The twentieth century gave world literature and culture an extremely large number of outstanding works that have already received the status of classic works and managed to enter the golden fund of world heritage. Among such works, of course, is "Lord of the Flies" - a novel by William Golding, which not only brought the author world fame, but also became a real revolution in the field of verbal creativity.

How it all began

A total of 12 works came out from the pen of this genius, but it was the debut brainchild that brought him fame and respect. The novel "Lord of the Flies", the analysis of which is complex and multifaceted, was not initially conceived as what it was destined to become. Starting to write his immortal work, the Nobel Prize winner conceived only an ironic parody of the long-bored and described from all sides theme of the world-famous Robinsonade. In particular, the accusatory beginning of the work was aimed at debunking the optimistic ideals described in the novel by R.M. Ballantyne "Coral Island". It ended up being something completely different.

The fact that this is a very special, unique literary work is evidenced even by its brief content - “Lord of the Flies” exceeded absolutely all expectations and gained such fame that many authors can only dream of. In fact, William Golding in a sense repeated the fate of Cervantes, who thought of his Don Quixote as a sparkling parody of chivalric novels. The work not only surpassed the parodied, exposed subject, but also became a real discovery in the field of literature.

Numerous failures

Nevertheless, the assertion that this novel quickly gained fame for itself would be false. Before the name of Lord of the Flies became known not only to the British but also to the world readership, Golding had to come to terms with the 21st rejection of the publishers. One of the reasons for the reluctance to print was the beginning of the novel itself. The heads of printing corporations refused to take the product to work, barely looking at the summary. "Lord of the Flies" began with a description of a large-scale nuclear disaster, which, of course, could not suit the public who wanted a calm and peaceful life. As a result, the opening of the novel had to be redone and was published by Faber & Faber.

gradual adoption

At first, the novel was accepted by readers rather coldly and, one might say, did not live up to expectations. Being printed back in 1954, Lord of the Flies remained on the “backyard” of bookshelves for a long time and did not arouse any particular interest. However, the situation was destined to change.

By the sixties, the novel "Lord of the Flies", reviews of which were striking in their diversity and inconsistency, became not only a bestseller, but also a mandatory work in the curriculum of many schools and colleges.

Today, the ironic review of "Coral Island" is considered one of the hundred best works written in English. "Lord of the Flies", whose translations are actively published to this day, is ranked among a number of other masterpieces of classical world literature.

The complexity and versatility of the topic being raised

Perhaps such a cold reception of the novel is due to its very key idea. In fact, in his work, William Golding very clearly, albeit allegorically, hints at the horror that fascism and Nazism carry. At the same time, the world, which had barely had time to psychologically cope with the consequences of the Second World War, could simply not be ready for the truth that opens up to the reader on the pages of Lord of the Flies.

This real masterpiece of world literature raises so many topics that are relevant to all mankind that disputes and disagreements on this issue do not subside even today. The fragility of civilization and human cruelty, the natural need for tolerance and the peculiar upbringing of humanism are intertwined in this novel with a fierce condemnation, flaunting all the most heinous, most dangerous vices of mankind, and not of a specific era, but on a global, timeless scale.

What is the novel about

Completely unpredictable, deep and filled with secret meanings, the plot begins with a plane crash over a desert island. On the shore of a seemingly heavenly corner, at first glance, children who are completely unadapted to life turn out to be not only to get to know each other, but also to decide who should lead the squad of survivors and organize life and life on the island.

After quite a long bickering, discussions and voting, Ralph becomes the leader of the formed tribe, having made friends on the shore with a fat boy suffering from asthma, Piggy.

Initially, a cultural, civilized society that arose from children and adolescents is gradually losing touch with civilization, social norms and moral principles. The determining factor in this regard is the separation of the teenager Jack and his comrades in the church choir. Having discovered in themselves the ability to hunt, children literally change before our eyes: war paints appear on their faces, and their behavior gradually becomes more and more cruel.

Hunting for wild pigs is eventually replaced by the pursuit of their own kind. The first victim is a boy named Simon, but, trying to maintain the remnants of civilization, the children try to pretend that nothing happened, but over time this leads to the murder of Piggy, which is even more cruel and inhuman. It is this event that becomes the culmination of the novel, followed by the real loss of all moral, ethical and psychological values.

The conflict is resolved by landing on the shore of the island an adult officer from the rescue mission, who, personifying a stronger beginning, seems to pacify and suppress childish cruelty.

Divine and demonic

In fact, the novel is much deeper than the summary might suggest. "Lord of the Flies" received just such a name by no means for the sake of a red word. The translation from the Hebrew of this combination sounds like "Beelzebub", which is a direct reference to the image of the devil. In the novel, he appears first in children's dreams, and then finds a material reflection, incarnated in the form of a pig's head.

Conceiving the novel "Lord of the Flies", William Golding thought through everything to the smallest detail. In addition to the Beast, lurking in the jungle and the minds of the children themselves, who have lost their own humanity, who have become part of this very bestial principle, the work also features the image of God, presented in the form of an officer, whose appearance put an end to excesses and cruelty.

The images of children are also thought out with special precision and painstaking work. Ralph, for example, is the embodiment of civilization, culture and order, Simon is the ability to look at the root and see the essence (he was the first to discover the Lord of the Flies in himself), Piggy embodies the desire for rational thinking, and Jack is the gravitation towards dictatorship and cruelty.

Reaction

Everything that was listed above is just a summary. "Lord of the Flies" as a literary work actually has many more facets than can be accommodated in this article. It is much more than just an allegory novel. In fact, this is a real prophecy, a call to pay attention to the problems of modern society.

