"El Señor de las Moscas" de William Golding es una obra literaria que evoca reflexiones profundas sobre la naturaleza humana y el orden social. Ambientada en una isla desierta, la novela sigue a un grupo de niños que luchan por establecer una sociedad organizada después de quedar varados sin adultos. Golding hábilmente teje temas de poder, violencia y la dualidad inherente entre el bien y el mal a lo largo de la narrativa.

La fuerza de esta obra radica en su capacidad para provocar la reflexión y el debate. La exploración de la psicología humana en un entorno aislado es fascinante y plantea preguntas importantes sobre la civilización y la barbarie. La narrativa está llena de simbolismo y metáforas que invitan al lector a analizar más allá de la superficie de la historia.

Sin embargo, la complejidad de la trama y los personajes puede resultar confusa para algunos. La naturaleza sombría y a menudo perturbadora de los eventos descritos puede ser difícil de digerir, especialmente para aquellos que buscan una lectura más ligera. Además, la falta de desarrollo completo de algunos personajes deja ciertas partes de la historia sintiéndose incompletas.

Asi pues, "El Señor de las Moscas" es una obra literaria que desafía al lector a examinar las profundidades oscuras de la humanidad. Aunque su complejidad y sombrío tono pueden no ser para todos los gustos, aquellos que buscan una exploración provocativa de la psicología humana encontrarán mucho que ponderar en esta novela.

Here is another book I read in school. This was another story to open my eyes. I was shocked at how horrible the children became, including willing to murder. I was a wallflower in school and I was scared of most people around me and this book inflamed my fears.

I had just come through Junior High School, which is 'humanity in the raw' as my uncle says and it was the toughest 3 years of my life. High School was better and people seemed to be more reasonable and human, but I can't forget the cruelties of Junior High. If a group of Junior high students were away from adults, I can totally see this story of the boys on the island playing out this way and tribes forming and the kids devolving into murderous beasts. High School, I think there is more of a collective feeling and people branch out. Difference begin to be okay. I think High Schoolers would come together, mostly, to survive, while those in Junior high, well, William Golding had the right of it. That is the age of conformity.

We had some great discussions, my friends and I in high school. We came together and watched the R rated movie outside school and discussed the themes of the stories. I ran with a brainy bunch and I loved discussing literature with them or movies. The school wouldn't let us watch the movie during school hours, so the teacher actually came to one of my friends houses, to watch it with us and then discuss it. That was cool.

The story is harsh and I have heard many people say they find it farfetched and don't believe it would happen. Well, I was a different sort of child, on the outside, during those Junior high years and I can totally see this happening. If you were in the group, you didn't see the cruelties of the herd, but on the outside, oh you could see them. I'm not trying to say people are terrible. I think this stage in life is terrible. Kind things did happen and good people did good things, but there were some horrible things happening as well. If you were outside the herd, you certainly knew it. There was so much bullying going on and toxic masculinity too.

This book is like the shadow side of humanity. My dad is a councilor and he always said Jung had the right of it. We have to see our shadow side and accept it, or it will end up ruling us subconsciously if we only deny it. This book also shows the choices we have to make as humanity. We can come together and help one another, or we can hunt one another down for differences. I'm simply glad there were adults around while I was going through Junior high.

I think this is a fantastic book and I want to read it again. I do miss having people to discuss it with. Part of the reason I loved school was we would be assigned a book like this to get us thinking and then we would discuss it in class. I love hearing the opinions and the ways someone interprets the story or theme or idea or scene. Reading it alone, you experience the book, but there is no communal sharing of the story. That is what I miss. I love to read a book and have that communal experience.

_The lord of the flies_

*It is a 4,5*
The writing is excellent, the pacing is excellent, the characters are kids and they certainly do feel like children. Completely and utterly foolish children.
This book shows that Μr Golding deeply believed that the human race is evil. I, also myself, do believe that too.
Only 4 people managed to remain human, and yes, they were all hurt by the island and yes their whole existance got shattered into pieces, but only 4 people had their soul intact, had their pride intact. Only 4 survived the madness.
Even if the book is about how we can turn savage, how our nature and our ancient and eternal insticts can overrule our minds, Mr Golding decided to end the story with hope. Did these kids deserve it? No, i don't think they did, but with Ralph, i felt. I felt so much and i loved his character.
And when anger settles, my anger, all that i see are kids, all that i see are lost souls, mistakes and sins and how little humans were thrown somewhere in hell to survive, cz for them, it was like hell, and then they turned everything into hell, real, pure, alive and forbidden and forgotten by God.
This book was good and real and i can talk about it forever so i will just stop here.
Please read it, it is worth your time.

Actual rating is 3.5 stars.

This book is considered a classic. It is about a group of children that are stranded on an island. Soon these children become savages as they are without law and order.

