Lord of the flies reviw p.2 newberry Becker

books:


	• Lord of the Flies (Penguin Great Books of the 20th Century) William Golding Penguin (Non-Classics), 1999 - 192 pages average customer review:based on 1268 reviews view larger image
	for more information click here

highly recommended

Disturbing As Ever.

Read this as a kid in High School. Thought I'd get my son (High School age) to read one of the great classics in HUMAN NATURE. Disturbing as it ever was!! Better than any video game.

How thin the veneer of civilization ..

I first read this book as a young teenager and I've revisited it twice since then. There many messages in this novel for those who seek them but for me the key message was how a group of children organise themselves in order to survive.

Resourceful, ruthless and inventive are some of the adjectives that first came to mind. The boys demonstrate the best and then, increasingly, the worst of human behaviour. Jack and Ralph each have strengths and weaknesses: there is no single leadership model which best addresses the situation the boys find themselves in.

Whether you read this as an allegory or as a black and bleak adventure story, 'Lord of the Flies' invites you to think about what you might do in similar circumstances.

Highly recommended.

Jennifer Cameron-Smith

for more information click here

Lord of the Flies

In the book Lord of the Flies by William Golding, the true nature of human beings comes out. The book starts out with a group of innocent schoolboys that crash land on a mysterious island.. The boys begin playing and having excitement all the while loosening themselves from the morals that society has taught them. The choir leader Jack becomes obsessed with hunting and satisfying his immediate wants whereas the chief Ralph becomes focused on the long-term goals of the group. One night while all the boys were chanting to the beast, a boy named Simon stumbled out into the middle of them and was killed in a fit of fear and confusion. Soon afterwards the boys split into two groups, the savages and Ralph's group. The two groups get angry over a conflict involving fire and in the process another boy is killed. The savages embark on a hunt to kill Ralph soon afterwards. The island is set on fire and just when it looks like Ralph will be killed he stumbles into a naval officer.
There is one major theme throughout this story that Golding tries to show. It is the question of where the roots of our instinct come from. Throughout the book the question of whether civility, or savagery are more deeply rooted in humans. Golding implies that in certain situations, humans become cruel. They are violent and fearful of things like the beastie. The book points to the conclusion that humans are cruel but society shapes us into being more humane. The civilized Ralph, and the savage, dictator-like Jack represent the two sides of the conflict. They are both in a constant struggle and just like savagery, Jack beats out Ralph in control of the island. The killing of Simon shows the loss of almost all civility on the island.
In Lord of the Flies, Golding uses symbolism to show the influence of society and the breakdown of those ideals. Piggy's glasses show the intelligence in society, as seen when they start the fire, "His specs-use them as burning glasses!" When the glasses are broken, it shows the loss of intelligence and rational thinking among the boys. The fire that is used to attract ships represents what left of civilization that the boys have, for example, "Any day there might be a ship out there and if we have a signal they will come and take us off." As the book goes on the boys take less and less care of the fire. Eventually Ralph and Piggy decide not to keep a fire going, showing how even they no longer see society on the island. Finally, the beast represents the evil inside every human being as the Lord of the Flies explains, "You knew didn't you? I'm part of you?". The only person on the island to realize this is Simon. When he attempts to tell the other boys, he is savagely killed in a bloody dance, only furthering his idea about the cruelty in humans. That is how symbolism is used in Lord of the Flies.

The book Lord of the Flies was interesting and would be an excellent book for people to read who realize the problems of society or just want a good book to read.

for more information click here

Lord of the flies reviw p.2 newberry Becker

The book "Lord of the flies" starts out with a group of Brittish boys that are stranded on an uninhabited island. Things start out great and the boys assign eachother jobs and responcibilities. The leader of the tribe is a boy named Ralph. But soon the boys become to interested in hunting and Jack (another boy in the tribe) decides to start his own tribe. Ralph is ok with this move because he thinks that Jack will come back to the group soon. But Jack doesn't ever come back to the group and ends up killing Simon (a member of Ralph's group). Jack's tribe is becoming violent and very savage- like. When Ralph confronts Jack's group about restoring peace and finding ways to get off the island, another member of Ralph's group gets killed (a boy named Piggy). Now Jack's group wants to get Ralph out of the picture and try to kill him, but right before they are going to do him in a Navel officer comes onto the island and stops the madness.
I belive that the theme of this novel is evilness in chidren. This is the main because it is stated throughout the entire story. Golding shows and belives that children are born with evil and society makes us nice and polite. Golding also symbolizes this concept in many ways. One of these major symbols is Jack. Jack is relitively nice at first but as the story progressives and more chaos and fear is developed he becomes more agressive and evil. Another symbol is Piggy. Piggy was the symbol of intellagence and knowledge. When he was killed, it was Golding's way of saying that without rules and guildlines evil will always conquere good. After reading the book I could say that I realy enjoyed the book and it got me thinking about what life is realy about.

for more information click here

reviews: 1, 2, 3, 4, page 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14

hot

not?

What's your opinion?

Write a review and share your thoughts!

recommendations

Coming of Age Tales (Both Blatant and Subtle)
Books to read to impress your English teacher
Classic Works Continued
My least favorite books
50 in 2008!

search for books
lord of the, 20th, books, century, flies, great, lord, penguin

Impressum / about us