Thursday, March 15, 2012

Ralph wept for the end of innocence

Lord of the Flies, what the hell? As if I wasn't already afraid of kids. And not those children of the corn, demon kids. This is worse because these are normal kids. Little British schoolboys. Choir boys.

I hadn't read William Golding's novel before. There was a chance my freshman year of high school, but I was put in the group reading 1984*. I'm not sure which was worse. That doesn't mean that this and 1984 are bad books. They're not.  But in terms of "WTF humanity", it would be good battle. I had a very vague idea about what Lord of the Flies is about, mostly from the Simpson's episode "Das Bus". What I'm saying is I was unprepared and there was very little model UN and a lot more kids showing us the worst of what people naturally are. Upbeat and whatnot.

It's difficult to review a classic because what am I supposed to say? Hey, have you heard of this book? Oh you have? Right, of course. Well then, what'd you have for lunch? If you haven't read this before, go ahead and do that. Cos this is mostly going to be a random collection of my thoughts and will be all sorts of spoilery. Not that I actually think it matters if you already know the details of this one, but in case you care.

*Spoilers. Like I said a second ago but in case you weren't paying attention*
So the basics: these kids are stranded on a deserted island. And they are kids. The oldest are about 12, the youngest 6. The kids try to make due, they elect a chief and plan to keep a fire burning so hopefully a passing ship will see the smoke and rescue them. Look how responsible they are and there is hope! And then this quickly gives way to insanity.

A boy is burned to death (probably) and everyone is just like "nah I'm sure he's fine. Let's not worry about the fact that we never see him again." The antagonist (one of those choir boys, which makes him adorable but under normal circumstances, not frightening) gets scarily obsessed with killing a pig. Like "oh our only meas of rescue went out while I was supposed to be watching it and a ship passed by and we'll all probably die on this island. But you guys, I totally killed something! Here, we should act it out on this boy."

Things grow tense between the rational boys and the hunter/choir boys which culminates in a frenzied dance where they literally tear apart, with hands and teeth, the only good kid in the whole group. Murder. With bare hands. By a bunch of children. WTF? After that, the death of Piggy, murder by boulder, was nothing. Or at least was a lot less because what the hell, children should not be murdering each other with their bare hands. Or boulders. Children should not be murdering. We can probably leave out the qualifiers of "with their bare hands" or "with boulders".

Now there's only one non-savage boy left (our protagonist Ralph) and the rest of the boys on the island are hunting him! In an effort to find him they burn the whole forest down, because children don't understand subtlety. Luckily they're saved from starvation (cos they just burned down the forest where the fruits, nuts and pigs they eat come from) when a ship notices the conflagration and rescues the boys. He laughs when he sees the boys because he assumes they've been playing fun, not-at-all-murderous games and then gets freaked out when the kids start crying. But they're saved and go back home to probably a lot of therapy.

I knew going into this Piggy dies. I didn't know how. I didn't expect death by boulder so kudos for the surprise there, but I knew he didn't make it. So when I started the book I was thinking how Golding was going to make me super love Piggy, just to take him away. But that didn't happen. I didn't want Piggy to die, but I certainly didn't love the kid. He's just...so...annoying. And whiny. It seems mean to get angry at a child for being whiny when they're stranded on a deserted island, but I'm a cruel person apparently. I wanted the boys to be nice to Piggy, but every once in awhile I wanted someone to smack him upside the head.

The death that really got me was Simon's, he of the torn apart murder. Why do people go on about poor Piggy? What about Simon? He was so good and so innocent. He was helpful and kind to the little kids when all the big kids were being just assholes. He has his little quiet time in nature. OK, so he goes a little crazy for awhile and pictures the sow head on a stick (the Lord of the Flies) talking to him and telling him that the true horrors are inside him and all mankind. But that doesn't make him go on a murderous rampage, as I'm sure it would have driven the other boys. Instead he realizes the beast they've all been afraid of is actually a dead parachutist (which is creepy in and of itself) and he goes to tell the others they don't have to be afraid. And they kill him. They all kill him, even rational little Piggy and Ralph, even if Piggy won't admit that's what happened.
*Spoilers contained*

So there you go. This was an excellent book that crams a lot of deep thoughts and difficult questions into a simple story. I didn't go into all of the symbolism up above but it is there and people smarter than I have written about it. I'm very glad I read this so thank you Strand in NYC for having it on sale and thank you Classics Challenge for pushing me to read a classic I previously missed.
*So don't worry, I still got scarred, just by a different book.

Title quote from page 225

Golding, William. Lord of the Flies. Faber Firsts, 2009. Originally published 1954.

Comments (19)

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I tried reading this. Twice. Both times I think I was like 11 or something, but STILL. I have determined I do not like it and wish no part of it. Because 1) All dudes. 2) Little boy dudes. 3) I don't care about the plot.

