A group of boys are stranded on a remote and deserted island. How will these boys fare away from grownups, away from society, away from rules? Written in 1954, *Lord of the Flies*, by William Golding, is considered a classic. The symbolism in this book is unreal, especially when you consider the colors mentioned (pink was mentioned 40 times!). Like most people, I read this in high school, but I got a lot more out of it as an adult. At the very end, I now ponder if that actually happened or if Ra...

Edit: A friend sent me this article about a real situation where a group of kids were left stranded on an island for 15 months. Spoiler alert: the *Lord of the Flies* scenario never happened. The boys behaved and organized themselves wonderfully.https://www.theguardian.com/books/202....Maybe,” he said hesitantly, “maybe there is a beast.” “What I mean is . . . maybe it’s only us.”.That quote sums up the idea of this modern classic perfectly. I avoided *Lord of the Flies* for years, but it finall...

Lord of the Flies is a parable of human nature…His mind was crowded with memories; memories of the knowledge that had come to them when they closed in on the struggling pig, knowledge that they had outwitted a living thing, imposed their will upon it, taken away its life like a long satisfying drink.Ever since the dawn of time, humanity has been governed by two opposing forces: the desire to create and the urge to destroy. And destruction, alas, is far simpler than creation…There was the brillia...

The year 1954 saw the first publication of William Golding's masterpiece, *Lord of the Flies*, a book whose themes (independently) split my personality in two that same year – through a series of ironic, life-altering inner events...Piggy and his upper-class schoolmates are stranded on a remote, wild island. But left without adults, they quickly descend, like some of our leaders, into draconian martial violence – the powerful and strong versus the poor and weak (shades of *Animal Farm*?).And I m...

"We did everything adults would do. What went wrong?” For me, this quote sums up the entirety of *Lord of the Flies* by William Golding. It’s a powerful exploration of humanity and the inherent flaws of our society, and it also demonstrates the stark hypocrisy of war. Adults are quick to judge the behavior of children, but are they really any better? I think not.The truly scary thing about *Lord of the Flies* is how believable it is. It exemplifies the brilliance of realistic dystopia...

This book, Lord of the Flies by William Golding, will forever haunt me and be intertwined with my freshman year of high school. It's a brilliant book for classroom study and it was where I first grasped symbolism in a way that really resonated. Lord of the Flies is so rich in literary devices; I remember it being the first time I realized reading and writing could be an art form far beyond simple storytelling, and how much careful craft brings a work to life. I was hooked! From that moment on, I...

Kids are evil. Don't you know?I've just finished rereading this book for my book club but, to be honest, I've liked it ever since my class were made to read it in high school. Overall, *Lord of the Flies* doesn't seem to be very popular, but I've always liked the almost Hobbesian look at the state of nature and how humanity behaves when left alone without societal rules and structures. Make the characters all angel-faced kids with sadistic sides to their personality and what do you have? Just yo...

I absolutely hated "Lord of the Flies" by William Golding. As I recall, it's all about humanity's inherent inability to govern ourselves, or more broadly, the failures of human nature. I have a few issues with the idea that simply stranding a group of kids on a desert island proves anything about that.1) These kids were raised in a capitalist, nominally democratic society. The first thing they do is appoint leaders. As someone deeply involved in consensus-based groups that challenge hierarchical...

Lord of the Flies is easily one of the most unsettling books I've ever picked up. It was required reading back in high school, and I've revisited it four times since then. It hits just as hard now as it did the first time. William Golding uses a group of seemingly innocent schoolboys, marooned on a deserted island, to paint a disturbingly realistic picture of human behavior when the structures of civilization crumble away. If you're looking for thought-provoking book reviews, this is a classic f...

I read "Lord of the Flies" a long time ago, so long that I barely remembered anything beyond the basic premise. I picked it up again, only to regret it. There's a reason they teach "Lord of the Flies" in middle school – to enjoy it, your intellectual awareness needs to be childlike, otherwise you'll spend the whole time picking apart everything wrong with it. And there's a *lot* to pick apart. From the little bit of the story that's actually coherent, I see why "Lord of the Flies" has had such a...