Review on Lord of the Flies

Finally, I have finished reading the book Lord of the Flies. If you don't want to spend time reading my reflection and review, I can tell you here at the beginning that it's not selected as required reading for high school students in the United States for no reason. But if you do decide to spare your time for my thoughts on the book, here they are.

Summary: 

A group of boys are dropped off on a desert island during a world war without any supplies and adults. To survive, the oldest boy, Ralph, takes on the job of leading them along with his right-hand boy, Jack, who is about the same age. However, the two strongest boys have different opinions on their priorities for survival; Ralph focuses on keeping fire and smoke for passerby sails to see them, and Jack focuses on putting their mind on hunting for food. Besides people with different opinions, they have to deal with unknown threats from the dark forest of the island. 

My Reflection:

In Lord of the Flies, William Golding uses a lot of descriptive writing that made me feel like I'm on the island with the boys. Every detail, from the way the sun shines, the wave of the ocean, the smell of the breeze, the joy, hopelessness, and fear in the boys' voices, to every step they take and every punch they throw, and every shiver they have. The techniques he uses, as I observe, include using verbs instead of adjectives to show the emotions of the characters. For example, when someone is scared, he doesn't use the adjective "scared" but verbs like "shiver" or "hearts pounding." Other techniques include using wrong grammar in some of the characters' dialogues to show their naiveness and lack of proper education and repetitive phrases to build up tension. These techniques helped me a lot with my essays.

(*SPOIL ALERT)

In terms of the plot, here are two of the things I see in the conflict between Ralph and Jack.

1. At the end of the story, Ralph loses almost all his people because he holds onto "keeping the smoke and waiting for someone to see it" but neglected his people's needs: comfort and enjoyment. Although it's a luxury to talk about these two things when you literally have nothing but a desert island, they are what human beings have been seeking since we have culture. Plus, those are just kids who haven't tasted the bitterness of the world, who are supposed to be exploring the wonder of the world. Thus, Ralph loses his people to Jack, who offers meat, safety, and feast and knows the people.

This reminds me of some events in the history of the world. Decades ago, a government in an Asian country focused on industrial development and ignored (worst than Ralph's neglect) what people really needed: food and a safe life. The policy turned out to be one of the largest genocides (in terms of number, deliberate or not) in history.  

Not that having hope is wrong, but I think having only hope is not enough. We need to put reality into consideration. In a time of crisis, the reality is that people's unity is a shot of adrenaline in the country.

2.  On the other hand, although Jack gets the people, he is an autocratic tyrant. Anyone who dares to defy him or have different opinions gets punishment. At the end of the story, he even burns down the forest just to kill Ralph who has been hiding because of standing against Jack. Under this circumstance, the people don't follow him out of respect and love but fear. This reflects the North Korean government in our world. The Kims force their subject to show respect and love to him, feed them their own values, and prevent the people from independent thinking and connection to the world. The only difference is that Jack does offer his people what he promises.

Plus, he is not a man (boy) of dignity. He raids Ralph's camp to steal a spec, the only way to generate fire on the island. I know when someone is thrown on an isolated island, survival comes before everything, but this happens in our world, on entities that have power especially. For example, in March of 2022, Russia invaded Ukraine to force them to give up their defending ability. Russia has almost everything, but it still does this to smaller countries without any dignity. I can even say what Jack does in the book makes sense, but there is no reason for me to stand with Russia.

It's really amazing how a piece from the 40s still applies to the world in the next century. 

These are all just my opinions on and interpretation of Lord of the Flies, and different opinions are more than welcome.