Lord of the Flies question

I just started re-reading this too, but it has been about 16 years for me since I read it the first time. I was surprised how forcefully some of it came back to me, like "Sucks to your ass-mar!".

Piggy is obviously the character I remember the most about, and I feel bad for him just like I did the first time I read it. I remember the first time, when I was in high school, I felt sorry for Piggy but also a little exasperated with him. Why does he keep putting himself out, so vulnerable to ridicule from the other boys? As an adult, I don't feel so exasperated anymore. I don't know if it is because society has shifted and everyone feels it's more okay for boys to be sensitive or it is just because I have shifted my views as I get older.

I'm really looking forward to finishing the book, I remember some of the major plot points but I had forgotten how much I love the writing itself. Golding's dialog is so sharp and crisp, and as the mom of a 12 year old boy, I think he actually gets some of their behaviors pretty right. When Jack goes to kill the piglet in the first chapter, the way he tries to cover his misgivings as hesitation while he "chooses the right spot" seemed spot on.

I have just re-read this book. Great story about boys trying to do things the adults would do. Interesting to see how they broke down into smaller groups by age and by what they thought was important. Piggy had the right ideas, but would never be a leader. not sure what there ages were, but it would be tough at age 10 or so to make some of the calls they were faced with. Their imagination was their worst enemy.

I`m rerading it and now ot looks exactly different than 1st time. The Lord of the Flies, is a story about power. The entire conflict of the book is based on power.

Ralph is the child who obtains power and Jack wishes to have this power. Thus there is a conflict in the story that centers on the power that each person has but that the power a person has over others. In the novel it is made obvious that the children have the power to kill. They have the power to make decisions and the power to decide whether to make decisions that are moral or immoral. I also read something like this here — https://rayslaxon.kinja.com/lord-of-t...

The children, whom are the characters of the novel, have the power to decide their own fates within a limited fashion. The story is also one in which the power resides not only in the children, but within the symbols they surround themselves. Although each child has power, they allow the power of the symbols supersede their own. In the story the children who do not wish to have control over their own fate slowly give power to the symbol.