Lord of the Flies

EDIT: I switched from the book to the audiobook and it was more enjoyable and understandable.

Rating: 3.5/5 stars
Rounded down to 3 stars

I love the historical and allegorical nature of this book, but I do admit that it's just incredibly boring. My eyes easily slid from page to page, sometimes not really absorbing what I read and it didn't feel important that I needed to know.

Do I agree with Golding's point of view that humans are on a thin ledge between civility and chaos/cruelty? I think I mostly do. I think a lot of the things that we take for granted in civilization are incredibly fragile and not everyone believes the same thing and many would likely devolve if things were upended. Humans are definitely capable of great evil as shown in this small tale.

I don't really remember what was taught when I read this in high school. However, I most definitely did not understand what Golding (or my teacher) was trying to say to me, the reader. I wonder if there was a deeper conversation about things and it was just more simplistic in nature, since we were teenagers, or if the teacher did bring up some of these moral and ethical questions. I just don't remember enough to say one way or the other.

Quotes:

“Maybe there is a beast... maybe it's only us.”

“The thing is - fear can't hurt you any more than a dream.”

“The greatest ideas are the simplest.”

“I think women are foolish to pretend they are equal to men, they are far superior and always have been.”