Lord of the Flies - William Golding
So the analogy of society protecting its vulnerable populations held up in this book. As soon as society started to break down, Simon was killed and then Piggy. I was sad about Simon, just a smart, shy kid with some kind of seizure disorder trying to speak reasonable truth to a bunch of boys who had given themselves over to their more violent urges. I remember Piggy's death being more climactic to be honest. He kind of just, falls off a cliff and gets washed out to sea. Also, it takes him dying for Ralp to realize that Piggy was a good friend, but we never even learn the boy's real name so how good a friend could he be? I think Ralph just missed Piggy's good sense and logical reason, moreso than the boy himself.
It's interesting the way the tension breaks down at the end of the book as soon as the sailor shows up. It's like the savages immediately revert to being children, and start to see their behaviour through the eyes of this unknown grownup instead of through the lens of fear, anger, and savagery that they had been viewing it with right up until then. Again, this book is more English than I realized in my first read. The sailor even says, "Aren't you all English? Couldn't you have behaved more suitably?" or something along these lines. This seems to be a critique of the way the English have historically viewed themselves as "civilized" and "superior" and used this logic to colonize "less civilized" populations. It's almost like Golding is saying, "The English are not fundamentally superior. Their own boys would resort to savagery just as quick as anyone else." Or maybe he's saying "The only thing that keeps us from becoming savage is English society/culture, English behaviours, expectations, and mores," which is a complicated but perhaps more pro-English message? It seems to be about the way that English society is fundamentally civilized and regimented, and that by behaving in this way the boys have broken with what it means to be "English." I'm not sure which of these readings is more accurate here.
The ending of this book completely let down the rest of it. What a copout that they all of a sudden get rescued at the end after no indication that that was going to happen. I had Fable* as a sort of author's afterword in my copy where William Golding called himself an optimist which really showed at the end there. It just didn't feel very realistic to me and I hoped that there would have either been more conflict or more of a fallout from the events of the book. Other than the ending, I did really enjoy this. It was a little bit simplistic and predictable with what was going to happen but I enjoyed the way it was written. It felt very immersive and I could imagine the boys and the island pretty easily whilst I was reading it. I don't particularly have a favourite character but I liked how the boys had different personalities for the most part and how that led to some tension in the book.
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