Lord of the Flies in bbc book list, the top 100

May 17, 2018 Smiley rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: fiction

I found reading this novel arguably readable, much better than my first struggling attempt some 40 years ago, probably due to more familiarity I've gained from reading some of his other works. Indeed there might have long been innumerable Golding scholars who read, studied and wrote on his books as well as his fame as an awardee of the prestigious Nobel Prize in literature in 1983; therefore, as a common reader I would say something to share with my Goodreads friends hoping the points I propose I found reading this novel arguably readable, much better than my first struggling attempt some 40 years ago, probably due to more familiarity I've gained from reading some of his other works. Indeed there might have long been innumerable Golding scholars who read, studied and wrote on his books as well as his fame as an awardee of the prestigious Nobel Prize in literature in 1983; therefore, as a common reader I would say something to share with my Goodreads friends hoping the points I propose would lead to our better understanding on this fiction.

As we can see from its plot (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lord_of...), it gradually reveals humanity primarily in disguise as the stranded English pre-teen schoolboys (some younger) on an uninhabited island headed by Ralph trying to govern themselves but, as if dictated by fate, another group forming itself as the hunters headed by Jack becomes so wilder, more powerful that triggers the death of Simon in the horribly mocking rite one night dubiously claiming as an accident. The situations intensify because the hunters close their ring chanting the terrifying war cry: Kill the beast! Cut his throat! Spill his blood! so Ralph and his remaining members, Sam, Eric and Piggy are on the run for their lives; eventually Piggy, Ralph's last close friend, falls to his death. The seemingly game-like, cunningly-planned, merciless and brutally episodes suggest stark inhumanity unimaginably triggered from "the darkness of man's heart" (p. 285) which might be a way of paraphrasing from one of Conrad's famous novella's title Heart of Darkness. (Penguin, 1999)

Linguistically, there are some interestingly new spoken words formed by linking them into new child-like ones, I think, for instance, littlun (little+one), bigun (big+one) (pp. 76-7), Sam 'n Eric (p. 136), Samneric (p. 194). This sentence, "Beast my foot!" (p. 118) also amazes me, since 'my foot' has long surprised me while reading and once in a while finding it in novels and and I thought it's a kind of abuse; in fact, it's an interjection. (https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/my_foot) Moreover, there is an adverb (rarely found in novels) in this sentence, "Then they all three laughed ashamedly and began to climb back to the track." (p. 36) that this word 'ashamedly' instantly reminds me of another one I rarely found and first read in The Autobiography of Bertrand Russell (George Allen & Unwin, 1978), that is, "And we laughed consumedly - sometimes about nothing at all." (p. 559)

We may find the development patterns of the hunters' war cry more intensely gripping, hearing them with increasingly throbbing hearts, ruthlessly signaling to finalize their capture:
Versions:
1 Kill the pig, Cut her throat, Spill her blood. (p. 90)
2 Kill the pig! Cut his throat! Kill the pig! Bash him in! (p. 159)
3 Kill the beast! Cut his throat! Spill his blood! (pp. 213-4)
4 Kill the beast! Cut his throat! Spill his blood! Do him in! (p. 214)

In summary, we read this novel for something adventurous and psychological in mind since it depicts not only the boys' tough episodes in the wild encapsulated in rough terrain, lush green huge trees, wild beasts found on an island far from civilization but also their instinct divided into two groups; one seeking survival and returning home while another seeking subjugation and gaining power by means of terror and systematically accidental or intentional killing as we can see from this tentative list, first, a boy perishing without trace, then the pig slaughtered for food, Simon dead after the rite, and later on Piggy in the 4-member group including Ralph and Samneric falls to shatter himself below. Therefore, civilized human beings should control and beware of their instinct for creative peace rather than disastrous war. ...more

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