The novel "Lord of the Flies", reviews of which were very unflattering at first, today can be called a real manifesto of humanity, a work that falls into the "must-read" category. This is a book in which the divine and the demonic are woven together, exposed in the most brutal but most precise way. And the point of their interweaving is the person.

Past and future

Perhaps, when conceiving the novel "Lord of the Flies", William Golding did not plan to write something so global, heavy and significant. I was not going to become a Nobel Prize winner and open ulcers on the body of society to the world. Time, however, judged otherwise. Today, this great allegory novel is read around the world by people of all ages and ideological persuasions.

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The child's psyche is a system that is rather difficult in its structure, which is hardly amenable to logical interpretations. Young imagination, at times, can create truly paradoxical pictures, and burning events in childhood can leave an indelible scar on a fragile subconscious, and if we are talking about war, such an impression can have the effect of an exploding bomb. It is probably not for nothing that William Golding begins his work “Lord of the Flies” precisely with a war, a terrible nuclear war that literally swept over all living things. It is unlikely that such a contradictory event can evoke other emotions than disgust, anger, despair, revenge, bloodthirstiness ... The content of the book is more than overflowing with all this, and therefore "Lord of the Flies" is not just another tropical adventure, but the story of the gradual decline of man, history opposition of humanity and bloodshed. The book was published in 1954, but has anything changed significantly since then?!

"Lord of the Flies" is sort of the result of a classic English heritage about traveling and staying on a tropical island. A similar basis has already been met in the novel about "Robinson Crusoe" by Daniel Defoe, and especially in the book "Coral Island" by Robert Ballantine. It was this story that became the pro forma for "Lord of the Flies", but in its reverse version. While the boys Ralph and Jack arrive on Coral Island, like messengers of Western civilization, to wean the indigenous population from their bloodthirstiness, cannibalism and primitive life, a group of English guys find themselves on a desert island depicted in "Lord of the Flies" and drown in swamp of barbarism and the decline of humanity.

The two central characters in Lord of the Flies, Ralph and Jack, are ordinary boys whose name Golding borrowed from Ballantyne, thus alluding to the similar circumstances in which they found themselves. But Golding goes further, and under the pretext of the outbreak of a nuclear war, leaves a group of children on a desert island after a plane crash. At this moment, a new civilization is born within a group of ordinary children, but the newly formed society is completely devoid of such rules and foundations as morality, honor, mutual understanding and mutual respect. The story unfolds against the backdrop of a struggle between two principles: the image of human madness finds its personification in the form of Jack Meridew and his paramilitary children's choir; they are opposed by an alliance in the person of the already mentioned Ralph, the universal laughing stock of Piggy and the innocent Simon.

However, initially the reader observes the idealistic scheme of the social structure. All the kids share a common desire and aspiration to be rescued from the island, and this desire is richly seasoned with friendships and a thirst for adventure in the best traditions of the pioneer troops (or rather the Boy Scouts in a Western way). Setting rules and laws looks like some kind of fun, which is why a simple seashell gets such an important parliamentary status. Using her as a bugle, Ralph calls general meetings to make vital decisions. Only the one who is currently holding this horn in his hands has the right to speak.

Another symbol of maintaining a civilized order in society is a bonfire erected on a hill. And at that moment, when Jack and his hunter friends allow it to go out, there comes a turning point in the coexistence of divergent ideologies. Now Jack is only interested in hunting pigs, and he uses the primordial instincts of all the other inhabitants of the island (the desire to be fed and protected) for his own benefit, thereby "biting off" a good part of the supporters of Ralph's ideology under his wing. From now on, for a new social group, murder takes on the image of a sacred ritual in which bloodthirstiness, gluttony and madness are integral components. The image of a Homo sapiens in the person of Jack loses all its connecting elements, and it is replaced by a creature, albeit human-like in form, but absolutely formless, greedy and hungry in nature. Freedom in the wild is the main tenet of the group led by Jack.

While the horn and the fire can be considered symbols of the democracy of Ralph's society, the social neoplasm led by Jack also has its own symbol - the Lord of the Flies. The head of a killed pig impaled on a stick is a vivid example of demonism and the embodiment of evil. The apogee of spiritual impoverishment occurs during a terrible ritual in which the innocent Simon, the symbol of Christ, is entangled in devilish races to the cries of “Beat the Beast! Cut your throat!" Thus, the murderous insanity takes on a new, human dimension. Simon is killed in the heat of hatred, the next victim is Piggy - the last stronghold of civilization, after whose death its symbol, the horn of democracy, is also destroyed. In the end, human ferocity finds another victim in the face of Ralph and falls upon him with all its might.

Paradoxically, it is at this moment that salvation comes to the boys in the form of a naval officer. But the fact is that the point of no return has already been passed, the person has lost his face, his base features have been revealed to the world, so salvation for him is only formal, while his spiritual component has long been melting in the hellish cauldron.

Surely, the experience of working as a school teacher helped William Golding so reliably convey such diverse images of children on paper. In addition, the writer is frankly good at not only describing the island, but also the dynamic development of the plot. His skillful use of alliteration deserves special mention. Undoubtedly, his work occupies a worthy place among the classics of world literature.

This story really inspires fear in the reader with its painfully realistic depiction of evil as the other side of human nature. Some will surely say that each work has its own place in history, so Lord of the Flies was more relevant at the time when it was actually written. In 1954, the world consciousness was still digesting the consequences of the terrible crimes committed by the Nazis; The Cold War was only gaining momentum, and Hiroshima and Nagasaki were shrouded in radioactive dust. Does this end the list of human crimes on a global scale? I doubt. Every year we witness the military escapades of the dominant powers, in which hundreds of thousands of citizens who are unable to defend themselves die. Isn't that a crime against a person?! Looking at the angle from which the modern world is rolling into the abyss of violence, it is hardly worth questioning Golding's pessimism, poured out on the pages of the novel "Lord of the Flies".

