Lord of the Flies

Not every book has to be freakishy happy.
Lord of the Flies is one of my favorite books ever.
It's disgusting, distrubing and leaves in you the impression of the true nature of mankind.

I hated reading it in school and listening to my peers massacre the symbolize. All of them, when asked, stated that the Lord of the Flies was a pig head on a stick.

None of them understood the symbolism.

The book does have a symbolic meaning. It was written shortly after The Great War and showed how people can act when they are put in extreme conditions. It is supposed to show how the human talks about manners and are very pretencious but really we are animals. The boys actions on the dessert Island became savage just like soldiers actons on a warfield.

I liked all of the violence and such in LOTF, actually. I'm also into horror books and whatnot, so I liked how disturbing it was. I had to read it for english, too, but a lot of my friends were in that class, and we all enjoyed it. =3

Um EWW did you get the part were they were killing the sow. THAT WAS DISTUBING IF YOU GET WHAT IT MEANT. They raped the sow before they killed it. Don't believe me? Go back and read that part a little closer. Our teacher described alot of the symbolisms in there. I will never read that book, Again. My best friend burst out laughing in the middle of class when the teacher read that Piggy died. What's so funny?

I never finished reading LOTF - I tried at 13, but it was simply too... dry for me then.

But I have read a few studies and things about it. The one I liked the best? One talking about LOTF and Catcher in the Rye - "Things were always happening at your rotten fancy prep school, people picking on you at your rotten fancy prep school, or being shot down on a plane to your fancy prep school." Just ab observation - I doubt that kids who were born on the streets would have been quite so savage.

Honestly? I hear things. People tell me about the pretty rotten savage things that go on in their neighborhoods. If you know people who get beaten down and you carry a knife around for protection, I doubt you'd see glory in cutting another kid's head off.

I probably should read LOTF, with it being a classic and everything, but it just doesn't seem real. At all.

I hated that book. I think maybe it was mostly because I hated the teacher who taught it to me. She was overly dramatic and kept pointing out all the important details. Anway, I just thought the whole concept was weird. I know there was a lot of what my teacher called "ingenious" symbolism and stuff, but I thought that the book was really boring until the last two chapters.

clograbby wrote:I got the idea that he was epileptic somehow...?

Morbid? Terrible?

This book is amazing. And I never saw it as morbid, or gross. There's so many books worse than it, this story never dipped into how truly awful people can be, not to the full potential of human ills. Still though, the book is a beautiful microcosm for the world at the time, and more than "morbid" it's just plain sad - that left on their own, these human children will do this to one another.

My favorite character was Simon. I just adored him, and his story was so sad. Somewhat confusing though, because I don't think they ever said he was epileptic, and yet I got the idea that he was epileptic somehow...?

Still, I LOVE this book.

*Takes a deep breath*

I liked it, sorta. Heh, hehe... Hee... Don't kill me!

As someone mentioned before about a uh, nobleman... This one's definately a book for thinkers. You need to ponder and wonder as you read the piece for maximum enjoyment. Me, I enjoyed the symbolism etc etc. Even though I had to read it for school! And do an essay. And stuff. But there's a reason why nasty teachers worldwide make bored teens read this book. A lot of thought has been put to it - So much that the readers have to think as well.

Think. It's good for you.

Lord of the Flies was okay - not one of my favorites, but it did have a good storyline.

I'll tell you what though, Piggy really annoyed me. If I'd heard him asking for his specs or for the conch one more time...

I think the reason it was such a hit with my class is because I spent my year in English with the most morbid people ever. They were obsessed with death... Many of them could relate with Jack, actually.

It was all right as far as literary techniques go, but still it was very dull and at the same time so disgusting that I couldn't read any more - but I had to for school.

I agree with the Professor. This book made me physically sick to my stomach, but it really is amazing.

