“Lord of the Flies” is a classic by William Golding (one that I reread for my classics challenge). I also tried out a mini version of a book club for “Lord of the Flies.” Great conversation about the book can be found on the links from this page.
Since I talked a ton about the book already, I’m just going to share some common threads and interesting points that popped up:
- This book isn’t as creepy as previously remembered, but more sad about how the children are innocent but succumb to group think
- Every action has a consequence, but many of the actions were swept away by the sea so the kids didn’t actually have to deal with the consequences
- And the biggest point that we discussed and were confused on. . . WHY are these kids on this island in the first place? Yeah, we get it, they crash landed here, but why were they on the plane with only the pilot as the adult and all boys? They don’t all know each other so they aren’t going to school together. . . However, my mom helped to solve the problem by remembering some obscure fact about how the children in England were evacuated during this time in order to protect them from being bombed.
Overall, great classic and pretty easy read! Plus, my library copy came with a fabulous Stephen King introduction which just made me extra happy!
What book have you reread recently?
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I love rereading old classics and Lord of the Flies is definitely one of my favorites! The only books I’ve been rereading are Harry Potter and Jane Austen, always 🙂
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I’m actually a newer Austen fan (I know, yell away!), but I did reread all the HP’s as well!
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Recently re-read this one too and can’t forget the shock I felt at the death of piggy. You can never really get over it can you?
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Seriously! I was honestly shocked at the way all the bodies were washed away by sea. The kids didn’t have any “real” consequences to live with (besides all the mental turmoil) but physically the evidence was washed away.
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I haven’t read this in so long. I’d like to again, now that I’m an adult. It’s nice to reread things from way back when and see how our perspective has changed
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It totally is! It’s completely different to me as an adult as opposed to reading it as a teen!
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I really enjoyed it when I read this a few years ago. I never had to read it in school and I’m glad because I definitely would not have appreciated it as much as I did. I’m not sure I’d call that an obscure fact 😉 It’s funny how many books from that time period are written with that being one of the beginning premises (the major one of course being Lewis’ The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe.
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But then again I do read a lot of British fiction 😀
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Maybe that’s why you knew the information that maybe I did not. I haven’t read a lot of British fiction, and being in my late 20’s and from Florida, I missed a lot of the British information, so I didn’t know about the evacuations.
And as a side note, I read “The Lion, the Witch. . . ” in college during a educational literature class. As we read parts of the book, we discussed it in a small group. I was totally caught off guard when I realized the book was about Jesus! Being raised Jewish, I wasn’t as familiar with the details of his story.
Talk about needing to know certain background information before reading in order to get the most out of reading!
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Oh yeah – I’m sure I missed huge portions of the religious allegory in the Narnia series. He doesn’t really start hitting you over the head with it until the end of the series.
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I struggled through listening to this book read by the author. He had no inflection in his voice. It made the book tiresome to listen to. I liked the concept of creating a civilized society and the accompanying rules and found that intriguing. Any suggestions for other books that cover this same idea?
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Hm . . . I read The Beach in high school and really enjoyed it. They made it into a horrible movie, but I liked the book as a teenager. Basically, there’s this amazing place to live, filled with marijuana and peace and love and blah blah, but of course, there are issues!
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Its been a long time since I read this book. I remember a lot of symbolism in this micro world tale of civility gone wild that applies to our country today.
One thing I remember is that the eye glasses were used to start campfires but later broken by the wild boys.
To me the glasses were the use and benefit of science and at first it proved its worth but were destroyed later as it conflicted with the growing superstition as the wild boys developed their cult of gods.
It reminds me today of the rejection of science by those who believe the literal meaning in the bible and who deny climate change or any science that conflicts with their theology.
I hope we don’t descend into another Dark Age.
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Wow, that’s deep! But you’re right! Glasses represent civilization, which they were getting farther and farther away from as the novel progressed.
I think that we have enough people out there defending science and accepting religion but not as literally to help keep us on the right track!
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Another one on my to read list. I may not ever get to all of these books, but at least I can dream about doing so!
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This one is a classic, so you should find the time for it! And the good thing is that you can keep adding to your list, pick and choose what you want to read, and then read as many as you get to.
Sometimes I get nervous about not being able to finish my to-read list, but there’s nothing I will be able to do about it except read as many as I can!
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