The English writer William Golding wrote 12 novels, but the dystopia Lord of the Flies, the author's literary debut, brought him worldwide fame. Golding took Defoe's archetypal plot as a basis and created an anti-robinsonade, that is, he showed a postmodern interpretation of the well-known myth about a man on a desert island.

As a result of the plane crash, several English schoolchildren of different ages found themselves isolated from the civilized world. In this way, the writer simulated a borderline situation, providing "purity of experience". Over time, children (basically) shed their civilized façade, paint their faces like savages, and unrepentantly kill their comrades, burning the island to the ground.

Initially, schoolchildren choose a democratic method of government, nominating a leader (Ralph) and writing rules of conduct that are binding on everyone. For meetings, they equip a special platform, and use a horn to convey the word. Children build a simple life by picking fruit, building huts and scouting the area. However, soon the question of hunting arises, which can only be solved by one person - Jack - the personification of brute force and totalitarian power. He alone is not afraid to kill the animal, so he gathers a group of hunters and goes on hunting trips. While Ralph (the personification of a democratic form of government and a human leader), Piggy (the bearer of civilization and the personification of the parent), Simon (the image of Christ) and the kids are building huts, hunters kill wild pigs for food.

Gradually, Jack takes power into his own hands, offering the "tribe" a wild and fun life in return for the tedious expectation of salvation that Ralph offers. The guys replace responsibility and discipline with wild dances around the fire and a constant thirst for blood. Their new idol is a pig's head on a spear - the same lord of the flies. With this sacrifice, they cajole the beast (a dead parachutist, who seemed to them a monster in the dark). During a nighttime feast by the fire, they mistake Simon for a beast and kill him. After the first unconscious murder, the tribe begins to hunt for those who disagree with the new regime. The second victim is Piggy, who is already being killed quite deliberately. After the decision was made to hunt Ralph like a wild beast. The boy escapes in the forest, then Jack and company set fire to the forest to lure him out. At the moment when Ralph runs out into the open, a rescue team approaches the shore. When schoolchildren are jokingly asked if there are victims, they answer: “Only two” (if you count the boy who disappeared at the very beginning, then three). That is, for them, the value of human life has fallen so much that two dead people are “only”. They are accustomed to blood and no longer fear it. Obviously, the anthropopessimism characteristic of postmodern literature manifested itself in Golding as well.

The philosophical "stuffing" of postmodernism in the novel is manifested as follows: Finding themselves on the island, the characters experience an existential insight, releasing their existence. In other words, they show their real essence, which is held back by civilization. They understand that they are no longer obliged to pretend and forge according to generally accepted norms. Only now, in most of them, the dark beginning takes over, which just needs to be restrained so that it does not destroy the world to the ground.

Controversy with the enlightenment concept of man

If Defoe's faith in the Lord and industriousness ensured the hero a calm and even comfortable life on the island, then Golding's children were not saved either by seemingly innocence or impeccable manners instilled in English private schools. If the teaching of Tabula rasa (the theory of the enlighteners) claimed that a person is born as pure as a white sheet, and his personality depends only on the degree of enlightenment, then Golding's point of view refutes this idea. He depicts schoolchildren who are not spoiled by life and at the same time brought up and educated. They have not yet become cynical and vicious adults who send signs in the form of dead paratroopers. However, as time passes on the island, it becomes clear that people are not born clean. Each of them initially contained a whole world of conflicting passions, in each of them there was a savage and a civilized person. One wins in some, the other wins in others. But neither victory nor defeat depended on education alone.

What Golding portrayed is more realistic. The militant 20th century showed that history does not teach a person (World War II began twenty years after the First), education does not color (remember, for example, the artist Hitler), education does not save. From childhood, he is able to learn to kill, if he has an innate inclination for this. When he is on the island, his essence is unlikely to change for the better.

The meaning of allegory in the novel "Lord of the Flies"

The novel was intended as an ironic "commentary" on R. M. Ballantyne's Coral Island. At first, critics took it that way and did not show much interest. But later, readers decoded "Lord of the Flies": it turned out that he was an allegory of original sin with arguments about the deepest human essence.

Ralph- the embodiment of a rational human principle. It symbolizes a democratic leader - responsible and merciful.

Jack- the embodiment of wild negative energy, the dark side of man. He is a tough and ambitious leader, but he is attracted only by absolute power, which is based on enmity. He was immediately taken over by the corrupting influence of the Lord of the Flies.

Lord of the Flies- a symbol of the devil, which in world culture has been associated more than once with various creatures. For example, Mythistopheles from Goethe's Faust presents himself as the Lord of the Flies.

Simon- the image of Christ. He tried to convey the truth to the guys, but no one understood him. It is to him that the Lord of the Flies reveals his true face and explains that the monsters are themselves. When he brought people the news that the beast is just a dead paratrooper, they kill him, moreover, this murder was ritual. Jack explains to the tribe that it is a beast that came down from the mountain, in one of its guises. That is, the boy sacrificed himself, but the world did not understand him. It is also interesting that Simon was not at enmity with anyone and never blamed anyone. He loved everyone, was silent and tried alone to find out the secret of the beast. As a result, he understood why they did not succeed - the monsters in themselves are cultivated by the people themselves.

Roger- a boy whose phenomenal cruelty manifested itself only in the final. He purposefully kills Piggy during the day in front of everyone. The concept of his dangerous temper gives the name - the skull on the pirate flag is called the "Jolly Roger". In fact, it turned out that he was even more cruel than Jack.

Piggy- the bearer of civilization and the source of parental care. He advocates a reasonable organization of life and comfortable conditions. He constantly calls on the authority of distant adults to help. It symbolizes a certain scientific, theoretical perception of the world.

