Is “Lord of the Flies” overrated? Written in 1945, William Golding published his Nobel-Prize-winning novel which is still considered a classic to this day. Anyone can see why the story had its lasting effect on social commentary since its publishing. The overlying illustration of how easily man can devolve back to his feral instincts is striking, yet could have been (I assure you) 100% more effective if written by a decent writer. And that brings us to the point if “Lord of the Flies” should even be regarded as an enduring work of literature because, in my opinion, Golding’s novel is simply not worth the hype.
The Plot
The book begins with Piggy and Ralph and their realization that no adults survived the crash. Rather than rejoice in their freedom or even mourn, they simply stand there like two bumps on a log. When Jack’s tribe kills one of their own, they have no reaction. They talk to each other for a bit about how horrible they are and that's it. The events after that are so dull too. They hunt a pig. Ralph talks about a fire. They eat. They argue over the stupidest things possible. Ralph talks about fire. Someone dies. Ralph is still mumbling about a fire.
Instead of making these scenes more bearable, Golding decided that he wanted to write over 20 descriptions of the scar (the airplane) and 70+ mentions of the oh-so-interesting sand. The author spent more time describing the different angles of the sunlight than Simon’s death.
The Characterization
Other than the lack of a well-executed plot, I would have cared more about the little island society of prepubescent boys and their descent into barbarism if you know, any of the characters had been developed AT ALL. Besides being devoid of any emotion, the characters are basically just vessels for Golding to tell his story. This isn’t wrong, but it turns quickly into indifference when the story itself isn’t enough to hold people’s interest. The book just has a bunch of little boys who were created to conform to stereotypes: the leader, the rebel, the fat kid, the nose picker, etc. That’s literally just saying: Sophia, the loud one who represents the relentless noise of society - “loud” being my only characteristic.
The Writing
If you could shut your ears to the slow suck down of the sea and boil of the return, if you could forget how dun and unvisited were the ferny coverts on either side, then there was a chance that you might put the beast out of mind and dream for a while.
The passage you just read was a sample of the “Lord of the Flies” description written by yours truly - William Golding. I don’t think he understood that more does not equal better and that putting random words together does not produce good imagery. And if you think that’s bad read the next passage!
“--d'you think--”
“No, I dunno--”
“On account of my asthma, you see--”
“--your auntie--”
“--I saw the beast!--”
Golding also was unable to make his characters form full sentences because apparently all the boys only retained a fraction of their brains when they fell out of the plane. If Golding was trying to depict the chaotic environment, he didn’t have to use the same format every chapter because half the book’s dialogue is just that: terrible.
Overall, this book was definitely an experience, but sadly, it did not meet up to my expectations. The symbolism and theme were definitely there, but in terms of the writing quality, Golding failed to impress me.
Is this book a classic? Perhaps.
Is this a good book? Nah.
Therefore, “Lord of the Flies” earns a 1.5 star from me.
Thank you for this superb and comprehensive review. I was previously contemplating about reading this novel. However, upon hearing about your thoughts, feelings, and concerns for “Lord of the Flies”, I have reconsidered my choice. I’ll be waiting for your next review. Thank you again for the review.
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