I detested The Lord of the Flies
Just as I hated most classics that were assigned in school, I detested Lord of the Flies. This was not JUST because it was unpleasant to read about boys descending into a state of barbarity; it was also because I just did not believe anything like this would happen. The end of innocence! The darkness in the human heart! Give me a break!
Or at least, that’s perhaps a reconstruction of high-school-me’s reaction based on an adult perspective, but I certainly don’t believe it now. I liked, and still like, castaway stories where that kind of slide into savagery doesn’t occur, like Heinlein’s . . . what was it . . . oh, right, Tunnel in the Sky. I didn’t like the ending of that one, but the basic plot was much more appealing. If I pick up a postapocalyptic novel, that’s what I want — you may have savages who think the end of the rule is a great chance to pillage, sure, but your protagonists had better pull together and rebuild civilization or I’m not interested. More, I’m not persuaded. I just don’t believe you can start with decent people, drop them on an island, and wham! The darkness in the human heart emerges.
Well, this article just caught my eye: The real Lord of the Flies: what happened when six boys were shipwrecked for 15 months
I will quote some relevant tidbits:
Thus began my quest for a real-life Lord of the Flies. After trawling the web for a while, I came across an obscure blog that told an arresting story: “One day, in 1977, six boys set out from Tonga on a fishing trip … Caught in a huge storm, the boys were shipwrecked on a deserted island. What do they do, this little tribe? They made a pact never to quarrel.” …
The story concerned six boys who had been found three weeks earlier on a rocky islet south of Tonga, an island group in the Pacific Ocean. The boys had been rescued by an Australian sea captain after being marooned on the island of ‘Ata for more than a year. …
These days, ‘Ata is considered uninhabitable. But “by the time we arrived,” Captain Warner wrote in his memoirs, “the boys had set up a small commune with food garden, hollowed-out tree trunks to store rainwater, a gymnasium with curious weights, a badminton court, chicken pens and a permanent fire, all from handiwork, an old knife blade and much determination.” While the boys in Lord of the Flies come to blows over the fire, those in this real-life version tended their flame so it never went out, for more than a year. …
While the boys of ‘Ata have been consigned to obscurity, Golding’s book is still widely read. …
It’s time we told a different kind of story. The real Lord of the Flies is a tale of friendship and loyalty; one that illustrates how much stronger we are if we can lean on each other. After my wife took Peter’s [captain who rescued the boys] picture, he turned to a cabinet and rummaged around for a bit, then drew out a heavy stack of papers that he laid in my hands. His memoirs, he explained, written for his children and grandchildren. I looked down at the first page. “Life has taught me a great deal,” it began, “including the lesson that you should always look for what is good and positive in people.”
I’m impressed by the series of lucky changes and the persistence that led to Rutger Bregman tracking down this whole story, which utterly disappeared from memory. Whether or not you personally enjoyed Lord of the Flies, by all means click through and read the whole article.
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