“How effective is the adaptation of the book?”

The movie adaptation of the book ‘Lord of the Flies’ is not at all effective in faithfully portraying the book. The book, ‘Lord of the Flies’ starts with a description of a fair-boy, picking his way towards a lagoon. A ‘very fat’ boy is mentioned soon after. So, at the beginning of the book, only two people are present. The pilot is also mentioned to be dead when the second boy, the overweight one, says, “There was that pilot, but he wasn’t in the passenger tube, he was in the cabin in front.” The movie starts off very differently with all the boys surviving the crash, dragging the pilot up, saving him from drowning and head towards the island. In the book the pilot is portrayed as being dead, in the movie he is alive. Also, in the book it states that these two boys are alone at the beginning. Others won’t start to arrive until Ralph, the fair-headed boy is told to blow a conch by Piggy, the nickname given to the fat boy. The isolated start is very important to the book as two factions form due to this. The rivalry between Ralph, the one with the conch and Jack Merridew, Head boy of the Choir. In the movie the entire group of boys are said to have been in some form of cadets and Jack and Ralph were portrayed as being friends. In the book tensions were present from the start. Another important difference is the treatment of Piggy. In the book Piggy is ridiculed when Jack calls him Fatty and Ralph corrects Jack in Piggy’s name being Piggy. In the movie, when Jack calls Piggy Fatty, Ralph defends Piggy, telling Jack to ‘leave him alone.’ This is a short summary of the beginning of the book and movie which shows how the movie is not an effective adaptation of the book. The movie is confusing, ignores many important events and strips one of the most important features, the isolated start.