Review #8 Lord of the Flies

Golding, William. Lord of the Flies. New York: Penguin, 2003. Print.



Annotation:
When a plane crashes on an unknown tropical island containing a number of school-aged boys, in a world without rules and adults the boys begin to create their own society. Ralph and Jack, always at each other's throats, throw the group of boys into a tumultuous tribal and brutal society among themselves. Bloodthirsty and savage, the boys slowly begin to turn on their own.

Justification for Nomination (genre: Censored or Challenged, Allegorical)

Lord of the Flies is written by William Golding, a nobel prize winning author. It is narrated in third person and primarily follows the boys in the leadership roles, as well as Simon, the boy who discovers that the Lord of the Flies is not a beast but something that is inside all of them. Following the "tribe" and their self-imposed government you see the challenges and brutality that emerges from each boys natural killing instinct, surfaced by the struggles and situation they are put in. Without any proper leadership, their self-governing lifestyle is damaging to their weak minds and they began to try and pull rank on each other in a viscous and actually, bullying, manner. 

This is the second time I've read this book, the first time was during High School literature class, where we did not choose to read it but it was mandatory. It is extremely difficult to read books that are mandated upon you but for some reason this book is fascinating and I am unsure anyone believed it to be in any capacity boring. 

The end of the book is the most awe-inspiring, as they attempt to hunt and kill Ralph, one of their own, they smoke him out of the forest in an attempt to murder him on the beach. Ralph stumbles upon the beach and is resigned to his fate (in a way) when he runs smack dab into a military officer. The other boys come out onto the beach, ready to kill Ralph, and see him as well. In a humbling act of remorse and tragedy, all the boys being to cry. 

"And in the middle of

them, with filthy body, matted hair, and unwiped nose, Ralph wept for

the end of innocence, the darkness of man’s heart, and the fall through

the air of the true, wise friend called Piggy."