This is one more classic that I can scratch off my list. I basically knew what the book was about but there is nothing like reading the actual story. I can see why many consider this a favorite but I had issues with the first half. It just did not grab me at first. I believe I wasn't connecting with the author's writing style. I could not get a good sense of the picture of the island and the setting. But when the real drama kicks I really enjoyed this book. This book is an allegory about actual civilization as we had three characters act out as representatives. I enjoyed this aspect as we get to see civilization, the voice of reason, and what happens when we stop following the rules. I liked the descent of mankind. I loved the ending as it comes full circle and I appreciate what the author did there.

I am glad that I finally read this. It was a little slow for me at first but when the s**t hits the fan I could not read fast enough. I am also glad I read this for the reason I can see how this influenced so many works over the years. It had its flaws but definitely worth a read for enjoyment and its message.

4.5 rounded up

This is my first time reading 'Lord of the Flies'. Which seems amazing to me when it's a book that's so popular, so famous and so celebrated

I knew quite a lot about the book (it's difficult not to when it's so popular) so I went in believing that I'd be disappointed or maybe the book would be 'of it's time'.

I read the book in the space of 3 hours and loved every page. It's definitely a book I will re-read often. Stunning

El libro es un gran clásico pero no me ha convencido. Me ha resultado bastante aburrido y lo único que se salva es que se desarrolla en una isla desierta y es de aventuras.

La trama es sencilla. Un grupo de niños queda varado en una isla deshabitada y necesitan descubrir cómo sobrevivir. En cambio, se desmoronan y se comportan violentamente por diferencias de prioridades y problemas de liderazgo.

El autor Golding nos ofrece una visión sombría de la humanidad. Entiendo que por mucho que esperemos que los humanos siempre se comporten de manera humana, nuestra especie muy a menudo no lo logra pero yo sigo creyendo que hay que intentarlo.

Es un gran clásico y me hizo pensar.  Pero al final, no estoy de acuerdo con la visión de Golding sobre la humanidad y tampoco me pareció entretenido.

 Pinchazo gordo, me esperaba otra cosa y me he encontrado con una mezcla de la serie Perdidos con Los Goonies de protagonistas.

لا أظن أحدا درس الإنجليزية ولم يسمع على الأقل بهذه الرواية
كنتُ في عامي الرابع وقت دراستها
ومن أول وهلة جذبتني
وبينما كان زملائي يهتمون بما سيأتي منها في الامتحان
كنت أنا ألتهمها التهاما‏


لن أنسى ما حييت شعوري وأنا أقرأ الحوار ما بين سيد الذباب وسايمون
ثم مقتله بعدها

المرة الأولى كنت بجوار دكتور المادة أمام الجميع
أقرأ هذا الجزء على زملائي -ولم أكن قد وصلت له بعد في قراءتي المنزلية
ولكن بما أنه المشهد الأهم-ويحمل لغز اسم الرواية الغريب- ‏
فقد ارتأى الدكتور قرائنا له ومن ثم مناقشته بتمعن

أذكر يومها أنني اهتز صوتي للمفاجئة التي حلت علي
استطعت السيطرة على نفسي حينها وتخبئة ارتعاشة يدي
ثم تناسيت الأمر مع الصديقات عند انتهاء المحاضرة
وعندما عدت لمنزلي انخرطت في بكاء مرير
رائية لحال سايمون المسكين -شخصيتي المفضلة ‏
والذي لم أكن أتوقع له هذا المصير

أذكر أنني نظرت بسذاجة إلى أمي(رحمها الله) المندهشة نائحة:
سايمون ماااااااات عااااا
‏:‏D
...



أثر في حديث رأس الخنزير مع سايمون كثيرا
كنت وقتها في العشرين ولا أظنني قرأت حوارات كهذه من قبل
‏ كنت أرى المشهد أمامي متجسدا
ولا أعلم الآن هل ذلك بسبب براعة الكاتب أم شدة تأثري‏
ذلك أنني لم أعد قراءتها مجددا

-----------

تحدث فرويد قبل وفاته بقليل عن الغريزة التدميرية في البشر
‏ عن حب الإنسان للقتل والعنف والدمار‏
والرواية صورة مصغرة لذلك المجتمع البشري
الذي يترنح‏ ما بين الفطرية والبدائية، والتمدن والتحضر

يجد أطفال ما بين الثامنة والثانية عشر أنفسهم في الطبيعة‏
بمعزل تام عن قوانين الكبار
وبالطبع يكون همهم الأول هو البقاء على قيد الحياة

راح المؤلف يستخرج خبايا النفس البشرية بإظهار وحشيتها وقابليتها للشر
متناولا صراع الانسان الأبدي بين الغريزة والسلوكيات المدنية المكتسبة ‏


‏(لقد شارك جولدنغ نفسه في الحرب العالمية الثانية كضابط في البحرية البريطانية
واشترك في معركة إغراق أقوى بارجة ألمانية -بسمارك )‏

يفترض جولدنج اندلاع حرب تتعرض فيه انجلترا لضربة نووية
ويفترض وجود طائرة انجليزية قامت بإجلاء مجموعة من الفتية إلى خارج ‏البلاد
(بهدف لإنقاذ حياتهم والحفاظ على النسل الانجليزي من الاندثار‎)

