Task2 - Book Report/Review Example

Character Parallelism The novel The King of the Flies and the TV Series Lost both share common features in terms of story line and characters. Both have the same general plot which talks about a plane crash and its survivors who had to live on their own in a deserted island. Also, both stories have similarities or parallelisms in their list of characters. In this paper I shall present a comparison of characters from both stories and try to see if they relate in some way to one another.The first pair of characters that have some similarities between them are Ralph from The Lord of the Flies and Jack Sheppard fro the TV Series Lost.

Both Jack and Ralph have been thrust into the survivor’s head because of the dire need for a leader figure. Both are also reluctant leaders at first who later got the feel of how things are done until it becomes almost second nature for them to lead. Third, both characters saw and realized the need for a leader in their respective locations. On the other hand, while the boys elected Ralph in a formal meeting duly conducted for that purpose, their adult versions did not see such need. Instead, the series opened with the survivors in chaos and Jack Shephard was directing him into leadership.

The second pair of characters for comparison is made up of Roger from the novel and Sawyer from the TV series. Both depict evil in its purest and most basic form. They serve as reminders about man’s human nature and how easily they can succumb to doing evil especially when emotion has overruled reason and logic. Moreover, both characters have no qualm about killing another person. Both have a history of killing another with their own hands. On the one hand, Roger killed Henry and other “enemies” of the tribe while sawyer killed the person whom he thinks is responsible for what happened to his parents.

Finally, the characters up for comparison are Piggy from the novel The Lord of the Flies and Hurley from the TV Series Lost. Admittedly, for this third pair, there are more differences than there are similarities. Although both characters are big and fat, they have a totally different ways of contacting and connecting with others. While Piggy is rather aloof and kept mostly to himself, Hurley was the life of the party. If Hurley is not amusing people with his remarkable stories, Hurley is out distributing food and just keeping the others alive and well.

Finally, both The Lord of the Flies and Lost share the same element of mystery in it. In the former, it is a mystery how the boys survived the crash and how they survived it on their own. In the latter, the survival skills of the characters are given but the mystery lies in the island itself. Moreover, both tackle the matter about human nature’s basic instincts for survival, regardless of the circumstances. The characters in each of the story each try to depict the different aspects of human nature.

It is up to the viewer or reader to relate and identify himself among the myriad of characters.In sum, the two stories show that regardless of race, color, age, skills or creed, man will always fight his way towards survival. The boys in the novel did so. The adults in the TV Show did so. There is no way why we cannot do so.References:Lost, The TV SeriesThe Lord of the Flies