Hollywood and Novels

The three factor the movie, The Lord of the Flies by Harry Hook differ from the book written by William Golding, is that Ralph and Jack began as friends when they arrived, they boys came to the island together, and the conch did not break with Piggy's death.

Ralph and Jack began as friends in the movie, but in the book they began with the rivalry to be chief. I think this changes the story. Golding may have tried to prove that when they began competitive of one another, I felt a foreshadow that they were going to become enemies, and in the movie, I didn't feel that, so I think Hook missed quite a large part of the story.

The second point is that they came to the island together, while in the book, they crashed onto the island and were seperated. Harry Hook had everyone crash at sea and sail together to the island, this changed the story because Ralph blew the conch to call them all together in Golding's novel. So when he blew the conch, it had more meaning to it and showed it's form of government and civilization. In the movie they do not really use the conch as much, so I felt that the conch lost its meaning to it.

The last point that made the movie different from the book is that in Golding's version, the conch breaks into pieces along with Piggy, but in Hook's movie only Piggy dies. I think that it shows that the conch doesn't have as much authority to it, because as William Golding wrote it, when Piggy dies and the conch is destroyed, he is showing that all meaning of government and logic is destroyed along with him and the conch.

The Lord of the Flies directed by Harry Hook is different from William Golding's novel. In the book, Ralph and Jack begin fighting to be chief from the beginning, they were separated from the plane crash, and the conch broke with Piggy. In the movie, Ralph and Jack begin as friend so they never began competitive, everyone came to the island together and the conch never breaks. These statements changes the mood as the story did. In my opinion the book is better because it had every scene the movie had cut out, every sentence in the book was important and shaped the story. Golding added these scenes for a reason, and to shape the story while the movie did not.