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A review by apechild
Lord of the Flies by William Golding
4.0
I bought this book in 2006 thinking it is one of those books I really should read once. It has taken me a few years to get around to it, but here we are. I saw a black and white film of it donkeys years ago, and I suppose it is so well known that we all have a vague idea of what it is all about. Plane crash leaves a load of little school boys stranded on a tropical island and whilst they try to set up their civilisation, they all end up following their base instincts and go a bit feral. To the point they start killing.
My brain wonders about the small details. Where were they being evacuated from and to? Why? There is vague mention of war, A bombs... are they caught up in the paranoia of the 50s or is this a creation of all the panic of the cold War terror?
Pigs feature a lot. The outsider, the bully victim that the pack can vent its fury on, is the fat asthmatic boy Piggy (how does he manage not to lose weight just living on fruit?!). There are wild pigs on the island that macho alpha male Jack and his hunters hunt. They put the heads on sticks as tribute to the "monster" to keep it away. Simon sees the head covered in flies. It speaks to him. It is Lord of the flies. When you see them hunting, it is always sows they kill, sometimes with piglets fleeing. Is this symbolic of breaking free of mother? Part of me thought they were dumb, killing of the sows meant they'd soon exterminate their entire food source.
There is a conch shell that they use for calling meetings, which they stick to for a time like playing games. It is all over when the thing is smashed. Then they are animal, feral. And... mostly its that except for a couple of moments that feel a little uncomfortable. One where Piggy is furious with the hunter tribe, now all painted and wild and refers to them with the n-word... I suppose an opinion at the time that if you were black and living in the jungle, you must be wild! Never mind tribes and civilisations have managed to live in the jungles for thousands of years without annilating themselves. Then at the end when the navy turns up, they are a bit disappointed that as British boys they couldn't have held off the savagery a bit longer (eye roll). Rather ironic that it is only in trying to destroy everything - ie burn the island to ash - for the single minded goal of hunting down and killing Ralph, that they manage to put out a good enough smoke signal to attract the navy.
Good book, I can understand why it won the prizes etc. Not sure that I would want to read it again.
My brain wonders about the small details. Where were they being evacuated from and to? Why? There is vague mention of war, A bombs... are they caught up in the paranoia of the 50s or is this a creation of all the panic of the cold War terror?
Pigs feature a lot. The outsider, the bully victim that the pack can vent its fury on, is the fat asthmatic boy Piggy (how does he manage not to lose weight just living on fruit?!). There are wild pigs on the island that macho alpha male Jack and his hunters hunt. They put the heads on sticks as tribute to the "monster" to keep it away. Simon sees the head covered in flies. It speaks to him. It is Lord of the flies. When you see them hunting, it is always sows they kill, sometimes with piglets fleeing. Is this symbolic of breaking free of mother? Part of me thought they were dumb, killing of the sows meant they'd soon exterminate their entire food source.
There is a conch shell that they use for calling meetings, which they stick to for a time like playing games. It is all over when the thing is smashed. Then they are animal, feral. And... mostly its that except for a couple of moments that feel a little uncomfortable. One where Piggy is furious with the hunter tribe, now all painted and wild and refers to them with the n-word... I suppose an opinion at the time that if you were black and living in the jungle, you must be wild! Never mind tribes and civilisations have managed to live in the jungles for thousands of years without annilating themselves. Then at the end when the navy turns up, they are a bit disappointed that as British boys they couldn't have held off the savagery a bit longer (eye roll). Rather ironic that it is only in trying to destroy everything - ie burn the island to ash - for the single minded goal of hunting down and killing Ralph, that they manage to put out a good enough smoke signal to attract the navy.
Good book, I can understand why it won the prizes etc. Not sure that I would want to read it again.