But yeah, that "Piggy dies" thing is out there. I don't know why. Piggy's basically all I remember from however much I got through. That and the pig-killing kid. But thanks for saying what happens in the rest of the book, because I did not know and never remembered to look it up.
2 replies · active 678 weeks ago
I did really wish for some girls on this island. Who knows if there would have been less murder but I'd like to think so.

All I heard is Piggy wears glasses and he dies. Which yes, that happens but Simon's death was so much worse, in my eyes anyway.

I couldn't stop picturing the kids in this as Simpsons characters though, even when they went way beyond what the Simpsons would do. The pig-killer kid remained Nelson for me and Piggy was a cross between Milhouse and Uter
"In fact, you might say we just ATE Uter, and he's in our stomachs right now!...wait, scratch that last one."

Different episode, but UTEEEEER!
I need to reread this. I read it a few years ago and most of the symbolism went straight over my head, but I do remember the very vivid not-nightmares-but-nonetheless-super-creepy dreams I had while reading the book. I think reading it by myself (not in school) and without any kind of framework to understand things that were a lot bigger than me meant that I kind of "missed it"...
1 reply · active 678 weeks ago
I recommend reading this AND the sparknotes to go with it. They mention all of the symbolism and themes so it was a nice way to see what I missed, since I didn't have the benefit of a classroom. They talked about how some people see Simon as the Christ figure (as well as the arguments why that doesn't work) which was something I didn't consider while reading but it was interesting.
Yeah, Piggy was an annoying little shit. I definitely read this and was kind of like 'but why do people like it so much?' because I didn't think it was that well written, but then, you know, plot! So, yeah. I did really really like the end though, when the rescue guys are all like, 'aw, look at the children, I bet they've just been playing and having fun and not going savage!' because it's all shocking even to think of them as children anymore when we know what's just gone down. Obvs that's the point of it, but I really liked it!
3 replies · active 677 weeks ago
I liked the style Golding used since it's very simple. Although he lost me at times cos the narrator would shift and I'd get lost. Mostly when the Lord of the Flies/decapitated pig-head started talking.

I did like the ending for that same reason. Cos he's dismissing what these kids are doing (obv not knowing what they've really been up to) as fun and games. And you, dear reader, know it's nothing like that. Then I wonder about all the other times adults look at the things kids do and go "those are just games". How wrong they may be...
Stephen King totes goes on about that in It! There's this whole thing about how children are essentially invisible to adults, so whatever they're doing (fighting really really scary monsters, for example!) the adults just go 'oh look, kids being kids!' and move on.

I like how I can link all things back to Stephen King :)
I was actually going to add something in this post about how King talked about this book in On Writing. Instead I got distracted by all the child murder stuff. But at least with this one, the King thing isn't just you.
I am a teacher. I've not read this book but I know the things children are capable of!
1 reply · active 678 weeks ago
It's so scary to think what they're capable of. I know the book's supposed to be "what all mankind is capable of" but he used kids and now I see "kids are evil and just become evil adults".
Kids are scary. This was one of those classics that I just assumed I'd get around to eventually, and now I kind of want to read it more. Although a small part of me is worried I'll be like... on the asshole-kids side. Because I'm mean and can't stand whiny kids. Tearing kids apart bare-hands style is pretty rough though... I mean, DAMN.
1 reply · active 677 weeks ago
It was really very good, once you get past how messed up things are. But really, the fact that the book was so upsetting speaks volumes about how well it's done.

It's the brutality of what the kids do that is so nuts. I mean, they were mean to Piggy cos he's whiny and fat and nerdy but you expect kids to do that. I may have wanted them to be nicer but as I said, I always wanted to smack him several times. I did not, however, want to crush him to death with a boulder.
Warned by your 'spoiler' alert, I didn't read the rest of your post. I'm actually reading this book now. I came across this book years ago, read the first few pages, and let it stay on the dusty library shelves. I remembered not liking it then. I just hope I'm ready now for this type of brutality!
1 reply · active 677 weeks ago
It's certainly not as brutal as say American Psycho, but it's crazy what the kids are capable of. I hope you enjoy book!
I didn't read the whole post because of the spoilers, but maybe I should. I know this is a great classic. I think because I know what it is about, I just can't bring myself to do it. Maybe one day I'll finally work up to it.
1 reply · active 677 weeks ago
Maybe not really knowing what the story was about helped me pick it up. I had the vaguest idea of the plot but didn't realize how crazy the kids can be.
I did read this in school, and I don't think I was as horrified as I should have been. I probably need to read this again. And I need to see that Simpsons episode!
1 reply · active 675 weeks ago
You should definitely check out the Simpsons episode. It's pretty wonderful

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