Lord Of The Flies, Revisited

A few months ago, on a whim, I picked up the paperback copy of William Golding’s Lord of the Flies while browsing a local bookshop. Like most books I buy, they wind up at the end of a long queue, sometimes only being read years later.

Today (or yesterday, depending on when I post this), I decided to reacquaint myself with this classic, some forty-plus years since first being introduced. The book was an English literature set-work in high school. I clearly remember loathing it, but not because I hated reading, far from it. I absolutely adored reading from age five or six, if I remember correctly.

It’s just that I despised having curriculum-restricted knowledge force-fed to me by teachers lacking a passion for the subject matter. I discovered after gleefully graduating high school, that I had a passion for self-motivated learning and discovery, especially in the sciences which I sucked at in school. I could though, be utterly wrong about the teachers. It’s probably just my incapacity or receptiveness to being forcefully taught.

In any event, the perception lingers because, at a class reunion last year, I could neither recognize nor remember the English literature teacher who attended. Maybe he wasn’t the offending teacher who tried to drum the essence of Lord of the Flies into me. My memory of high school is rather shoddy. To be fair, he couldn’t remember me either, even though I was quite an outspoken student.

Anyway, back to Lord of the Flies. If I still remember correctly, it’s about a group of young boys stranded on a deserted island, who sink into depravity and savagery in the absence of order and parental guidance. While that’s to be expected from young, developing minds left to their own devices, I often wonder why grown-ass adults resort to the same savagery in developed, ordered, supposedly civilized societies.

I’ll probably get some hint in the book, but even if there is none, I’ll probably post a review once I’m done. It may just be the review my teachers expected more than forty years ago… or not. Don’t hold your breath.