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Original poster

To ask you to talk to me about Lord of the Flies?

102 replies

Chandlierheights · 29/06/2018 18:30

It’s a book I’ve always fancied but never got round to reading till now. How in the name of God is it marketed as a kids’ book?!

It’s so brilliantly disturbing. I finished it a couple of days ago and can’t stop thinking it. Would the boys retain their hatred of Ralph once they’re on the boat that rescues them, or would they revert to the moral code they were raised with?

How did Piggy and Ralph get drawn into Simon’s murder?!

Please can we have a discussion about it? No one I know in real life has read it.

OP posts:
Original poster
Chandlierheights · 29/06/2018 18:32

More thoughts - was Ralph really only elected as leader Becki he looked the part, or because he was somehow sensed to be ‘good’?

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Flyme21 · 29/06/2018 18:33

I've never forgotten reading that book when I was about 12 or 13. The description of Piggy's murder has stayed with me, and I'm nearly 60! I only read it once, found it completely gripping but disturbing.

ChickenOrEgg6 · 29/06/2018 18:34

I watched the film in school at 13 Shock
Haven't read it though.
I'll leave now Blush

Feckitall · 29/06/2018 18:34

I read it as a 14 year old and as a 'young' teen and very innocent it rather went over my head...I then re read it when DC also read it at school and was Shock
It is was more disturbing as an adult!

gower4 · 29/06/2018 18:35

I didn't think it was marketed as a kids' book! GCSE text, but not for younger children.

liverbird10 · 29/06/2018 18:37

I studied it at GCSE.

Flyme21 · 29/06/2018 18:37

Wasn't Ralph the first leader because he gathered them all together by blowing in a conch shell? He wasn't strong enough to stay in charge was he, didn't the hunters get control?

BestIsWest · 29/06/2018 18:38

I read it for GCSE many year so ago and disliked it but was persuaded to read it again last year by a wise mnetter on another thread.

Was blown away by it, especially with the current state of the world, Trump etc.

rosesandflowers1 · 29/06/2018 18:39

He got it because he was pretty. Don't get me wrong, I love Ralph, but the book literally says 'Jack was the most obvious leader.'

If you want more you know you can find fanfiction and art online Grin

LokiBear · 29/06/2018 18:39

The absence of any female characters is a really interesting.

youngestisapsycho · 29/06/2018 18:39

Read at school 30 years ago and can honestly say I don’t remember any of it!

Original poster
Chandlierheights · 29/06/2018 18:40

I thought Piggy was going to die of his asthma Flyme, I definitely didn’t expect the murder. The part where Jack and two of his supporters sneak up on the other camp whispering for Piggy creeped me out so much that for the first time in years I hesitated to turn my lamp out to sleep.

Oh you’re probably right then gower. I actually don’t know why I thought it was a kids’ book now I think about it.

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PatchworkGirl · 29/06/2018 18:40

I read it in my 20s and I though that the scene near the end, with 'the stick sharpened at both ends' and then the end itself, was fantastic - it's really stayed with me.

BossWitch · 29/06/2018 18:42

I love the end, when the naval officer arrives and assumes they've been playing. By which point Simon and Piggy and an unknown number of the smaller boys are dead. Just that complete lack of any understanding that these boys have created their own war, their own hell.

Stinkbomb · 29/06/2018 18:42

We studied it in GCSE Sociology!

MadMags · 29/06/2018 18:43

It’s really disturbing. Brilliantly so.

Original poster
Chandlierheights · 29/06/2018 18:45

Yeah Ralph blew the conch that gathered them together, but Piggy seems to have had the brains of the operation. That said, Ralph seems to be painted as a nice, good character in contrast to Jack which is why I was so shocked that Ralph was part of Simon’s murder.

Jack and his hunters took control by offering the boys meat and ‘fun’, as opposed to Ralph’s more sensible concentration on shelter and being rescued. How easily believable it is that that would really happen is disturbing.

Do you think it would have been any different with girls instead of boys Loki? Apparently the author didn’t include any girls so that sex didn’t interfere with his story.

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Original poster
Chandlierheights · 29/06/2018 18:47

Yes, those final scenes are amazing. Do you think the savagery would have quickly have fallen away from the boys as they rejoined society, or would they have been destined to stay wild forever?

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Pikehau · 29/06/2018 18:50

Read it and wrote an essay for standard grades - off to purchase my own copy now .... it’s been 20 years and I can’t remember much!

isseywithcats · 29/06/2018 18:52

Brilliant book the moral of the book is no control over behaviour creates monsters i read it for GCEs 9yes im that old)

Flyme21 · 29/06/2018 18:53

This has made me think of reading it again. Powerful stuff.

Flyme21 · 29/06/2018 18:55

I think some of the boys would have stayed "savage". They had learned how to be in control. Some of the restrictions back home wouldn't have meant much to them any more. IMHO anyway.

TheOnlyLivingBoyInNewCross · 29/06/2018 18:55

I’m always intrigued by the Simon/ Christ analogy.

ShutUpBaz · 29/06/2018 18:56

Loved this book ever since I read it at GCSE. It definately changed in meaning when I re-read it as adult.

Roger is my favourite character. Dark henchman who is still held by the rules civilisation puts upon him.

LonginesPrime · 29/06/2018 18:56

was Ralph really only elected as leader Becki he looked the part

....

Apparently the author didn’t include any girls so that sex didn’t interfere with his story

I was going to say that I didn't recall a Becki in the version I read, OP!