Twins- traitors. They can be compared to the apostles who refused Christ.

dead skydiver- as the author himself wrote, this is the very sign from the adult world that Ralph was waiting for. This is a mockery of the author of those people from whom the children expected help. Obviously, the author wanted to say that growing up does not eradicate, but exacerbates the vices of a person. The children's war on the island will develop over time into a world war, a piece of which ended up on the island in the form of a dead man.

Fortress- a symbol of militancy. The very idea of ​​fortifications is to defend against the enemy that Jack invented in order to rally and intimidate the tribe.

Outdoor meeting area- a symbol of peace and openness. They have no one to defend and hide from, everyone on the site can be clearly seen and heard.

Horn- a symbol of democratic power and equality of all those gathered. Everyone is given the right to vote.

Fire- a symbol of the need for salvation, something that illuminates children and prevents twilight from confusing them. Light dispels darkness and guarantees a chance of salvation. Not to keep the fire alive means to abandon civilization forever and become savages.

Dust– it was in the darkness that Simon was killed, in the darkness the boys went mad and became a wild tribe.

masks- painted faces relieved their owners of all responsibility. They were no longer themselves, instead they appeared savages who are not obliged to obey any norms. The masks untied the hands of the heroes, and they began to kill without fear or embarrassment.

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Frame from the film "Lord of the Flies" (1963)

The duration of the action is not defined. As a result of a nuclear explosion somewhere, a group of teenagers who were being evacuated find themselves on a desert island. Ralph and a fat boy with glasses, nicknamed Piggy, are the first to meet on the seashore. Finding a large shell at the bottom of the sea, they use it as a horn and call all the guys. Boys from three to fourteen years old come running; the last formations are the church choir singers, led by Jack Meridew. Ralph suggests choosing a "chief". In addition to him, Jack claims leadership, but the vote ends in favor of Ralph, who offers Jack to lead the choristers, making them hunters.

A small party of Ralph, Jack, and Simon, a frail, faint-hearted chorister, go on a reconnaissance mission to determine if they have actually made it to the island. Piggy, despite his requests, is not taken with them.

Climbing the mountain, the boys experience a sense of unity and delight. On the way back, they notice a pig entangled in the vines. Jack already raises the knife, but something stops him: he is not yet ready to kill. While he hesitates, the pig manages to escape, and the boy is ashamed of his indecisiveness, swearing to himself that he will strike the killing blow next time.

The boys return to camp. Ralph calls the meeting and explains that now they will have to decide everything for themselves. He proposes to establish rules, in particular, not to speak to everyone at once, but to let the one who holds the horn speak, as they call the sea shell. The children are not yet afraid that they may not be rescued soon, and they are looking forward to a fun life on the island.

Suddenly, the kids push forward a frail boy of about six years old with a birthmark on half his face. It turns out that at night he saw a beast - a snake, which in the morning turned into a liana. The children suggest that it was a dream, a nightmare, but the boy stands firm. Jack promises to search the island for snakes; Ralph angrily says that there is no animal.

Ralph convinces the guys that, of course, they will be rescued, but for this you need to build a large fire on the top of the mountain and keep it up so that they can be seen from the ship.

Together they build a fire and set it on fire with Piggy's goggles. Maintenance of the fire is taken over by Jack and his hunters.

It soon becomes clear that no one wants to work seriously: only Simon and Ralph continue to build huts; hunters, carried away by hunting, completely forgot about the fire. Due to the fact that the fire went out, the guys were not noticed from the ship passing by. This becomes the occasion for the first serious quarrel between Ralph and Jack. Jack, who just at that moment killed the first pig, is offended that his feat was not appreciated, although he recognizes the justice of Ralph's reproaches. Out of impotent rage, he breaks Piggy's glasses and teases him. Ralph struggles to restore order and assert his dominance.

To maintain order, Ralph gathers the next meeting, now realizing how important it is to be able to correctly and consistently express his thoughts. He again reminds of the need to comply with the rules established by them. But the main thing for Ralph is to get rid of the fear that has crept into the souls of the kids. Having taken the word, Jack suddenly utters the forbidden word "beast". And in vain Piggy convinces everyone that there is no beast, no fear, “unless you scare each other,” the kids do not want to believe this. Little Percival Wims Madison adds further confusion by claiming that "the beast comes out of the sea." And only Simon reveals the truth. "Maybe it's us..." he says.

At this meeting, Jack, feeling his power, refuses to obey the rules and promises to hunt down the beast. The boys are divided into two camps - those who represent reason, law and order (Piggy, Ralph, Simon), and those who represent the blind force of destruction (Jack, Roger and other hunters).

That same night, the twins Eric and Sam, who were on duty at the fire on the mountain, come running to the camp with the news that they saw the beast. All day the boys search the island, and only in the evening Ralph, Jack and Roger go to the mountain. There, in the false light of the moon, they mistake for an animal the corpse of a paratrooper hanging on the lines from a downed plane and, in fear, rush to run.

At the new meeting, Jack openly reproaches Ralph for cowardice, offering himself as leader. Not receiving support, he goes into the forest.

Gradually, Piggy and Ralph begin to notice that there are fewer and fewer guys left in the camp, and they realize that they have gone to Jack.

The dreamer Simon, who has chosen a clearing in the forest where he can be alone, becomes a witness to a pig hunt. As a sacrifice to the "beast", hunters impale a pig's head on a stake - this is the Lord of the Flies: after all, the head is completely covered with flies. Once seen, Simon can no longer take his eyes off "these ancient eyes that inevitably recognize", because the devil himself is looking at him. “You knew... that I am part of you. An inseparable part, ”says the head, as if hinting that it is the embodiment of evil that generates fear.

