Published: 1954 (Faber and Faber)
Setting: A deserted island
Summary: Lord of the Flies is a seminal novel in the old canon of high school literature classes, but unlike many of its mid-century contemporaries (see: Catcher in the Rye, a book I enjoyed as a middle schooler, but as I get older I find it less and less relevant to my worldview), there is something here for all readers. A story that shows how power has the ability to corrupt anyone starts with the seemingly (and self-purportedly) most civilized of them all, the Brits. British boys, aged 6-12, end up on a deserted island with no parents or schoolmasters to lord over them, a veritable paradise for an unintentional summer holiday. They quickly descend into madness and display some of the most immoral, cruel, and sad group of boys in literature.
Our protagonist, Ralph, brings a weak but intelligent boy named Piggy to a central point on the island and blows a conch to see if anyone else is present. Slowly, more and more boys start popping out of the leafage of the island. A group of choir boys, led by our antagonist, Jack, meets Ralph and Piggy. They use the democratic process to elect Ralph as the "chief" and assign tasks to various groups of kids. The first goal is to get a smoke signal going, so Jack, Ralph, and a smaller boy named Simon go to the top of a mountain to start one, which they succeed at doing.
From here, the boys slowly descend into madness on the island when confronted with differences in opinion, power imbalances, voting blocs, and a mysterious "beastie" lurking in the shadows of the forest. Ralph spends the next three or four chapters trying to keep the boys together, while Jack denigrates Simon and Piggy and starts to form his own group led by his deranged henchboy, Roger. After a trip to a rock called "Castle Rock" on the far side of the island, the group splits into two factions, with Ralph, Piggy, Simon, and two twin boys on one side, and the rest of the island at Castle Rock.
The novel culminates in a mano a mano clash between Jack and Ralph at Castle Rock, resulting from Jack's disdain for order, obsession with hunting, his disdain for Piggy, and his denial regarding the death of Simon during a ritualistic fire dance halfway through the novel. The novel ends with Jack setting fire to the entire island to smoke Ralph out and kill him. Just as Ralph is cornered on the beach, a British naval officer shows up and remarks how far these British boys have fallen from the standards of civilization on the home front.
Quote of the book: "We did everything adults would do. What went wrong?"
This quote zooms the lens out from looking at the actions of the characters as part of human nature, regardless of age. William Golding uses the boys in Lord of the Flies to represent essential parts of civilization, to show how when all elements of a civilization fail to cooperate, it fails.
Favorite Character: Simon, he was unassuming but his death made me reevaluate his role in the book as the one person who was able to live peacefully with others and find a space and a home away from others. He is the balancing force of the book.
Favorite Setting: Castle Rock, Jack's fortress of pain and power serves as the locale for all that is evil on the island, representing the power, immorality, and loss of civilization the boys wield and display.
Favorite reference: I liked the subtle digs at the self-righteousness of British civilization, although it must have been easy after the fall of the British Empire in the 1950s.
Please stay for: A clear and effective allegory, only surpassed in its succinctness by gems like George Orwell's, Animal Farm.
Please Question: The role that the lesser known boys play, I felt there was a bit more space to sharpen and diversify the allegory with other characters.
Rating: 4.2/5, my students by and large loved this book and I had the best discussions in class on this book.
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