‘Ralph wept for the end of innocence, the darkness of man’s heat, and the fall through the air of the true, wise friend called Piggy.’ (1954, p. 158)
Episode no. 192 – ‘Das Bus’
My first encounter with William Golding’s Lord of the Flies was through an episode of The Simpsons which I enjoyed immensely as a youngster – especially because it also involved girls. In various internet communities, I have come across high praises for this book, so I was excited to get my hands on a copy.
Straight away I was pulled in with the survival aspect of the novel and my inner Bear Grylls lit up, imagining how I would have dealt with being stuck on an island. I identified with Ralph’s leadership skills and wanting to ensure everybody was safe until rescued. The carefree attitude of many of the other characters left me feel annoyed and angry. I will not lie, reading this book for the first time as an adult, at first, I somewhat disliked the execution of the storyline and characters to the great annoyance of my fellow colleagues who have read this book as teenagers and loved it. After all, this book does checks Appleyard’s three boxes of ‘what young people look for in books’: involvement and identification with the book and characters; the realism of the story; and that the story makes the readers think (1991, p. 6). The more I looked at the story with a critical eye, the more I started seeing the ‘beauty’ of it.
My colleagues loved this book as teenagers because it explores darker themes – survival, violence and death among others. According to Appleyard (1991), adolescents want to explore these darker themes because they ‘have discovered that the conventions of juvenile literature do not match the complexity of their new experience’ (p. 14). Readers at this age often experience the ups and downs of life for the first time and so they want to explore stories which reflect the often darker realities of their lives, because they can now relate to these more.
Children and teenagers often fantasize about independence from their parents, and as a school teacher, Golding also toyed with this idea. The characters in the book explore different roles, activities and behaviours through this new-found independence (Erikson, 1970, p. 11).
With no adults around, Ralph takes on the role of an adult by trying to keep everyone safe and fed until rescued. While Ralph acts beyond his age, Jack displays immature, selfish and aggressive behaviour. Ralph represents the ‘civilization with his parliaments and his brain trust’, Piggy, while Jack, ‘in whom the spark of wildness burns hotter and closer to the surface than in Ralph’ represents anarchy (Epstein, 2006, p. 160).
The evil is not externalised as in many juvenile books, though the characters try to externalise evil by creating the myth of the beast not realising that they have become the beast, and the ending is not exactly a happy one. So, one thing is for sure, juvenile students should wait until adolescents to read this book because of how Golding explores the darkest side of human nature – the transformation from school boys to savage animals who are ready to kill anything and anyone who stands up to them. We discussed how Golding managed to create suspense, by creating a pattern of fights which could have easily turned into something more. Golding the tease. However, this does not happen until the second half of the book where we arrive at the first human victim of the savagery. Simon figures out the truth about the beast and is killed by the others as if he were the beast:
The beast was on its knees in the center, its arms folded over its face. It was crying out against the abominable noise something about a body on the hill. The beast struggled forward, broke the ring and fell over the steep edge of the rock to the sand by the water. At once the crowd surged after it, poured down the rock, leapt on to the beast, screamed, struck, bit, tore. There were no words, and no movements but the tearing of teeth and claws. (p. 118)
Simon’s discovery launches the readers onto a wild ride. The fact that the characters’ ages range from 6 to 12 (perfect age range for juvenile books), makes these events much darker and more surprising. When Piggy, alongside Ralph, challenges Jack’s group by asking them whether it is better to be painted like a pack of Indians, hunting and killing or to have rules, law and rescue, (p. 141) he ends up killed by Roger who sends a huge boulder bounding onto him. The conch, and with it democracy, destroyed, the hunt for Ralph begins. As Simon observed, ‘maybe there is a beast…maybe it’s only us’ (p. 68), this book can open up great discussions about human nature in the classroom. The book does contain some tricky vocabulary like vicissitudes, strident, corpulent, or derision. It is something to consider when assigning this book, especially to second language learners.
Simon’s discovery launches the readers onto a wild ride. The fact that the characters’ ages range from 6 to 12 (perfect age range for juvenile books), makes these events much darker and more surprising. When Piggy, alongside Ralph, challenges Jack’s group by asking them whether it is better to be painted like a pack of Indians, hunting and killing or to have rules, law and rescue, (p. 141) he ends up killed by Roger who sends a huge boulder bounding onto him. The conch, and with it democracy, destroyed, the hunt for Ralph begins. As Simon observed, ‘maybe there is a beast…maybe it’s only us’ (p. 68), this book can open up great discussions about human nature in the classroom. The book does contain some tricky vocabulary like vicissitudes, strident, corpulent, or derision. It is something to consider when assigning this book, especially to second language learners.
Bibliography
Appleyard, J.A. (1991). Becoming a Reader. Cambridge. Cambridge University Press.
Erikson, E.H. (1970). Reflections on the dissent of contemporary youth. International Journal of Psychoanalysis.
Golding, W. (1954). The Lord of the Flies. London. Faber and Faber.
Golding, W., & Epstein, E. L. (2006). Lord of the Flies: A novel. [E-book]. New York: Penguin.
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