Lord of the flies, yuck this brings horrible reminders of high school.... (Lord of the Flies - William Golding)

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Product:	Lord of the Flies - William Golding
Date:	10/08/00 (39 review reads)
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Advantages: A good book, if you like this sort of thing..

Disadvantages: Too gruesome in places.

I read this book at secondary school, and even then it disgusted me that under pressure we could act like this.
I hope we never see anything like this ever, and i expect my daughter will read this book in high school aswell.
The Book is written by William Golding.

There's a short lead-in to the tale, just to set the scene. There are two groups of boys on board ship,
one the well-mannered sort, and the other just some normal city kids.
A disaster hits the ship, and everyone's got to get to the nearest shore--an island not too far away.
Only the children make it, for some reason, and they've got to survive until help arrives...if it arrives at all.

The boys quickly separate into what they were before, the well mannered boys against everyone else.
Jack, the angelic lead singer, takes charge of his troupe. Ralph, a regular kinda kid who has natural leadership ability, controls the rest.
His lieutenant, an overweight kid with glasses who immediately (through Ralph's treachery) becomes known as Piggy,
is a constant reminder of home, of manners, and of the Rightness of things. Piggy is despised by all,
some more genially than others. The final important character is a small dark boy named Simeon, whose stillness and silence eerie a lot of the kids.
His gruesome death, and the children's reaction to it, is the high point of the book.

The boys start their new civilization well enough. These are after all middle-class English lads,
with good manners drilled into them from day one. Within a few days however, a power struggle ensues.
Ralph, who was elected leader, and Jack, commander of the TOFFS/hunters, are both strong personalities,
and it's only a matter of time--very little time--before they clash.
What begins as an argument between these two escalates into all-out war (hunters vs. everyone else),
with paint, blood, and weapons. People die in wars, and the casual
ties pile up in this one pretty quickly.

Jack's hunters, having spent their time making and using weapons, instead of tending fires and playing,
get the best of the fight. When it seems all is lost for the "good" kids, the grown-ups show up.
Everyone is saved. The adults' confusion over how this misery could have happened to a group of nice English
lads mirrors my own shock at how quickly a civilization can fall when deprived of true authority.

This is up to you to read this, but i have read it only once since leaving school. never again.

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