William Golding, Lord of the Flies Review

Overall Rating

An important novel to be cherished by all ages and its distribution to be encouraged. Please do spend the time to read this novel, the messages it portrays are an important insight into the psyche of ourselves. Beautifully written, this novel can be read and appreciated by all ages.

None. The book truly deserves it's 10/10.

Lord of the Flies was the first novel published by Sir William Golding after a number of years as a teacher and training as a scientist. Although Golding had published an anthology of poems nearly two decades before writing Lord of the Flies, this novel was his first extensive narrative work and is informed by his scientific training and academic background. In many ways Lord of the Flies is a hypothetical treatment of particular scientific concerns. It places a group of young English boys on a deserted island where they must develop their own society, in essence constructing a sociological experiment in which these boys must develop without any societal influences to shape them. In fact, the beginning chapters of the novel parallel assumptions about human evolution, as the characters "discover" fire and form levels of political authority. However, what concerns Golding in Lord of the Flies is the nature of evil as demonstrated by the boys on the island. He concludes that the evil actions that the boys commit are inherent in human nature and can only be controlled by societal mores and rationality, as exemplified by the characters Piggy and Ralph.

Although the novel does not adhere to themes particular to one religious tradition, in Lord of the Flies Golding draws upon a great deal of religious symbolism updated to conform to more contemporary ideas of human psychology. The title character, the pig's head that Simon dubs the "lord of the flies" is a translation of the Hebrew word Ba'alzevuv, or its Greek equivalent Beelzebub. For Golding, this devil comes from within the human psyche rather than acting as an external force, as implied by Judeo-Christian teachings. Golding employs this religious reference in more Freudian terms. The devil that is the "lord of the flies" represents the Freudian conception of the Id, the driving amoral force that works solely to ensure its own survival. The "lord of the flies" directly confronts the most spiritually motivated character of the novel, Simon, who functions as a prophet-martyr for the other boys.

Lord of the Flies is firmly rooted in the sociopolitical concerns of its era. Published during the first decade of the Cold War, the novel contains obvious parallels to the struggle between liberal democracy and totalitarianism. The character Ralph represents the liberal tradition, while the character Jack, before he succumbs to total anarchism, can be interpreted as representing military dictatorship. In its structure as an adventure the novel further resembles the science-fiction genre that reemerged as a popular form of literature during the fifties. Although taking place among ostensibly realistic events, Lord of the Flies is an adventure story whose plot, which finds a small group of humans isolated on an alien landscape, correlates to this popular genre. Golding's next novel was a further step toward this genre. The Inheritors, heavily influenced by H.G. Wells' Outline of History, imagines life during the dawn of man.

Golding's novel remains significant for its depiction of the nature of human society and its musings on the nature of evil. Influenced by scientific teaching, Freudian psychology, religion and sociopolitical concerns, Lord of the Flies, like much of Golding's work, attempts to account for the evil inherent in human nature.