Lord of the Flies by William Golding
Since quarantine started, I have found myself having a lot more time than usual, so I decided to reread a book that I enjoyed in the past. Lord of the Flies by William Golding follows young boys that have survived a plane crash and landed on a mysterious island (with no adult supervision). Ralph, with the help of another boy called Piggy, quickly takes charge and gets the other boys to start thinking of ways to be rescued. Using a conch shell as a way to gather everyone, Ralph quickly distributes roles and makes a boy named Jack as the leader of the hunters. Jack quickly rose in popularity after successfully hunting a pig and decided that he wanted to form his own group, one he was the leader of. Left alone with only their imagination and minimal survival skills, the boys have to learn to endure the island (and each other) until someone finds them.
Just a warning, from this point on, there will be spoilers!
Something that I disliked about the book was how quickly everything seemed to unfold. The boys were on the island for about a month and managed to do a lot of damage. They managed to cause a huge fire, divide into two groups (one with a sadistic leader), kill three boys out of their group (two of them were murdered), and have their own little war. I think that the book could’ve been a little bit longer and stretched out its events more.
I feel like the boys with at least a little bit of common sense (e.g., Simon, Piggy and maybe Ralph) either were killed or ignored. Simon’s death definitely hit me the hardest because I wasn’t expecting it at all. I knew the boys were excited, having caught the pig, but their chanting and attacks were kind of scary. Simon was a victim who was just at the wrong place at the wrong time and the boys at least felt a little bit of shame about what happened afterward. But, with Piggy’s death, that was just full-on murder. Piggy seemed to be given the hardest time out of all the boys. He was made fun of, his glasses were stolen, and then he was killed. The only time the boys who killed him might have felt terrible is when the naval officer confronted them.
Overall, Lord of the Flies is a pretty good book. It doesn’t really give the ‘good’ characters any sort of revenge and everyone kind of just accepts what happens in the end. It was a book full of bad choices that slowly grew in size and impact. But, it did keep the reader fully engaged and wanting to know what was going to happen next. So, I would recommend you read this book.
Just a warning, from this point on, there will be spoilers!
Something that I disliked about the book was how quickly everything seemed to unfold. The boys were on the island for about a month and managed to do a lot of damage. They managed to cause a huge fire, divide into two groups (one with a sadistic leader), kill three boys out of their group (two of them were murdered), and have their own little war. I think that the book could’ve been a little bit longer and stretched out its events more.
I feel like the boys with at least a little bit of common sense (e.g., Simon, Piggy and maybe Ralph) either were killed or ignored. Simon’s death definitely hit me the hardest because I wasn’t expecting it at all. I knew the boys were excited, having caught the pig, but their chanting and attacks were kind of scary. Simon was a victim who was just at the wrong place at the wrong time and the boys at least felt a little bit of shame about what happened afterward. But, with Piggy’s death, that was just full-on murder. Piggy seemed to be given the hardest time out of all the boys. He was made fun of, his glasses were stolen, and then he was killed. The only time the boys who killed him might have felt terrible is when the naval officer confronted them.
Overall, Lord of the Flies is a pretty good book. It doesn’t really give the ‘good’ characters any sort of revenge and everyone kind of just accepts what happens in the end. It was a book full of bad choices that slowly grew in size and impact. But, it did keep the reader fully engaged and wanting to know what was going to happen next. So, I would recommend you read this book.
I've always been aware that this book existed, but I never understood what it was about, and I just knew that it was slightly disturbing. I appreciate how honest you were about what you thought of the book, and you iterated your problems with it very eloquently. Lord of the Flies seems a little too intense for me, so I might avoid it. Thanks for this informative and well-worded review!
ReplyDeleteI've read a majority of this book and I agree with a lot of what you said. I remember finding myself being frustrated that all the characters who could've actually made responsible choices were ignored, especially Piggy, but at the same time it was important for the novel. I also agree with you that everything unfolded rather quickly, but I kind of liked how that showed how easily chaos can emerge.
ReplyDeleteI definitely agree that the story was a little fast paced and that the deaths on the book were a little sudden. However, I think that is the point of the book: What if you took a group of not fully matured but old enough to fend for themselves boys and left them to survive, alone? It almost seems like an argument for adult supervision ;). It shows that logic does not prevail unless everyone is on the same page, like how if one person cheats, it can ruin the system for everyone.
ReplyDeleteI know a bunch of people who have read this book, and I have been told that it is fantastic. However, I have never really gotten around to reading it myself. I know of the general plot, but your review helps me understand it way more. This post is encouraging me to finally get around to this book and read it! Great job!
ReplyDeleteNice review! I read part of this book a few years ago, but stopped because I was frustrated at the characters' lack of common sense and increasingly worse decisions. I like how you describe that the book doesn't really get any resolution in the end, but that it still keeps readers on their seat waiting to find out what happens next. Great job overall!
ReplyDeleteGreat review! I read this book for the banned book project last year, and I also enjoyed reading it. I agree that it isn't very realistic for all that to happen in a month. They killed two people for basically no reason, and they probably would have eaten Ralph if they had killed him before the naval officer came. I think it should have been more spread out, or they should have indicated that more time had passed than a month, but other than that, i thought it was a pretty good book!
ReplyDeleteI was actually thinking of reading this book a few days ago and I think I might after reading your review. I enjoyed your summary and analysis of the book and hopefully I will enjoy reading this classic as well.
ReplyDelete