A little later, the hunters, led by Jack, raid the camp to get some fire. Their faces are smeared with clay: under the guise it is easier to create excesses. Having seized the fire, Jack invites everyone to join his squad, enticing them with hunting freemen and food.

Ralph and Piggy are terribly hungry, and they and the rest of the guys go to Jack. Jack again calls on everyone to join his army. He is confronted by Ralph, who reminds him that he was elected by the main democratic way. But with his reminder of civilization, Jack contrasts the primitive dance, accompanied by the call: “Beat the beast! Cut your throat!" Suddenly, Simon appears on the site, who was on the mountain and made sure with his own eyes that there was no animal there. He tries to talk about his discovery, but in the dark he is mistaken for a beast and killed in a wild ritual dance.

Jack's "tribe" is located in the "castle", on a rock resembling a fortress, where, with the help of a simple lever, stones can be thrown at the enemy. Ralph, meanwhile, is trying with all his might to maintain the fire, their only hope of salvation, but Jack, who sneaked into the camp one night, steals Piggy's glasses, with which the guys made fire.

Ralph, Piggy and the twins go to Jack in hopes of getting the glasses back, but Jack greets them with hostility. Piggy tries in vain to convince them that "the law and that we be saved" is better than "to hunt and destroy everything." In the ensuing fight, the twins are captured. Ralph is seriously wounded, and Piggy is killed by a stone thrown from the fortress ... The horn, the last stronghold of democracy, is broken. The killing instinct triumphs, and now Jack is ready to be replaced as leader by Roger, personifying stupid, bestial cruelty.

Ralph manages to escape. He understands "that the painted savages will stop at nothing." Seeing that Eric and Sam have become sentries, Ralph tries to win them over to his side, but they are too scared. They only inform him that a hunt is being prepared for him. Then he asks them to take the "hunters" away from his hiding place: he wants to hide near the castle.

However, fear turns out to be stronger than notions of honor, and the twins betray it to Jack. Ralph is smoked out of the forest, not allowing him to hide ... Like a hunted animal, Ralph rushes around the island and suddenly, jumping ashore, stumbles upon a naval officer. “We could have looked more decent,” he reproaches the guys. The news of the death of two boys shocks him. And imagining how it all began, he says: “Everything looked wonderful then. Just Coral Island.

retold

© Translation. E. Surits, 2013

© Russian edition AST Publishers, 2014

All rights reserved. No part of the electronic version of this book may be reproduced in any form or by any means, including posting on the Internet and corporate networks, for private and public use, without the written permission of the copyright owner.

© Electronic version of the book prepared by Litres (www.litres.ru)

* * *

Chapter one
sea ​​horn

The fair-haired boy had just climbed the last descent from the cliff and was now making his way towards the lagoon. He took off his school sweater and dragged it behind him, his gray shirt was soaked, and his hair stuck to his forehead. A long strip of fallen forest, scarred into the jungle, held the heat like a bathhouse. He stumbled over vines and trunks when some bird flew up in a flash of yellow and red, wailing like a witch; and her cry was echoed by another.

“Hey,” was the cry, “wait a minute!”

The bushes near the clearing trembled, showering an explosive hail of drops.

The blond boy stopped and pulled up his stockings in an automatic gesture that for a moment was like a jungle around London.

- They don’t let you move, oh, and they are clingy!

The one to whom the voice belonged was climbing backwards from the bushes, with difficulty tearing his dirty jacket from them. Plump bare legs got stuck in spikes with their knees and were all scratched. He bent down, carefully unhooked the spikes, and turned. He was below light and very fat. He took a step, finding a safe position, and peered through thick glasses.

- And where is the uncle with the megaphone?

The Light One shook his head.

- This is an island. So at least it seems to me. And then there's the reef. Maybe even there are no adults at all.

The fat man was dumbfounded:

- There was a pilot. True, he was not in the passenger compartment, but in front, in the cockpit.

Light, squinting, looked around the reef.

- Well, what about the guys? - the fat man did not let up. “They, some of them, were saved, weren’t they?” After all, is it true? Why?

The bright boy went to the water as casually as possible. Easily, without pressure, he let the fat man know that the conversation was over. But he hastened to follow.

– And adults, they are not here at all, right?

- Probably.

The Light One said this grimly. But immediately he was overwhelmed by the delight of a dream come true. He stood on his head in the middle of the clearing and smiled wide-eyed at the overturned fat man.

- Without any adults!

The fat man thought for a minute.

This pilot...

The Light One threw off his legs and sat down on the steamed earth.

- Probably, he dropped us off, and he flew away. He can't sit here. The wheels won't fit.

- We've been beaten!

- Well, he'll be back, how cute!

The fat man shook his head.

- When we went down, I - this - looked out the window, and it burned there. Our plane was on fire from the other side.

He wandered around the clearing.

- It's all from the fuselage.

The Light One reached out with his hand and felt the shredded edge of the trunk.

For a moment he wondered:

- What happened to him? Where did he go?

- Waves swept. Look, it's dangerous, the trees are all broken. And there were still guys there.

He was silent for a moment, then decided:

- What's your name?

The fat man expected that he, in turn, would be asked about the name, but he was not offered to get acquainted; the blond boy, who called himself Ralph, smiled absently, got up and began to move again towards the lagoon. The fat man followed close behind him.

“I think there are still a lot of us here. How did you see who?

Ralph shook his head and quickened his pace. But he ran into a branch and plopped down with a crash.

The fat one stood beside him and breathed like a locomotive.

“My aunt didn't tell me to run,” he explained, “because I have asthma.

- Assy-ma-kakassima?

