“Wisdom comes by disillusionment” -George Santayana
(Disillusion and disappointment) Lord of the Flies by William Golding
I had heard a lot of good things about Lord of the Flies. Many people were very positive about it. So when I started to read the book I could not quite fathom what was happening. I had to reread paragraphs because of parts I did not understand. When I reread those paragraphs I would read things I did not saw first. It is a book where you have to take the time to read it. You can not read the whole book in one sitting. We discussed in the book club that it was quite hard to go through the book. I was not the only with that problem. We eventually did read the whole book. It only took us a bit longer than normal. We also discussed that the language use in the book was a bit difficult for the age group of the book.
The novel starts with a group of schoolboys who are on an airplane during the war. Somehow the plane crashes and the boys eventually end up on a deserted island. The pilot is killed during the crash. The boys are left alone to fend for themselves, and have to survive without the help of adults. Adults are also not mentioned in the book at all. You do have the occasional story that is told by the boys about some adults. All of the boys take up a different role. Ralph is in charge of the group. He tries to take up the responsibility and makes the boys build huts and do different tasks to increase their rate of survival. One of the boys Jack becomes obsessed with hunting and soon the others become obsessed with it as well. They are offering animal heads on sticks for the “beast”. Simon, another boy, finds out that the beast is not real. While returning to the group the boys mistake him for the beast and he is beaten to death.
Disillusionment is a theme you come across in the storyline. The boys’ age range from six years old to twelve years old. This means they are in stage four of Erikson’s stage of psychosocial development. “He’s like Piggy. He says things like Piggy. He isn’t a proper chief.”(Golding. 1954. P. 138). In this part of the story jack thinks that Ralph is not the chief the perfect chief for them. Jack thought at the beginning of the story that Ralph was a good chief and elected him. Ralph uses logic and reasoning just like Piggy does. Jack thinks strength is a better characteristic for a leader. This fits perfectly into the theme of disillusion. Lord of the flies enhances also the importance of rules and regulations in society. Which the boys were happy they did not have at the beginning. As the story goes on they find out that it is important to have rules in their group. When the boys were rescued, the adults are very disappointed int hem. This is not fair to them because the boys only mirrored the way the adults fought the war with violence. They copied their way of being.
Lord of the Flies is an outstanding book to read, even though you have to read some part twice. It has a good message behind it. Which is to always use logic instead of violence.
Word count without quotes: 542 words
Literature 