Lord of the Flies is a survival book about a group of boys who find themselves lost on an island after a plane crash. The story does not follow the normal storyline (like Hatchet, where the person is rescued and all seems fine in the end). They see night time as an enemy, as their dreams take over and the belief of a beast haunting the top of the mountain. Some become savages and their lust for meat and blood takes over them. At first, Jack and his hunters start killing native pigs for meat. After an argument with the chief (Ralph, who urges them to stay together), they form two tribes. As psychological problems grow, the boys end up killing one of their own.
I have not finished this book yet and I really enjoy this book. My predictions are that more savagery will follow and maybe more bloodshed. This is a sample text from the excellent work of William Golding's Lord of the Flies:
The dark sky was shattered by a blue-white scar. An instant later the noise was on them like the blow of a gigantic whip. The chant rose a tone in agony.
"Kill the beast! Cut his throat! Spill the blood!"
Now out of the terror rose another desire, thick, urgent, blind.
"Kill the beast! Cut his throat! Spill the blood!"
Again the blue-white scar jagged above them and sulfurous explosions beat down. The littluns screamed and blundered about, fleeing from the edge of the forest, and one of them broke the ring of biguns in terror.
P.188
Softly, surrounded by a fringe of inquisitive bright creatures, itself a silver shape beneath the steadfast constellations, Simon's dead body moved out towards the sea.
P.190
As you can see, this book is not for the faint-hearted (but it is so good that they should read it anyway). I cannot wait to finish it and I would like to see what would happen. It feels so real, that it makes you think--would you become like the boys if you were stranded on an island?
how do you think you would react in this situation? What do you think society as a whole can learn about human nature, given the events of this famous book?
ReplyDeleteI would try to keep the group together (which Ralph tried so hard to do). Because it seemed that it was the fear of a non-existent beast that made this all happen, I probably would also try to eliminate this fear by using common sense, as well as insuring that other people are happy with my choices too.
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