Pity the entire concept is trash. Humans cooperate naturally is how we dominated the planet. Authoritarians need to create narratives that without the heavy hand of authority we’re all savages. None of it can be supported by history.
I think you’re missing the point. It isn’t that all the kids are inherently bad, it’s that they were led astray by a few authoritarians. They wanted to cooperate. It’s pretty accurate parallel to modern times, which is why it’s a classic.
Wholeheartedly agree. It was written in the context of immediate post WWII. It was a stark insight into children and humanities depravity for land and conquest.
It was written in the context of there already being a popular book about kids stranded on an island rebuilding civilisation in the image of the British Empire. It’s a genre subversion.
The premise of children stranded on an island, yes. That came from The Coral Island, and Golding didn’t like the colonialism and not-so-subtle Christian themes. He originally just wanted to do a parody of it, with children behaving how children behave. It turned into the Lord of the Flies post WWII as a deep insight of the depravity of man and the horrors of the war through the lens of children. This provided an enthralling contrast indicting humanity and the horrors we wrought on each other. I stand by my original statement. It is within the context of WWII. Peace and love to you, my friend.
Pity the entire concept is trash. Humans cooperate naturally is how we dominated the planet. Authoritarians need to create narratives that without the heavy hand of authority we’re all savages. None of it can be supported by history.
I think you’re missing the point. It isn’t that all the kids are inherently bad, it’s that they were led astray by a few authoritarians. They wanted to cooperate. It’s pretty accurate parallel to modern times, which is why it’s a classic.
Wholeheartedly agree. It was written in the context of immediate post WWII. It was a stark insight into children and humanities depravity for land and conquest.
It was written in the context of there already being a popular book about kids stranded on an island rebuilding civilisation in the image of the British Empire. It’s a genre subversion.
The premise of children stranded on an island, yes. That came from The Coral Island, and Golding didn’t like the colonialism and not-so-subtle Christian themes. He originally just wanted to do a parody of it, with children behaving how children behave. It turned into the Lord of the Flies post WWII as a deep insight of the depravity of man and the horrors of the war through the lens of children. This provided an enthralling contrast indicting humanity and the horrors we wrought on each other. I stand by my original statement. It is within the context of WWII. Peace and love to you, my friend.
LotF is the mirror of another book that had the same premise but without rich spilled brats. In the other book the kids survived and worked together.
Is that really the message? I haven’t read it since I was a kid but I remember walking away thinking “power hungry people destroy civilizations”
Yes, the author wanted to illustrate that people would be selfish savages as a contrast to other works at the time he disagreed with.