Lord of the Flies
When "Lord of the Flies" appeared in 1954 it received unprecedented reviews for a first novel. Critics used such phrases as "beautifully writeen, tragic and provocative... vivid and enthralling... this beautiful and desperate book... completely convincing and often very frightening... its progress is magnificient... like a fragment of nightmare... a dizzy climax of terror... the terrible spell of this book..." E.M. Forster chose it as the Outstanding Novel of the Year. "Time and Tide" touched upon perhaps the most important facet of this book when it said, "It is not only a first-rate adventure but a parable of our times, " and articles on this and subsequent Golding novels have stressed these twin aspects of Golding: a consummate control of the novel form, and a superb all-encompassing vision of reality which communicates itself with a power reminiscent of Conrad.
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Community Reviews
Lord of the Flies was a pretty good book school-wise. Jack is an evil genius. The Id. When a bunch of british boys are stranded in an island, he is the one that awakens everyone primal instinct killing pigs and being savages. Piggy is one of the only kids with any sense. The SuperEgo. but he has "as-mar" and is this fat kid with glasses. they make fun of him constantly but need him around to start fires with his lenses. Ralph, the Ego, is an inbetween average kid who everyone elects as Chief. He always talks about how they need to keep a fire going so that they can get rescued. Ironically, after they murder Piggy the boys are hunting down Ralph and decide to smoke him out of the islands forest. Jack was burning the WHOLE island down to search for Ralph to be head him on a stick for all the boys to see. If they weren't rescued the boys would have NOTHING. Well, Ralph got the fire he was always asking for and a British navel officer rescues them cause they could see the island burning. So they go from their boys war to the real world war against Germany. The "Devil" that Simon and Ralph see, a pig's head on a stick that Jack left in an offering for "the beast" was very interesting. They were all scared f the beast and never seeing things for what they really are. Leading the boys to questions themselves, or go to their primal instincts. Simon knows that the beast is really themselves and as he's trying to get his message across he's stabbed, beaten and bitten to death in a frenzy. The book seems simple enough but there was a lot of deep symbolism and goes through human's true nature. However, it was still read for school and it still needed to be dissected for an essay which ruined the experience for me so it has to be 3 instead of 4 stars. Apparently the whole bloodletting kids and stuff made this book a major controversy and puts this on the list of banned books.
I was never assigned to read this book in high school or college, and I am glad I wasn’t. I enjoyed it a lot more than I would have then, having worked with kids the same age as in the book for the past 9 years. Vivid details of the tropical island they are stranded on, as well as a perfect division between the two ideals of the group of boys. This classic book was a quick and intriguing read everyone should experience to make you realize what is important to prioritize and to answer the question: “How would I act if I were stranded on an inhabited island with a group of my peers?” 10/10
What a slow, tedious read. I didn't care about any of the characters, found it incredibly dull and read it waiting for something to happen which never did.
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