Lord of the Flies - William Golding - So You Haven't Read

So You Haven't Read Lord of the Flies by William Golding? This psychological fiction takes a group of boys and tosses them onto a deserted island, leaving them to fend for themselves and fight off something dark lurking in the night. It's a classic by all accounts and we're here to give you a breakdown of this young adult fiction novel enjoyed by all.

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♪ Intro music: "Coffee Beans" by Mike Wuerth
♪ Outro music: "So You Haven't Read Theme" by Tiffany Roman

#SoYouHaventRead #LordOfTheFlies #WilliamGolding

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[mollywantshugs]

I love how the author of Lord of the Flies saw the many books about British kids going to wondrous lands without trying to dominate everyone and just went, “nah, here’s what would actually happen”

[euanduthie]

What a lot of people are missing is that the book is also at heart an attack on the English Class system. These are upper-class boarding school boys, the product of the very system that was supposed to create men fit to rule an Empire, and it's the violence and cruelty of those systems that are unleashed on the island.

[turmaeac]

I find very interesting that the group doesn’t become violent until they see the pilots corpse.
The group, left by itself, managed to make a stable society but outside interference, the war caused by the older generations, is what starts the violence in their society

[juanfranciscovillarroelthu]

William Golding Saw all those aventure books about English boys having a good time in the wild and decided to write... This.

[ladyjanegrey]

Love that the villain is basically just a theatre kid who got mad he didn't get the lead role.

[The-Axel]

Golding wrote LotF as a response to The Coral Island: a Tale of the Pacific Ocean (1857) by R. M. Ballantyne and many others.
I think the more interesting question is why do people assume one work of fiction is more reflective of the human condition than the other?

[Ahrpigi]

"A crisis, a charismatic strongman, and fear." All our literary warnings keep being treated as playbooks.

[Bro_wat]

One thing I'd like to say is while there is some legitimacy on your take on Golding's idea of savages, you should also remember that he made the British kids savages, and not kids of actual indigenous decent or background, showing that anyone is capable of falling into madness. Either take on this is reasonable but I'd like to think the latter was his goal to represent.

[michaelrae]

I don't think Lord of the Flies was about what boys would do without adult supervision. This is a book about unhinged group think and dogmatism, not what boys would do if they were stranded on an island.

[jackukridge]

In the 1960s, a group of schoolboys stole a boat and were wrecked on a desert island. They did surprisingly well until they were rescued. They were then arrested by the owner of the boat.

[DreamDragoness]

I remember having to read this in high school. Now that I'm older, I can't help but think of the boys going through therapy while Jack spends the rest of his life in a straightjacket. I know he's just a boy, but he was the most monstrous of the characters that I don't think he ever showed remorse for his actions.

[sd-chcq]

I'm happy to see that criticism of this story is getting traction: there is no known case of lost children succumbing to their inner demons, but there are plenty of cases of lost people pulling together during crisis.

[TheRevanchrist]

to quote an artic shrew, "We may be evolved. But deep down, we are still animals."

[grsd]

Thanks for bring up briefly about the story of the Tongan boys. The lord of the files (fiction) is a reminder that humanity can be at its ugliest when fear, greed and selfishness are amplified. In contrast, with the Tongan boys they loved and served one another. When times were hard they though about each other, their family and God. If we were stuck on a desert island, the outcome would be based on three factors: what you have been taught, what do you value and how do you react in that situation (any desperate situation). Thanks again for the video.

[DoktorDelta]

Also the inspiration for the season 3 Spongebob episode "Club Spongebob", which involves the main characters getting lost in a forest and consulting a magic conch shell for help

[RockSmithStudio]

"We're going to take a deep dive into the story so you can witness some of the darkest parts of the human psyche. YAY!!!"
Those are ironically my favorite stories and why Lord of the Flies is one of my favorite books

[franticranter]

4:01 I will say, Golding taught at a school in my home town, and all I can say is I understand why he'd think schoolboys would become murderous "savages" after teaching there

[OrbitalRose_]

I'm definitely of the mind that the message is not about humanity as a whole, but the product of what we know as "civilized society"

[RachaelHixon]

Fun fact, I discovered in high school English class that the meaning of the boys names are also significant. Baby name book FTW!