Jack end up separating, and making his own group. In the movie you can only see from one day to another that the boys weren’t all together without no further, explanation as in the book.

For these reasons, it’s evident that the movie and book varies in many ways. As in the unimportance of the conch, Simon doesn’t portray much of Jesus character, and the hate between Jack and Ralph. All this elements are missing in the movie’s plot. For me, the book has all the details needed, which Golding should precisely.