Summary of Act 1

After being told I will illustrate act one of Lord of the Flies from the screen play I start off by reading the screen play, the book and the film adaption to help me fully understand the first act from head to toe.

I then made an in-depth summary of act one showing all the points I plan to illustrate.


- Set sometime around the 1940s to the late 50s during the cold war. The children were being evacuated back to England.

- The first scene we see Ralphe on the beach of the island, possibly swam to it or was washed up on it.

- He becomes aquatinted with Piggy who was also on the plain, they exchange names.

- Ralphe goes for a swim while Piggy watches. Ralphe suggests the pilot ejected part of the plane that carried the children and that he will come back to rescue them. Piggy then says as they were being ejected he saw part of the plane was on fire suggesting the pilot was killed.

- Ralphe then noticed a conch and blows into it to attract anyone else who was washed up on the island.

- A bunch of young children then start to gather, this includes two young twins called Sam and Eric, another two young children called Johnny and Percival and several other young children younger than Ralphe and Piggy.

- A choir then arrives lead by Jack and includes Rodger, Bill, Robert, Harold, Henry and Simon.

- They have a meeting and decide they need a chief.

- Jack suggests he should be chief but everyone votes for Ralphe because hes the oldest and he found the conch. Jack feels humiliated being voted down.

- Ralphe liking Jack and wants to be friends says he is in charge of the choir and they will be hunters.

- Ralphe then takes Simon and Jack to the top of the island.

- They find out they are on an island and there is water and pigs they can hunt for, but the first one they see gets away.

- They head back to the others and form another meeting to tell the others of the news.

- They make a rule that the person holding the conch gets to speak (a signifiant moment that shows how the conch represents rules and authority)

- a young boy then holds the conch and asks what will Ralphe do about the beast he saw.

- Ralphe says there is no beast but Jack says he and his hunters will hunt it if they see it.

- Ralphe says they need to make a small fire so a passing ship will see them.

- The fire they start get out of control and burns off a big chunk of the island. Piggy accuses everyone of acting like children.

- Later on  a ship is passing by but the fire isn't lit. The boys try to relight the fire but by the time they do the ship has passed and its too late.

-Piggy and Ralphe blame Jack who was suppose to be watching the fire at the time but was instead hunting.

- Jack cant do anything to Ralphe but he smacks piggy and breaks one lens of his glasses.

- Ralphe defends Piggy and says they need to have stricter rules and calls for another meeting.

- But Jack interrupts and is annoyed with Ralphe who he had liked up until now and feels humiliated that Ralphe would defend Piggy over him.

- Jacks says they dont need a fire, they need spears and weapons to defend themselves and leads the choir off in a chant, leaving Ralphe, Piggy, Simon and the twins.

- Ralphe feels frustrated and says he should stand down as chief because hes loosing control, but the others tell him not to because Jack would make a terrible chief.