I finally had to read Lord
of the Flies for tutoring
purposes, because it is a required reading for our national high
school English finals, and at first it wasn’t as bad as I had
expected from all the bad things I had heard about it. I thought that
the boys’ behaviour wasn’t really any different
from how contemporary kids would behave in a similar situation.
About
two thirds in, however, I had to start agreeing: it was really that
bad.
And
in the end, I am not so sure the behaviour was just a result of the
boys’ spoiled rich British origin. Perhaps any other group of
people (children) in the same uncontrollable, helpless, and scary
situation would eventually react similarly.
I
will not even touch the issue of gender and the lack of girls in the
book – I do wonder whether things
would be worse or better if the group included girls – since
Golding himself was unwilling to explore that and was only able to
ask questions regarding that possibility himself.
My
edition included study materials with useful chapter summaries and
discussion/reflection questions and additional information on the
issues connected with the novel, which were its saving grace.
It
also
included Golding’s essay on fables and his intentions regarding
what he wanted to show about the human nature and how it is governed
by nationalism and prejudice, especially in connection with Nazism
and fascism, which are certainly important issues to consider (and
beware of perpetuating) yet
again nowadays.
Golding
does manage to show the worst of human nature when unfettered by
societal constraints and
bolstered by fear (of the unknown, other) and I definitely agree with
his
notion that we are all capable of the same atrocities if we fail to
check ourselves and each other to keep from succumbing to fear,
prejudice, and other-ing specific groups people. However,
I believe that without accompanying materials
and guidance the
readers
who
are unaware
of the story's connection to British exceptionalism and
colonialism cannot
really discern these themes and their messages, especially not ESL
students
who
are struggling with understanding the language itself.
Even
without language understanding issues, I could
only see
the aforementioned connotations while reading through the additional
materials. Hence,
I
believe that among literally millions of books out there, our
national board for HS English finals could have certainly found a
better book to teach about such important topics as the dangers of
nationalism and prejudice in present times.
