The Lord of The Flies Book Review

 

May have different covers, but at it end it is always the same mind-blowing book.

Known to be the first story written by William Golding. The Lord of The Flies is a YA Lit, fiction, allegory, and speculative fiction novel about a group of British boys, who after surviving a plane crash get marooned on an island, at the dawn of World War III. At first everything seems to be fun, games, and laugh; but all of these suddenly shapes into panic, and fear, and as the boys spend more time on the island a shocking and primitive world is discovered.

The book was first published in 1954, but it wasn’t succesfull at the time, selling less than 3,000 copies. However, several years later it became one of the best-selling books in the US. The book has also been adapted in two films; one by Peter Brook, and the other one by Harry Hook. In 2003 the novel was in the 70th place of the BBC’s survey The Big Read, and in 2005 the book was also chosen, by Time Magazine, as one of the best English-language novels published between 1923 and 2005. It also earned the 68th position in the list of the American Library Association of most challenged books between, 1990 and 1999.

William Golding, author of the book, was an English novelist, poet, and playwright. Goulding is best known for one of his best sold novels, The Lord of The Flies. He has also won several awards like, a Nobel Prize for Literature, and the Booker Prize, for his novel Rites of Passage. Golding also spent 5 years serving the Royal Navy during World War II. This made an enormous impact, and exposed him to the unbelievable cruelty, brutality, and barbarity that humankind is capable of. Due to this in his novels he commonly address topics related with man-kind, man’s fear, true nature, and how every human deep inside is a savage. In The Lord of The Flies we can clearly see how Goulding uses the transformation of the boys from innocent to savages, to symbolize how every single human has evil inside, no matter how educated, and religious you are.     

The book starts at the dawn of World War III, and the beginning of a nuclear war. Several boys from England’s private schools are sent on a plane with the goal to be evacuated from the country, but unexpectedly the plane crashes, and they get stranded on an island somewhere in the Pacific Ocean. Two boys, Ralph and Piggy, who after the accident find each other, use a conch that they found near the beach, as horn to call the others. All the boys who gather after the conch call barely know each other, except from a choir group that was directed by a boy named Jack. All the survivors decide that the one that holds the conch has the right to speak, and only him. Also after voting the group decides that Ralph will be the leader; but the leader of the choir group, Jack, gets jealous because he wanted to be the leader. Everything is good the first couple of days, but as time passes a boy’s urges for power misleads the group of survivors into dangerous paths, and what was planned to be a civilized community, ends up being a primitive one.   

Reading The Lord of The Flies was an amazing experience to me. This book completely introduced me to a new topic and made me realize new things about humankind. All from the perspective of an amazing English author, who had a personal experience with the kind of behavior that humans adapt in extreme situations like war. One thing that I really liked about Golding’s writing style is that throughout the novel he uses various tones to express how normal boys will react to being stuck on an island, some of this tones are; frightened, confused, angry, and hopeless. This made me feel more connected to this story, all of the tones that Golding uses really help you to get deeper into the story, to imagine what the characters actually feel, and sometimes make you wonder. What would you do in a situation like this? Another thing that I liked is how everything is important in the book, and how every decision that Golding makes has a reason. For example; when you look up the meanings of the character’s name you see that the names matches every character’s personalities, and that the author chose those names for a reason. For example; The name Ralph means wise and strong, and in the book Ralph is one of the main characters, it’s a good leader, and honestly besides Piggy he’s the one who always stands strong remember the others about the conch, till the end.     

Although The Lord of The Flies is an amazing book it has been challenged in several schools around the United States. The book has been said to contain “racist” messages, by the Toronto Board of Education, on June 23rd 1988, after members of the black community argued about a reference to “niggers” that appears on the book. It was challenged at Owen, North Carolina high school because the book is “demoralizing”, and it states that man is little more than an animal. Also in Marana, Arizona it was considered “inappropriate reading” because it contains “excessive violence and bad language.” In various challenges the novel has been said to contain indirect statements against the Christian Church because the religious boys were the ones who led the boys into a violent path.            

I read the Lord of The Flies, and for me it was a wonderful book. I do have to acknowledge  that the book does contain some stuff regarding religion, and politics. I am catholic myself, and at any moment I felt offended by the book. I know that like any other book it has some controversial parts, but people let’s face it, if we were to band a book because and only because it has the word “niggers” on it, then we could say goodbye to great books, for example; How To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee, The Help by Kathryn Stockett, The Absolute Diary of a Part-Time Indian by Sherman Alexie, and many others more. I personally don’t like racism, and I know billions of people out there in the world don’t like it either, but people let’s think for a moment; and ask ourselves these questions. If I feel offended by the book should I ban it just because I don’t like it, or because I think it’s the “right” thing to do because people shouldn’t be reading it? Should I forbid others for getting this knowledge just because I want to ? Should I forbid others from their right of education? Well my dear reader the answer is NO, you shouldn’t, like you and me everyone has the right to receive knowledge, and be enlightened, and no one should be forbidden from that. Also the First Amendment States; “The First Amendment prohibits the making of any law respecting an establishment of religion, impeding the free exercise of religion, abridging the freedom of speech, and infringing on the freedom of the press.” [1] In other words this means that you have to respect others works even though you don’t like them, and you have to respect others rights to read those books, because if you don’t you will be violating The First Amendment that is a law, others rights to learn, and their freedom of speech. I know I’m just a teenager, and I may not know a lot about the world at this age, but one thing I know for sure; I will fight for my rights till the day I take my last breath.    

My rating for the book. 4.5/5 stars.

Sources:

1. “First Amendment of The United States Constitution.” Wikipedia. Wikimedia Foundation, n.d. Web. 07 Jan. 2016.