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Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region ForumsLord of the Flies - The story of a society in which democracy descends into tribalism and tyranny.
Excerpts:
Its the story of a society in which democracy descends into tribalism and tyranny. One of a civilization built by those committed to the rule of law who turn on each other, scapegoating the marginalized and powerless. Ultimately, its a reminder of a human barbarism lying just beneath the fragile veneer of decency.
Sound familiar? Thats right: its the plot of Lord of the Flies, a novel about a group of English boys who survive a plane crash and are marooned on an island in the South Pacific. After a short period of harmony, a power struggle between the two leaders, Ralph and Jack, causes the group to split. Jack wins out by promising to hunt and kill a common enemythe strange phantom living in the jungle known only as the Beast. Its a successful campaign of fear and division.
Lord of the Flies was first published in 1954, largely in response to the rise of Nazism and the horrors of World War II. And yet, in many ways, it speaks directly to the world of 2016, where austerity, the refugee crisis, Brexit and the rise of Donald Trump have emboldened nationalist fervor and stoked societal fragmentation. ... But ultimately, the books message is that savagery is universal. It is not racially or nationally defined. Its a moral that encourages us to reflect on just how far-right extremism has crept back into mainstream politics throughout Europe and America
The moral of Lord of the Flies isnt just that barbarity knows no borders. Its also that it can be prevented from flourishing through the commitment to a shared humanity. If humanity has a future on this planet of a hundred million years, said Golding in his 1962 lecture, it is unthinkable that it should spend those aeons in a ferment of national self-satisfaction and chauvinistic idiocies.
https://www.newsweek.com/lord-flies-balthazar-getty-william-golding-christmas-2016-literature-529695
MineralMan
(146,317 posts)My favorite Ralph quote from the book.
wasupaloopa
(4,516 posts)belief that man is inherit evil and and ordered society left on its own would return to evil.
Ive got the conch
lame54
(35,293 posts)demmiblue
(36,865 posts)lame54
(35,293 posts)Trump is A PIG
that's all I meant
FakeNoose
(32,645 posts)It surely should be read by all high school students, but I don't know if it's still part of the curriculum.
I read it in high school, so did my sisters and brothers, but that was during the 60's and 70's. We also read "Catcher in the Rye," "Animal Farm," "1984," and several other classics.