/lit/ - Literature

it's a continuation of WRONG that started with Hobbes, the assumption that primitive man is a brutal, cold, starved, miserable creature before the advent of modern civilization

>>15821936
Pretty sure the author was inspired to write it after reading Nietzsche

Muh glasses

>>15821942
>WRONG
Next you'll bring up the Tongans.

>>15821936
It has this great bit where the ring is thrown into Mt Doom. Write about that.

>>15821936
The standard line of interpretation is Hobbesian- divorced from society, the boys return to the natural state of violence.

However, I would interpret it in a different fashion. This boys are not the people in the statute of nature Hobbes was describing, precisely because they entered it by leaving the state of society. At the start of the book, they try to introduce the systems of power in the society they came from (upper- and middle-class England) onto the island. Think of Piggy and Ralph trying to introduce democracy through the mystic symbol of the conch, or Jack justifying his initial claim to leadership on the basis that he was head of choir. In fact, when Jack was introduced, he, and the rest of his boys, are wearing their choir gowns. Golding based many of the characters in the book off boys in the public school he taught at.

In that light, Golding's book becomes more complex- it's an exposure of the violence in our society. Think of the dogfight above the island, resuling in the dead parachutist landing in the island. At the end of the book, the adult that discovers them is a military officer. Its hinted (or prehaps explicitly stated- it's a long time since I've read the book) that the reason why the boys were in the plane that crashed into the island is that they were evacuated from a war.

To summarise, a good basis for your essay would be to discuss all of the references to the outside world in the book.

>>15822014
For a more complex analysis, ask where exactly the boys go wrong? The answer is that they are too rationalistic- exemplified in Piggy and, to a lesser extent, Ralph.

There are passages of the book which are almost mystical. Almost all of the passages including Simon, especially his vision and his death, have this intense mystic quality. At times, Golding treats the island, and nature in particular, as its own character.

Jack's desent into savagry is fundementally tribal- he paints his face. Think especially of the first killing of a pig and the way the hunters carry it to the camp- chanting, in a procession.

Another good point to raise would be the function of the beast imagined by the younger boys- in particular, the different ways Jack and Ralph deal with the problem.

In an essay at the back of my edition of the book, Golding states compares his book to the rationalistc institution par excellence- the League of Nations.

>>15822045
>In an essay at the back of my edition of the book, Golding states compares his book to the rationalistc institution par excellence- the League of Nations.
What's the essay called/edition of the book? I can't be bothered to re-read it, it wasn't a very fun book, but I am curious how he uses it as an analogy for the LoN.

>>15822060
It was the one with this cover, published by Faber. Sorry I can't tell you the precise edition, I don't have my copy at hand

>>15822103
Thanks

>>15822103
>>15822060
Actually, it might have been this edition.

>>15822014
>they try to introduce the systems of power in the society they came from

OP here. I also have not read the book since grade school, and only am writing on the novel now because my professor rejected my original paper topic of comparing/contrasting The Sorrows of Young Werther to The Perks of Always Being a Wallflower (I'm taking this summer course with a top 20 American uni - the entire course is fucking stupid, I might just rant about it here more).

Basically, I've recently read Neechee, as well as studied Hobbes and Epicurus, and think my essay will trace the will to power throughout the novel, primarily using the external circumstances of the dead pilot, and the naval officer that rescues them to situate the position the boys are in. I don't really know where I'm going with this, but it'll be enough bullshit.

What do you think the pilot's corpse represents? Harold Bloom said it might be "History", but also, as R.W. Emerson said, "there is no history, only biography". Could it be that the dead pilot represents the power encompassed by a military nation? His corpse indicates that the boys no longer have to resort to the civility of their previous way of life because there was always someone (or something) more powerful than them? Furthermore, by the novel's end, the arrival of the naval officer signifies that they, the boys, are really powerless in comparison, and so fail to achieve power?

>>15822103
>>15822122
Even the title of the essay would help. I tried googling it. I want to know how and why he linked LOTF to the LoN conceptually.

Honestly LOTF seems like it doesn't really know what it's trying to say.
If you look at it from the 'society corrupts' angle, then it doesn't make much sense, because the boys came from a society anyway. They weren't born on the island, they were already indoctrinated into societal thinking.
If you look at it from the 'man is innately evil' angle, then it still doesn't make much sense, because evil is only truly realised after the reformation of society on the island.

I understand he's trying to get something across about the follies of mankind, but it's not done particularly well. It's a very confused message that never gets down to the bone.

>>15821936
I got you senpai

>>15821936
This is pretty interesting: Golding was reading some of those old boys adventure novels, and thought they were a load of bullshit because the boys were behaving so well in them, so his wife told his to write a book on how a bunch of 6-12 year olds would really behave in a deserted island without adults. Golding had worked as a teacher and knew how horrible kids could be, so thats what he did

>>15822245
If I were a teacher, I would have loved to get this essay. This is the shit the staff room laughs about.

>>15822258
honestly, that's not interesting