Total Page : 128
Publisher : Research Education Association
Publication Date : 1995 06 09
>> A Masterpiece
There are quite a few negative reviews on Lord of the Flies and of course I had my own complaints with the book too
But I still give it 5 starts because this is an instance where the whole is greater the sum of its parts
Wasn t crazy about the author s prose style It felt clumsy jarring and often times I had to re read entire paragraphs But at the same time the chapters were so intriguing enthralling and gripping
Golding s attention to detail gives the reader a complete sensory experience
>> Poor case for original sin
I read this book in school years ago Although its an okay read I think the author s message is off base I was taught that the boys nature represents original sin
I write this criticism based solely on the author s intention Whether I believe in original sin or not Golding s metaphor falls short when tring to connect the boys nature to original sin which suggests that man is born sinful
In LOTF the boys are obviously not born on the island and did not just show up as clean slates We know almost nothing about how they d been raised just that up until the island they HAD been raised elsewhere therefore the case for original sin is difficult to swallow Are we to believe that the boys ruthless behavior on the island is independent from their upbringings
Or maybe this just becomes a good excuse if we re damned anyway
I can think of a dozen better books for required reading
>> Something Different
The Lord of the Flies a book that William Golding had written in response to a book that had come out during the 1950 s that was about a group of young boys who had become stranded on an island and lived happily till someone came and rescued them Golding firmly believed that this scenario of joy would never occur in real life if a group of boys had become stranded on an island and his Lord of the Flies tells the story of such a tale
The book starts off with a group of young British school boys They realize that they are stranded on an island with no elders and at first life is as good as it will get but after a while barbarianism sets in and a tale of murder warfare and cruelty is opened up
The book personally did not pull me towards it as strong as i thought it would have I thought the characters were very well developed by Golding but there wasn t enough dialogue between them The four main characters in the book are Ralph Jack Piggy and Simon Jack is the only one cf the characters who changes drastically from the beginning becoming more and more barbaric as the novel progresses Plus you cant really sense the amount of time that has passed from the beginning of the novel to its end Also i think the extent to which the boys went barbaric was out of reality Boys at 12 yrs old probably wouldn t have killed a couple of the other boys maybe one the most and most likely by accident
The book i think is best for classes to show how kids react to the absence of adult authority The book I think becomes a bore and I felt like i could care less about what happens to Piggy or Ralph It seemed to drag at times when i was reading it
I ll rate it a 3/5 because it showed how much kids could change and it was interesting to see how there could be two very different parties on an island of stranded boys But it seemed to drag at times and was never successful in making me read more and more as other novels have done
