Lord of the Flies

Has anyone read Lord Of The Flies?
We just finished reading it for our English Lit. GCSE and it was pretty good.
A group of boys are stranded on an uninhabited island and have to look after themselves.
All democracy gets lost and the boys turn into savages beginning to kill each other and so on.
I thought it was going to be pretty bad but I actually couldn't put it down.
Anyone who has read it, what do you think of it?

I had to read it last year for Literature too. I really enjoyed it though I never got to finish it. But I don't usually finish books ._.

I think that even more than the plot I loved the scenery. I have a perfect image on the almost hypnotizing beach in my mind. It actually was inspiration for one of my first short stories.

It's definitely a must read. If you hear about the plotline you'll think it's really crappy, but when you actually start reading you realize it's beautiful.

I actually hated this book so much. I felt so detached towards all of the characters except for Piggy, and well, we know what happens to him.

I know that this book is so acclaimed and manditory at schools because of the way it reveals human nature by creating a new civilzation of kids that have become stranded... but even so, I found it dull.

Poor, Poor, Piggy

I concur.
I found it rather disturbing when they started killing each other.
I enjoyed though

Bexxual:

I concur.
I found it rather disturbing when they started killing each other.
I enjoyed though

Well it is supposed to be disturbing and disgusting. It's pretty much the purpose of the book.
The author didn't meant it to be a children's book or an easy-to-read book.

I'm reading it this year for English GCSE.
It's really good. I think.

Isn't it meant to be a response to Coral Island?

I cannot stand the way this book is written :shifty I adore the deeper concept and all the metaphors for how dysfunctional society is, but man the plot moves so slowly. It feels like it drags on for me. I read it on my own last year, and now we're currently reading it in my English class and it's a chore for me to pay attention.

Like someone said, I couldn't get absorbed into any of the characters... except the ones who ended up dying :lmfao the little kid with the birthmark was the first one that really portrayed emotion, and he was gone by chapter two. Poor piggy was another character you could relate to and well....

Maybe that was part of the writing strategy. To show how weak emotion could make someone in a situation like that, I don't know. Even if it was, I personally didn't think it was a very good strategy.

I, personally, loved it. It might've been because we had read a novel beforehand about talk rabbits, and therefore reading Lord of the Flies was amazing, but for a book read for class, it was amazing.

i really liked it but i didn't read the end, i couldn't read about Piggys death
but apperently the song Lair (takes one to know one) by Taking Back Sunday is about that book
"we are all choir boys at best"
"on the island that we swear by"
those are some lines that i like prove it

Caustic.:

I'm reading it this year for English GCSE.
It's really good. I think.

Isn't it meant to be a response to Coral Island?

Yes, I think it is a response to Coral Island. My teacher kept mentioning Coral Island.
I think it is going to be quite hard in the exam :/

Caustic.:

I'm reading it this year for English GCSE.
It's really good. I think.

Isn't it meant to be a response to Coral Island?

Yeah, it is. Coral Island is kind of the opposite of this story. The boys in Coral Island have fun and have adventures on their island. In LOTF, Golding wanted to show how unrealistic that was, and how quickly civility would vanish when there were no laws keeping it around.

I have to agree with Kurtni Reznor on this one. I personally loathed this book and only skimmed through it for school. It was like The adventures of Huckleberry Finn all over again for me. The book was too generalized and nothing felt shocking or relatable to me. Books like this, yeah I understand why they are classics and all but they never get me entranced. I think Battle Royale is a way better LOTF kind of story because it has that personalized feel. The author is talking about a kid like you.

In LOTF, these kids could be some idiot you hate at school and don't give two craps about. Piggy was the only somewhat human character in the whole book but even so, he became tiring after awhile. I could always be talking out of my ass though, read this book last year.

SnowyWolf:

In LOTF, these kids could be some idiot you hate at school and don't give two craps about. Piggy was the only somewhat human character in the whole book but even so, he became tiring after awhile. I could always be talking out of my ass though, read this book last year.

Hmm. I see where you're coming from, but I don't agree.
I got sick of Piggy too, but thought that the relationship between Ralph and Jack was...I don't know. I can't think of the word; it was like rivalry but in a civilised community they could be really good friends.
Simon was portrayed well too. The teacher kept saying something about him being like Jesus, but I really didn't think he was. Jesus [according to the R.S. teacher] died after promoting his message [etc], but Simon never got there.
But, I suppose, they were both tortured before dying.

Back to the quote. I don't see how these kids can be related to someone who you hate at school. Unless I'm very much mistaken, you live in a civilized community (hence the Internet.) As do I. Therefore, we have no idea what it would be like to:
a] Be boys fuelled by testosterone on an island where you can do whatever you damn well please.
b] Be terrified of something that isn't there, but have no escape from it.
c] Know what it's like to actually take part in someone's death, and then watch your friend be crushed deliberately.

Hence why they don't seem real. It's like theatre actors put on tons of make up, so they look unnatural close up, but they look normal under the lights to the audience.

OMGOMGOMGOMG!!!11!!!1!

This is one of my favourite books. Ever.

I read it for fun, though, not school. Maybe that's why so many people hate it. Analysing a book to death can really suck all the fun out.

Roger was amazing. His character was perfect. He wasn't a loud bully like Jack, but his evil was so subtly portrayed. He was simply souless, just pure evil personified.

Simon... :cry:

I thought it was an okay book. I mostly skimmed it though, but what I read I found okay. :|

Polish-love:

i really liked it but i didn't read the end, i couldn't read about Piggys death
but apperently the song Lair (takes one to know one) by Taking Back Sunday is about that book
"we are all choir boys at best"
"on the island that we swear by"
those are some lines that i like prove it

that's pretty darn cool.
and yes, I actually enjoyed this book and as most people have said, I understand why it's a classic.
yes, it dragged on and overanalyzing it in class made it to be a tough read.
but...
the themes were just amazing once they were comprehended.
and the events related to stuff that was going on at the time the author wrote it, so that in itself entertained me.

i read it last year (and by that, i mean before this summer) for my honors english class. of course, i was told to read it so i hated it at the time. but i really like it now. simon was my favorite character. r.i.p. simon

I had to read it this year in English and I didn't really like it. I'm not into the whole survival thing especially when it's a bunch of stupid boys that end up hurting each other. I know that that's what happens on stranded islands and everything but I didn't like reading about it. Not my favorite book but proably not the worst I've read.

Has anyone seen the movie and read the book?
I've not read the book but I loved the movie, and I wanted to know if there was many differences?
You know how they have the tendency to cut major parts out when making movies. :/