Lord of the Flies 1954 Literature

William Golding

Are the same idiots calling this a "dystopian" the same ones who reluctantly read it in school against their will? Okay maybe I'm starting off this review a little too aggressively. This book changed my life when I first read it in eighth grade, and honestly, it changed my brain chemistry. I absolutely LOVED it. So much so that a friend and I wrote an entire chapter-by-chapter parody of it where countless more littluns are given very absurd and pointless deaths. But even beyond it just being my first exposure to a book with a downer ending as well as being incredibly entertaining and violent in a realistic way, it spoke to me as a person; I'd been to enough scout camps to understand that this story isn't even a heavily fictionalized exaggeration of what would happen if a bunch of thirteen year olds were all left on an island. In each of those situations, I'd seen myself as the Ralph of the bunch. Each had had their own Piggies, Jacks, Samnerics, Rogers, etc. And what makes this book so brilliant (and equally disturbing!) is that it IS believable. And beyond that, it's a great commentary and allegory for society as a whole. Fear is used to control and the most unreasonable tend to get their way. This is one of the finest books ever written. It was the book that encouraged me to love reading.

This book played an important role in shaping modern, realistic fiction, but has aged somewhat poorly. Much of it holds up fairly well, but there are some points which distract from the meaningful tale. Disregarding the premise, certain elements, such as the particular viciousness of some of the children, as well as some of the skills they possess - or lack - stand out as somewhat contrived. A valuable piece of literary history, but not one I would recommend to an uninterested reader.

A thrilling and compelling metaphor on herd mentality. Its lessons are especially pertinent now with social media giants like FB and Reddit.