"Lord of the Flies": Film and Book Comparison

It is always exhilarating to see the film version of a novel you've read. However, most of the times due the flexibility of the original novel it is much stronger than the film. The novel is able to explain the main idea with coherence and allows the reader to think and conclude about the story. The film version usually lacks these qualities, mainly due to the limited ways to express the theme of the story. Similarly, this is the same case with the novel, "Lord of the Flies". The main theme of the story is, "the dark side of human nature". The book is able to express the main theme better with some vivid scenes while the film version fails to do that.

To begin with, the film failed to show some important elements of the novel due to the deleted scenes of violence and bloody graphic. For instance, in the film version, when Roger pushed the boulder and killed Piggy they did not show the impact in which piggy was struck.

Pigeon Lord of the Flies

Lord of the Flies

Re-Covered Books: The Lord of the Flies

However, in the novel it described the event with clear vividness and the commotion and tension that surrounded that instant. The book described Piggy's death as," Falling forty feet and landed on his back across that square, red rock in the sea. His head opened and stuff came out and turned red."(Chapter 11 page 201) This was a very important incident as it symbolized the evil of the boys and brought vivid memories to the reader. The book emphasized how the savagery of the boys killed piggy while the film failed to do that. Next, the film also failed to emphasis Jack's role as a savage, mainly because it is missing some scenes of Jack's killing of the pig. However the novel on the other hand developed Jack's...