I mean, what is it ABOUT. I know what it’s about; I read the book and saw the movie. Is it ABOUT the necessity of civilization, how humans are merely animals when removed in a small group from existing civilization? Is it about the importance of rearing children properly? Is it Man Against Nature? What’s it ABOUT? What’s the big picture?
I’d read that William Golding was attacking the kind of social values and brutal hierarchy system that Bristish schooling was instilling in kids.
It’s about the importance of keeping a spare pair of glasses.
I would say that’s pretty close. The psychology of what mankind CAN become if isolated from other, more moderating influences. It happened a lot like that on Easter Island.
Bill H. – just like Papillon, eh? 
Nature, red in tooth and claw.
Golding is one of many writers to do the message “We’re all savages, if you take away the veneer of civilization.” It’s a very popular message, although I guess Milgrim would have told you it’s civilization that makes the savage.
BTW, the 1963 movie, the black-and-white one, is the one to see. The 1990 version, by having the boys in a military academy, dilutes and confuses Golding’s message. We’re not surprised that boys from a military academy might turn brutal and aggressive. In the original version, the boys who originally form Jack’s group are choir boys, literally (and the soundtrack gives us a very nice Kirie). Message: even choir boys can turn into savages.
It was also his reply to books like The Coral Island; boy’s adventures where kids got shipwrecked and had rip-roaring adventures.
Lord of the Flies is what Golding thought would realisticly happen.
Thanks to moving schools and curriculums I had to study this 3 years in a row. :mad:
Beelzebub is the demon also known as “The Lord of the Flies” or “The Prince of Beasts.” Some say it is synonymous with Satan, others that BB was an archangel/liutenant to Satan during and after the fall.
With that, we might be able to deduce that Golding’s vision of humanity is fairly bleak: Without an unbroken line of learning and teaching to keep it in check the majority of us will revert to our basic demonic nature. And so strong is that more basic, animalistic, demonic edge that it will sorely test the civilized, rational and compassionate nature which only some of us possess.
Perhaps it can be further meant that only some of us are with God and that Satan (self-centered brutality + bastardized use of intellect) has a firm grip on the rest.
And even … oooh! shiny …
You can view The Lord of the Flies as representing the fall of man without the influence of a structured society. Think of the boy with the glasses as the Superego, or the better judgement. The leader of the pig pokers as the id and the protagonist as the ego. Left with no outside influence the human psyche will be lead by the id to satisfy base desires at the expense of all else. The ego will try to negotiate a peace, but since the id doesn’t fight fair and need not follow any rules, it wins.
You would think that the boys, stranded on an island, would be a blank slate upon which a brand new world order of idyllic life would emerge (as in the aforementioned Coral Island).
However, they repeat all the problems of adult humanity. The choir boys, in their regimented ranks, are just a mirror of English empirialism uniting Church and State in a cruel, militaristic authoritarian rule. They cling to taboo and anti-intellectualism as they use and abuse the few who represent science (Piggy) and individualism (whatshisname) and true mysticism (whatshisname). They descend into animalistic barbarism and violence blind (no glasses!) to the true nature of their predicament (marooned) and reality (the dead paratrooper).
They get then get rescued by adults. Then we realize, “Hey, these violent bastards are just eight year old kids.”
Then we realize, “Hey, our ‘adult’ civilization acts just like eight year old kids!”
See: BEELZEBUB at LoveToKnow.
Peace.
But I seem to recall even at the end, the naval officer seems to look away and not believe that the kids could fall into such depravity.
We are killer apes.
Actually, that kind of ties the microcosm (the island) to the macrocosm (the planet). Presumably, the naval officer has been doing a high-tech, adult version of what the kids have been doing on the island. He is military, after all, and there is a war on.
(World War III, apparently, though a teacher of mine had to point it out. There are a couple of odd references to technology that doesn’t exist yet in world War II, IIRC)
Still, my interpretation isn’t quite as bleak as it is for you guys. The ay I saw it, evil is a fundamental of the human soul, but not the only one.
Simon and Ralph both figure it out – the Beast isn’t something external, it lurks inside each of us. And acknowledging that allows a person to control it, as Simon and Ralph learn to control it.
But when the evil is projected externally, it throws the door open to violence and totalitarianism.
Interestingly, Piggy never learns that. His book knowledge is only good for rationalizing away his doubts. The kind of intelligence that leads Simon and Ralph to understand things is a different kind of intelligence entirely.
What I was thinking, only much better said. I had fogotten about “The Beastie” running loose on the island just before everythine went to shit.
I listened to the audiotapes as read by the author, with his chapter by chapter commentary on them. It’s interesting to note that many of the things people say the book is about is not what he intended. He even gave a short account of how he came to write it (“Included on the tapes is background on how he came to conceive the book and a brief rebuttal to critics about its meaning”). I highly recommend it.
Sorry, I screwed up that link. http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/0807209546/ref=ase_thelordofthefl08/102-7770934-4152105?v=glance&s=books
I don’t have the book on hand and can’t provide an exact quote, but Golding makes mention of atomic bombs and the destruction of London.
I don’t have anything high-minded to add, but I wanted to thank everybody for their insights. I’m going to have to check out the audio tapes from the library to listen to on my commute.
Just wanted to add, Heinlein’s Tunnel in the Sky was kind of a more optimistic take on this situation. Same general premise- a bunch of kids stranded somewhere remote (though in fairness, it was part of a ‘survival’ class, though they were stuck there far longer than plannned). What I liked about it was how they were able to pretty much re-invent many basic kinds of technology (gathering up coal and other fuels to try to smelt iron, for example).