- Yeah. I'm out of breath. I'm the only one in the whole school with asthma,” the fat man said, not without pride. I have also been wearing glasses since I was three years old.

He took off his glasses, handed them to Ralph, blinking and smiling, and then proceeded to wipe them down with a soiled jacket. Suddenly, his vague features changed from pain and concentration. He wiped the sweat from his cheeks and hastily put his glasses on his nose.

These fruits...

He glanced across the clearing.

“These fruits,” he said. - Like I...

He adjusted his glasses, darted to the side, and squatted down behind the tangled leaves.

- I now ...

Ralph carefully freed himself and ducked under the branches. The fat man's sniffling immediately left behind him, and he hurried to the last barrier that separated him from the shore. He climbed over a fallen trunk and at once found himself no longer in the jungle.

The beach was covered with palm trees. They stood, leaning, drooping in the rays, and the green plumage hung a hundred feet high. Under them grew tough grass, swollen with uprooted roots, rotten coconuts were lying about, and here and there newborn sprouts made their way. Behind was the darkness of the forest and the bright opening of the clearing. Ralph froze, his hand forgotten on the gray trunk, and squinted at the sparkling water. There, perhaps a mile away, the white surf was shaggy by the coral reef, and beyond that the open sea turned dark blue. In a jagged arc of coral, the lagoon lay as quiet as a mountain lake, blues of all kinds, and shady greens, and lilac. A strip of sand between the palm terrace and the sea ran away in a thin hole, no one knew where, and only somewhere in infinity to the left of Ralph, palm trees, water and shore merged into one point; and, almost visible to the eye, swam around the heat.

He jumped off the terrace. The black boots dug into the sand, and it was hot. He felt the weight of his clothes. He kicked off his boots, tore off his stockings in two jerks. He jumped up onto the terrace again, pulled off his shirt, and stood among the coconuts, large as skulls, in the gliding green shadows of the forest and palm trees. Then he unfastened the zipper on his belt, pulled off his shorts and panties and, naked, looked at the blinding water and the shore.

He was big enough, twelve-odd, for a plump baby belly to get close; but so far he did not feel the awkwardness of a teenager. It was evident from the width and turn of his shoulders that he could have become a boxer if the softness of his eyes and mouth did not betray his harmlessness. He lightly patted the trunk of the palm tree and, forced at last to acknowledge the existence of the island, again laughed intoxicatedly and stood on his head. He deftly rolled over, jumped onto the shore, fell to his knees, and with both hands swept up the sand in a heap. Then he straightened up and looked at the water with shining eyes.

- Ralph...

The fat boy carefully lowered his legs from the terrace and sat down on the edge as if on a high chair.

- I've been very long, nothing? From these fruits...

He wiped his glasses and fixed them on his button nose. The bow has already marked the bridge of the nose with a clear pink daw. He scanned Ralph's golden body with a critical eye, then looked down at his own clothes. He took hold of the lightning bolt that crossed his chest.

- My aunt…

But suddenly he resolutely pulled the zipper and pulled the whole jacket over his head.

- All right!

Ralph looked at him askance and remained silent.

“I think we need to know all the names,” said the fat one. And make a list. We need to call a meeting.

Ralph did not fall for this bait, so the fat man had to continue.

“Call me whatever you want—I don’t care,” he opened up to Ralph, “as long as they don’t call me names again, like at school.”

Here Ralph became interested:

The fat man looked around, then leaned over to Ralph. And whispered:

“Piggy” is what they called me.

Ralph burst out laughing. Even jumped up.

- Piggy! Piggy!

- Ralph! Well, Ralph!

Piggy clasped his hands in a terrible foreboding:

I said I don't want...

- Piggy! Piggy!

Ralph danced into the sun, returned as a fighter, spreading his wings, and fired at Piggy:

- Wu-u-uh! Fuck-tah-tah!

He flopped into the sand at Piggy's feet and kept pouring:

– Piggy!!

Piggy smiled restrainedly, rejoicing against his will at least such a recognition.

- All right. Just don't tell anyone...

Ralph chuckled into the sand.

Once again, Piggy's face showed an expression of pain and concentration.

- Wait a minute...

And he ran into the forest. Ralph got up and trotted to the right.

There, the smooth coast was abruptly interrupted by a new theme in the landscape, where angularity prevailed; a large platform of pink granite cut right through the terrace and forest, forming, as it were, a scaffold four feet high. The top of the platform was powdered with earth, and it was overgrown with stiff grass and young palm trees. The palm trees did not have enough ground to properly stretch out, and, reaching twenty feet tall, they fell and withered, crossing the platform crosswise with trunks that were very comfortable to sit on. Until the collapsed palm trees spread out the green roof, from the bottom all in a rushing lash of reflected water reflections. Ralph pulled himself up and climbed onto the landing, into the coolness and darkness, screwed up one eye and decided that the shadows on his shoulder really were green. He walked to the edge of the platform above the sea and peered into the water. It was clear to the very bottom and all bloomed with tropical algae and corals. A sparkling brood of small fish rushed back and forth. Ralph burst out aloud on the bass strings of delight:

- Shock-ah!

Behind the platform, another miracle has opened up. Some force of creation—whether it was a typhoon or a storm already raging before his eyes—had fenced off part of the lagoon with a sandbar, so that a deep, long pool was formed, closed at the far end by a sheer wall of pink granite. Ralph, already taught by experience, did not dare to judge the depth of the bay by appearance and prepared for disappointment. But the island did not deceive, and the incredible bay, which, of course, only the highest tide could cover, was on one side so deep that it was even dark green. Ralph carefully surveyed for about thirty yards and only then dived. The water was warmer than his body, he was swimming as if in a huge bath.

Piggy was right there again, sat down on a stone ledge and looked enviously at the green and white body of Ralph.

