'Lord Of The Flies' Summary of the book The book takes place in the midst of an unspecified war.Some of the marooned characters are ordinary students, while others arrive as a musical choir under an established leader. With the exception of Sam and Eric and the choirboys, they appear never to have encountered each other before. The book portrays their descent into savagery; left to themselves on a paradisiacal island, far from modern civilization, the well-educated children regress to a primitive state. Golding wrote his book as a counterpoint to R.M. Ballantyne's youth novel The Coral Island (1858), and included specific references to it, such as the rescuing naval officer's description of the children's initial attempts at civilised cooperation as "a jolly good show, like the Coral Island". Golding's three central characters—Ralph, Piggy and Jack—have been interpreted as caricatures of Ballantyne's Coral Island protagonists. Chapter 1- The Sound of the shell..............7 Chapter 2- Fire on the Mountain.................39 Chapter 3-Huts on the Beach.....................59 Chapter 4- Painted Faces and long Hair....72 Chapter 5- Beast From Water.....................94 Chapter 6- Beast From Air..........................118 Chapter 7- Shadows and Tall Trees..........136 Chapter 8- Gift for the Darkness...............156 Chapter 9- A View to a Death....................183 Chapter 10- The Shell and the Glasses....196 Chapter 11- Castle Rock...........................214 Chapter 12- The Sound of the Shell.........232