I had to do a project on this one for school, freshman year. We had to make an interpretive video about it. I have to say, I was pretty thoroughly impressed by the horrible feelings that man was able to evoke with that book. I hated it, it disgusted me, I even had nightmares, and I wished I'd never read it, but at the same time... damn. O.O

I hated this book...it was too morbid and gross.

I loved Lord of the Flies! I liked the fact that these boys, who seemed so innocent, could be so brutal. The flipside to respectable good-natured children.

--Medusa.

It's so sad everyone says they hate this book. I had to study it for my GCSE English Literature and at the time I honestly didn't have much love for it either, but now that I think back on it Golding is such a talented and subtle writer, I want to read it again without the pain of having to write it, because that just takes some of the joy out of it.

I've just read The Spire by the same author for my AS level Literature paper and I loved that a lot as well. Golding is seriously talented and amazing, even if you didn't like Lord of the Flies in an academic setting, it could just be that the school and crappy teachers killed it for you.

This book was great. I would say easily Top 25 books of all time. Maybe not up there like The Catcher in the Rye, but still one of the greats.

I like it, but then I tend to like things that delve into human nature and our more primal instincts. Also I tend to like things that are a little twisted, maybe that's just me.

Um...it's supposed to be disturbing!!!!!

What's the fun in reading stuff that's all rainbows and fluffy bunnies?

It's not a favourite book of mine. I thought it was boring more than anything, and I found the characters irritating. But not liking a book because it's disturbing or graphic????? O-kaaay.....

You can't be serious. LOTF was terrible, it was extremely disturbing and just creeped me out!

Its literary genius. The book is filled with a superfluity of meaning and symbolism that is just crafted so well.The themes are both chilling and interesting. Graphic? Where on earth was he graphic? Golding is an child compared to some authors.

It's a brilliant story that points out the fragility of our civility! (Rhyme not intended).

I loved that part! I guess I just like gruesome stuff...?

EW EW EW EW EW!!!! I hate that part!

Roger sharpened a stick at both ends

Roger sharpened a stick at both ends

Ugh I had to read it for British\American Lit this year. Ugh. Just ugh. I really hated it. But the ending was alrighty as they [i]all[/i] didn't die. Never reading that book again. *pushes lord of the flies to a deep, dark space in bookshelf*

This book would be great if you were some kind of 'nobleman' looking for the deeper meanings in life. But for the rest of the people in the world (those of us who actually have lives to live) this book was so awful it simply could not be considered good in any way possible. This book is the definition of repulsive.

I actually did like the book but at the same time, i read the book for fun. I still have to read it again next year but i'm looking forward to it. Still, when you read anything that your told to read it, your probably not going to like it.

The graphic aspects of the story, however, i never had a problem with. I think there was some symbolic meaning at the end that gave the story the most meaning and i liked it.

So Tuff.




DEAL.

Yeah, I barely put anything symbolic in my writing - so if I publish something, people will say "oh the main character picked up the cup of pudding because she was wallowing in sadness because her friend left" When really, she just picked up the pudding because she was hungry! (Sorry for the randomness, pudding was the first thing to come to mind ) It's just - how do you know that that is what the writer meant?

I have to do a HUGE essay on the book and I am not looking forward to it!

If I wouldn't have had to do soooo much work on LOTF, like two essays on its symbols, and a crap load of questions, I probably would've enjoyed the book...But I read it for school and it was over-analysed. So yeah, I didn't like it either.

I think that the teachers/school like it because of the symbolic-ness in it. It's supposed to be all about fear of the unknown, and how violent a man can be. I hated it though, it was terrible!

The ending was supposed to mean that, even though the boys were leaving their own war, they were going back into civilization (instead of savagery) but there was still a war going on (the naval officer and ship).

I still don't think that it had to be that graphic though!

Finished it last night, absolutely loathed it!

I was completely confused, and the ending told us almost nothing! I found it totally unrealistic and it made me want to throw the book out the window.

I really don't understand why people like this book. It's horrible!