- You don't swim!

Piggy took off his shoes and socks, carefully folded them on the ledge and dipped his foot with one finger.

- Hot!

– What did you think?

“I didn't think at all. My aunt…

Heard about your aunt!

Ralph dived and swam underwater with his eyes open; the sandy edge of the bay loomed like a mountain range. He pinched his nose, rolled onto his back, and golden shards of light danced across his very face. Piggy began to pull off his shorts with a determined look. Here he was already naked, white and fat. He tiptoed down the sand and sat up to his neck in the water, smiling proudly at Ralph.

- Yes, what are you? Won't you swim?

Piggy shook his head.

- I can not. I can't. When asthma...

– Heard about your kakassimu!

Piggy took it down with dignified humility.

- You're a great swimmer!

Ralph reversed towards the shore, gulped water in his mouth and blew a trickle into the air. Then he lifted his chin and spoke:

I have been able to swim since the age of five. Dad taught. He is my captain of the second rank. As soon as he is released, he will come here and save us. And who is your father?

Piggy suddenly blushed.

“Papa is dead,” he murmured quickly. - And mom...

He took off his glasses and looked in vain for something to clean them with.

“My aunt raised me. She has a bakery. I know how many sweets I ate! How much will fit. And when will your dad save us?

- As soon as possible.

Piggy, flowing, got out of the water and naked began to wipe his glasses with his toe. The only sound reaching them through the heat of the early hour was the heavy, drawn-out rumble of breakers besieging the reef.

Why does he know we're here?

Ralph basked in the water. Barely shading the glare of the lagoon like a muslin of a mirage, he was enveloped in sleep.

Why does he know we're here?

Because, thought Ralph, because because. The roar of the breakers receded into the far distance.

They'll tell you at the airport.

Piggy shook his head, put on his glasses, and flashed them at Ralph.

- No. Didn't you hear what the pilot said? About the atomic bomb? All died.

Ralph climbed out of the water, stood up, looking at Piggy and thinking intently.

Piggy continued his:

- It's an island, right?

“I climbed a mountain,” drawled Ralph. Looks like an island.

“Everyone is dead,” said Piggy. And this is an island. And nobody knows that we're here. And your daddy doesn't know, no one.

His lips twitched and his glasses were hazy.

“And we’ll be here until we die.”

From these words, the heat seemed to swell, heaviness, and the lagoon was covered with an unbearable sparkle.

“I’ll go,” Ralph muttered, “there are my things.”

He rushed across the sand under the merciless, evil rays, crossed the platform and collected the scattered things. Putting on the gray shirt again was strangely pleasant. Then he went up to a corner of the platform and sat down on a comfortable trunk in the green shade. Piggy wandered along, dragging almost all his belongings under his arm. He carefully sat down on a fallen trunk near a small cliff opposite the lagoon; and confused glare jumped on it.

He spoke again:

We must look for them all. Something must be done.

Ralph didn't answer. There was a coral island. Hiding in the shadows, not delving into Piggy's prophecies, he dreamed sweetly.

Piggy did not let up:

- How many of us are there?

Ralph got up and walked over to Piggy.

- I do not know.

Here and there a breeze rippled the smooth water stretched under a haze of heat. Sometimes he blew onto the landing, and then the palm trees whispered, and the light flowed in blots on their skin, and fluttered along the shadows on shiny wings.

Piggy looked at Ralph. The shadows on Ralph's face were overturned, it was green above, light below from the gleam of water. Sunspot stuck in hair.

- We must do something.

Ralph looked at him without seeing. Finally, it was found, embodied so many times, but not completely drawn to the imagination of the place. Ralph's mouth broke into an admiring smile, and Piggy took this smile to his own account as a sign of recognition, and laughed joyfully.

If this is really an island...

– Oh, what is it?

Ralph stopped smiling and pointed to the shore. Something creamy shimmered among the shaggy algae.

- A rock.

- Not. Sink.

Piggy suddenly seethed with noble enthusiasm.

- Exactly. This is a shell. I took this one out. One on the fence. Only he called her horn. He blows on the horn - and immediately mom runs out to him. They are freaking expensive.

At Ralph's side, a palm sprout hung over the water. The frail earth anyway was already swollen because of him in a lump and almost did not hold him. Ralph pulled out a sprout and began to fumble in the water, and colorful fish fluttered from him in different directions. Piggy leaned forward.

- Quiet! You will break ...

- Oh, yes, you.

Ralph spoke absently. Of course, the shell was an interesting, beautiful, wonderful toy; but the alluring visions still blocked Piggy from him, for whom there could be no place among them. The sprout arched and drove the shell into the algae. Ralph, using one hand as a lever, pressed the tree with the other hand, so that the wet shell rose and Piggy managed to fish it out.

At last he could touch the sink, and now it dawned on Ralph how lovely it was. Piggy chattered:

- ... horn. Horrible, what an expensive ... By God, if you buy, you have to pay a lot of money ... he hung on the fence in their garden, and my aunt ...

Ralph took the sink from Piggy and a trickle trickled down his hand. The shell was a luscious cream color, tinged a little pinkish here and there. Eighteen inches of gleaming, finely embossed, curled in a light spiral from the narrowly perforated tip to the gaping pink lips. Ralph shook sand out of a deep pipe.

- ... it turned out like a cow, - said Piggy, - and he also has white pebbles, and in their house there is a birdcage and a green parrot lives. It’s clear that you can’t blow into a white stone, so he says ...

Piggy gasped, fell silent, and stroked the shiny thing in Ralph's hands.

Ralph looked up at him.

“Now we can call everyone. Set up a gathering. They will hear and come running...

He beamed at Ralph.

- That's what you're for, right? Why did you pull the horn out of the water?

