Lord of the Flies By: William Golding

The book Lord of the Flies was written by William Golding and was copyrighted in 1954. This book is of the genre classic literature and is a very intense adventure consisting of a group of English school boys who survived a plane crash and must learn to survive on their own without any adult supervision due to the fact that all adults involved in the plane crash didn't survive. The boys create their own "society" with rules and a leader. Through all that happens in the book some of the boys become in a sense terrorists because they are savage and take what they want no matter the cost. The main theme of this book is Civilization vs.  Savagery.

Lord of the Flies is told in a third person point of view although sometimes I am skeptical as to weather or not it should have been told in third person at some times though because if the book was told in first person you could get insight from one character but, I guess that it is better told through third person. The intended audience would be people who are interested in survival and adventure stories. The book fits into the field of adventure fiction although it could also be classified as classic literature. It fits there because the story takes place on an uninhabited island where the group of English boys have to learn to survive on their own and adventure all over the island to find resources such as food and water. The author kept me interested in the book by his interesting and "old-timey" choice of words as well as his explicit content of the boys murdering one another. The author has a very psycho-analytical approach to modern day thought of his time.

The book affected me in the way that I had to think very deeply about the flaws of life and how they could be traced to the initial defects of human nature. This changed how I thought of human life as a whole. The book had me thinking very critically about my beliefs toward life. I mean I knew that human kind had many, many flaws but not until I read this book did I include savagery into my interpretation of human life. This book reminded me in a few ways of the series Escape From Furnace by Alexander Gordon Smith. It did so in ways like how boys are having to  rely on each other for survival. In Escape From Furnace, a teenage boy is locked away in the highest security prison and he amongst the boys he is locked up with have duties around the prison and even though they are kept in line by murderous and terrifying adults they still rely on each other to not die.

This book was insanely interesting and at times may bore you but in the end I am very glad I read Lord of the Flies and given the time I would read it again. I recommend Lord of the Flies for anyone who seeks a thrilling book.

Michael Shapiro
11/07/13
RATING ***** 5/5