Lord of the Flies
Ratings1,900
Average rating3.6
Loved some of the descriptions of the island—the weather, flora, even some of the topology—basically the sense of space Golding creates, as well as the logical progression of things, and the pacing of the finale. Hated most anything else.
I understand the premise of this book, and why it is taught in schools abroad, but I failed to connect with it. Perhaps I shouldn’t read it at the age of 40?
Sure, Man is an animal, and it’s easy to devolve to a more primitive state. Sure, even kids aren’t as innocent. I get all that, I get the violence, the schisms, the ease with which we can destroy. I just didn’t like the prose, the fact that there are so many plot holes, that quite a lot is not explained, and I really had difficulty picturing the scenes described. I found myself reading the same paragraph 2-3 times trying to visualize who was saying what, to whom, where, and why.
Anyways, I don’t regret having read it, it’s just that I expected much more.
I've read Lord of the Flies some time ago and watched the movie. Enjoyed both.
Stephen King...well you need almost not say more. He remains one of the best writers of Horror, Suspense and yes, Fantasy. He's been an inspiration to me since the day I discovered the first book that he's written that I've read. That book was The Dark Half. I haven't discovered a book of Stephen King, including his Semi Memoir, “On Writing”. This book was no different.
Written in a sober yet powerful manner,it's definitely a classic worth reading. Superb allegory of the human condition and a parable about childhood's end.
Homo homini lupus.
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Un clásico imprescindible cuya lectura debería ser ampliamente fomentada en el bachillerato. Una alegoría de la condición humana y una parábola sobre la pérdida de la inocencia.
El hombre es un lobo para el hombre.
Wow, this story was a lot scarier than I expected it to be. I've seen similar things happen in society but reading it in a story about children is a bit jarring. Still, it's true and a lot of people get hurt.
Very enjoyable read. I can see why it is a classic. I will read it again when the story becomes foggy.
Ever wonder what happens when a group of boys are left on their own; to fend for themselves? The author, William Golding, gives us his thoughts in this fictional story.
I never read this book when I was young, but heard it referred to many times. I finally read it and it gave me a much better (and dark) understanding of some the situations I've hear it referenced in. It's memorable, disturbing book.
There's a lot of ways to understand this book, and it can start a lot of conversations, which is something i always enjoy. To me it felt like a critique of western “civilization”, and the only thing keeping their society from falling into complete savagery is the clothes on their back (metaphorically).
However, in some parts of the story it feels like the savages are modeled after the colonizer's view of natives of the American and African continent, and using the colonizer term of “savages” not as exaggeration but as a technical term.
I do believe that if people from colonizing countries were left on an island, they will use their tricks against each other, and i believe a different society, that values community, were left on an island, it would've lead to a very different book.
That is probably what the author wanted to show, or maybe i'm reading into it too much and that's just what i believe, but this island showed what would happen to a group who valued power and greed over society and the betterment of everyone (but they are kids bla bla bla but who better than kids to be the reflection of their own society).
Since this book seems to be in a lot of reading lists, I wanted to pick it up. But the story was boring and expected. The writing is not very special.
Liked how jumps right in, but also became curious throughout on how they ended up there. Even though one might not love characters right away, they are quickly developed and fall into their roles fairly seamlessly. There is good pace with good ‘world building' and while the things that happen seem like natural progression, it does not pull its punches. If nitpicking, it could be argued that the point or moral of story is a bit unclear and a sudden (though reasonable) ending didn't offer any additional clarity.
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.”
Por algum motivo Golding foi laureado com um Nobel. Usando um grupo de crianças, o autor, colocando-os numa ilha deserta, elabora uma metáfora brutal sobre a condição humana e o regresso à selvajaria.
This book surpassed my already low expectations and went even lower if that were possible.
My attempts at appreciating this book either ended up in my falling asleep or having to close the book as I just couldn't read any further. Maybe it's just me and I'm not in the right mood to analyse and read between the lines or something. It's certainly not a book that I'd be recommending. It's perhaps great as a coursework read but definitely not as a leisure-read.
I give it two stars because I do appreciate certain inspirative descriptions and maybe some of the themes? I'm not sure if I'd read it again, I might if someone really convinces me with valid points that would make me see the book differently
Now the plot of the book was pretty much the same as I expected but my prediction of the ending was a little incorrect, overall it suited the plot so I was pleasantly surprised. But the repetition of incidents that shadows the theme of savagery vs civilization was done so many times that the plot seemed rather dry. Sure many things are going on hypothetically but all of these are so repetitive that it bored me. I don't know if I would have liked it more if I was in the same age group as them cause sometimes I was not amused by how simply the boys got manipulated, was I that naive (p.s-dumb) back in my kiddy age? The depiction of a power struggle between two boys was something that I think was very well done and I theorized that maybe they were mentally prepared for extreme situations(cause there was a world war going on) when they get used to being stranded on an uninhabited island so easily.
3 out of 5 stars.
People are eff'd up. I know this was turned into a movie, but I never saw the movie. Wondering if I want to now, to see how they presented this.
It's obviously not a very creative theme, but the intensity of this novel dragged me through the pages effortlessly. In that regard, with the true human nature shining through the depths of darkness in this book, it's a 4.
not my shit. i'd recommend it to kids tho. i get it why they read this in school. if my teacher would ve gave me this book to read as homework when i was 12 i probably would've liked it. the dialogues were so fucking bad the first like.. 8-9 chapters i wanted to throw it out the window. last chapters were interesting a little but it still doesn't deserve more than one star from me
Book seemed very disjointed and was hard to follow. Jumped around too much without providing enough details .
Una delle storie più ansiogene e disturbanti che abbia letto, ed è curioso il fatto che la cosa di cui più ho paura ora, è proprio la natura umana.
“Dei ragazzi provano a costruire una civiltà sull'isola, che però finisce nel sangue e nel terrore proprio perché soffrono di una terribile malattia: quella di appartenere alla razza umana.”
Lord of the Flies is a very influential book, but the books that it inspired did the same concept better.