Ralph brushed his blond hair back from his forehead.

How did your friend blow into it?

“He kind of spit in there,” said Piggy. “But my aunt didn’t tell me, because of asthma.” From here, he said, you have to blow. – Piggy put his hand on his thick belly. “You try, Ralph. And you call everyone.

Ralph dubiously pressed his lips to the narrow end of the shell and blew. There was a rustle in the sink, that was all. Ralph wiped the salt water from his lips and blew again, but again the sink was silent.

- He seemed to spit.

Ralph puckered his lips, blew air into the sink, and the sink seemed to fart in response. They both burst out laughing, and in between bursts of laughter, Ralph made these sounds from the shell for several minutes in a row.

- He was blowing from here.

Ralph finally understood and exhaled deeply. And immediately the shell responded. A thick, sharp rumble floated under the palm trees, gushed through the forest forests, and echoed off the pink granite of the mountain. Birds soared in clouds from the trees, some living creatures squeaked and scattered in the bushes.

Ralph lifted the shell from his lips.

- Blimey!

His own voice seemed to him a whisper after the deafening sound of the horn. He put it to his lips, sucked in as much air as he could, and blew again. The same note buzzed; but Ralph tensed up, and the note climbed an octave higher and became a shrill, hoarse roar. Piggy was shouting something, his face was beaming, his glasses were flashing. Birds chirped, animals fled. Then Ralph caught his breath, the sound broke, fell an octave lower, so he stumbled, hooted and, rustling through the air, froze.

The horn fell silent - a dumb, sparkling tusk; Ralph's face darkened with exertion, and the island rang with bird calls and echoes.

– His horror how far to hear.

Ralph caught his breath and let out a whole series of short horns.

Suddenly Piggy yelled:

– Look!

A child appeared among the palm trees about a hundred yards along the shore. He was a blond, sturdy man of about six years old, his clothes were torn, and his face was smeared with fruit slurry. He dropped his pants for the obvious purpose and didn't have time to pull them up properly. He jumped off the palm terrace into the sand, and his panties slipped down to his ankles; he stepped over them and trotted to the platform. Piggy helped him up. But Ralph was still blowing, and voices were already heard in the forest. The boy squatted down and looked up at Ralph with shining eyes. Convinced that he, obviously, was not just having fun, but was busy with important business, he satisfactorily put his thumb into his mouth - the only remaining clean one.

Piggy leaned over him:

- What's your name?

- Johnny.

Piggy muttered the name under his breath and then yelled at Ralph, who didn't raise an eyebrow because he blew and blew. He reveled in the power and luxury of the sounds produced, his face flushed, and his shirt fluttered over his heart.

The screams from the forest were getting closer.

The coast came to life. Trembling in hot streams of air, he covered many figures in the distance; the boys made their way to the site on the hardened deaf sand. Three kids no older than Johnny were surprisingly close - overeating fruit in the forest. Someone frail and dark, a little younger than Piggy, got out of the thickets and climbed onto the platform, smiling happily at everyone. They went on and on. Following the example of the simple-hearted Johnny, they sat down on fallen trunks and waited for what was next. Ralph continued to let out separate shrill beeps. Piggy walked around the crowd, asked who's name, and winced, remembering. Children answered him with the same readiness as they answered adults with megaphones. Some were naked - they were holding clothes under their arms, some were half-dressed, others were even dressed, in school uniforms, gray, blue, brown - some in a sweater, some in a jacket. There were emblems and even mottos, striped stockings, sweatshirts. A green shadow covered their heads, fair-haired, blond, black, red, ashy; they whispered, they babbled, they stared wide-eyed at Ralph. They were perplexed. And they waited.

Children, in pairs and singly, appeared on the shore, emerging from behind a trembling haze. And then the gaze was first attracted to the black ghoul dancing on the sand, and only then rose higher and distinguished the running man. The ghouls were shadows compressed by the sheer sun into narrow rags under hurried feet. Ralph was still blowing his horn, and the last two were already rushing to the landing above the beating black patches. Two round-headed boys with hair like tow fell face down and, smiling and panting like two dogs, looked at Ralph. They were twins and so identical that this amusing identity was simply unbelievable. They breathed in harmony, smiled in harmony, both healthy and stocky. The twins' lips were wet, as if there wasn't enough skin on them, and therefore both had blurred profile contours and did not close their mouths. Piggy leaned over them, his glasses flashing, and between the cries of the horn he could be heard memorizing names:

Eric, Sam, Eric, Sam.

He soon became confused; the twins shook their heads and jabbed their fingers at each other to the general laughter.

Finally Ralph stopped blowing and sat up, holding the horn in his hand and resting his chin on his knees. The echo died away, and with it the laughter, and there was silence.

Because of the brilliant haze, something black crawled out onto the shore. Ralph saw the black first and didn't take his eyes off it until everyone was looking in the same direction. But then an incomprehensible creature got out from behind a mirage haze, and it immediately became clear that this time the blackness was not only from the shadow, but also from the clothes. The creature turned out to be a detachment of boys, walking in step in two lines and strangely, wildly dressed. They carried shorts, shirts, and other belongings under their arms; but all were adorned with black square caps with silver cockades. From the chin to the ankles, each was covered by a black cloak with a long silver cross on the chest on the left and at the top with a triangular jabot. From the tropical heat, the descent, the search for food, and this sweaty passage under the scorching sky, their faces were darkly shiny, like freshly washed plums. The leader of the detachment was dressed in exactly the same way, only a gold cockade. About ten yards from the landing, his men stood up on command, panting, sweating, swaying under the merciless beams. He himself separated from them, jumped onto the platform in a flying cloak and squinted from the light into the almost impenetrable darkness.