وعندما تسقط تلك الطائرة فوق جزيرة نائية
ينجو الأطفال فقط
ويقتل الطيار اثناء محاولته النجاة بالمظلة



يبدأ هؤلاء الصبية ببناء مجتمعهم الجديد (المصغر) ‏
ويدور الصراع بين السلطة المدنية المتمثلة في رالف‏
والمعارضة المسلحة (السلطة العسكرية) المتمثلة في جاك‏
‏ ‏
‏-وفوق كل ذلك فنحن لسنا همجيين، لأننا إنجليز، والإنجليز هم أفضل الناس في جميع ‏

دائما ما تنقلب تلك النظرة الاستعلائية الشوفينية على أصحابها في كل زمان ومكان
‏ لقد تحول الأطفال إلى مسوخ همجية تستلذ القتل والعنف‏
ينقلب مجتمعهم الصغير إلى مجتمع وحشي همجي ‏

رالف هو الشخصية المحورية في الرواية
تعطيه وسامته سمة استعلاء ‏
وكعادة الرفاق يسخر من بيجي بسذاجته الطيبة
رالف يبدو مثالي المظهر لكنه يعوزه الذكاء ‏
هذا الذكاء يعوضه بيجي (وهو إسم تدليل يعني الخنزير الصغير)‏

بيجي هو ذلك الطفل السمين الطيب الظريف ‏
‏-شخصيتي المفضلة رقم 2- ‏
الذكي برغم سذاجته في تعامله مع رفاقه ‏
بالإضافة إلى إصابته بالربو وقصر النظر الحاد

وبنباهته يقترح على رالف استخدام الصدفة (بدلالاتها الرمزية) وتحويلها إلى بوق بصفيره يستطيع ‏عقد الاجتماعات
ومن ثم اعتبرها الجميع رمز السيطرة والحكم_ ومن يحملها هو فقط من يستطيع التحدث
كما أن بيجي هو من استخدام نظارته- بإيعاز من رالف الساخر- لتكثيف أشعة الشمس وذلك لإشعال ‏النار ‏
‎
بيجي هو صوت العقلانية المكروه من الغالبية ‏
ويعتبره البعض رمزا لطبقة المفكرين والمثقفين ‏
الذين لا تستمع إليهم الدول المستبدة ‏
بل تحاول بشراسة القضاء عليهم

جاك يتسم بالدموية والوحشية من البداية
وهو يؤمن بالقوة ويتلذذ بالدماء
الأحداث تتسارع في الصراع ما بين قوة المنطق ومنطق القوة
وجاك يقوم بانقلاب عسكري يطيح به برالف وتصير له الغلبة
‏(ربما أراد جولدينج أن يشير إلى أن الهيمنة واليد العليا دوما تكون ‏للاأخلاقيين والدمويين)‏‎

حتى ذلك اليوم الذي يرى فيه الأطفال من بعيد جثة الطيار مع مظلته على أحد الجبال فيظن الجميع ‏أنه وحش الغابة
فيصطاد جاك خنزيرا بريا يقطع رأسه وينصبه على رمح في أعلى قمة الجبل كرمز لقوة فريقه
ويبدأ الاحتفال بهذه المناسبة بشعائر كطقوس للصيد ‏
يطلي الأطفال وجوههم بدم الخنزير المذبوح متحولين إلى برابرة‏

وفي ظل هذا الجو المشبع خوفا وقهرا وعويل بربري يضل سايمون طريقه‏
فيجد نفسه أمام رأس الخنزير المعلق الحائم من كان حوله الذباب (سيد الذباب) ‏
وهنا يبدأ سايمون في الهذيان (أفضل وأقسى مشاهد الرواية)‏
ليدور الحديث بينه وبين سيد الذباب الذي يسخر منه ومن أمله في الخلاص وفي صلاح الأحوال‏

وعندما يعود سايمون شبه مترنح وجريح إلى الجمع
يهجم عليه الجميع قاتلين إياه ظنا منهم أنه ‏الوحش بصراخه غير المفهوم وتغير هيئته ‏‎
‎ ...

وهكذا لم يأت الشر بفعل الوحوش ‏
بل من البشر أنفسهم


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الرواية تستحق القراءة بكل تأكيد
كما ان هناك أكثر من فيلم يحكي قصتها
وإن لم أشاهد اي منهم حتى الآن

ولكنها حالة مختلفة لن أستطيع نسيانها

This book will forever haunt me and be forever intertwined with my freshman year of high school. Its a great book for a classroom and was where I was first taught symbolism in a way that really stood out to me. This book is so rich in literary devices I remember it being the first moment where I realized the art of reading and writing as something far beyond storytelling and how much careful craft brings a work to life. I was hooked, I think from that moment on I had it in my mind that to be someone who analyzes literature was a rock-star type vocation to me. But I will also never forget the way it was taught. Our teacher, who I remain close friends with to this day, had us play a simulation for two days where we were in the same situation as the kids in the book (before we began the book) and had to discuss and plan how to organize our lives to survive on this island. Think Model UN but for Lord of the Flies.

Reader: it was chaos. Everyone made bad deals or broke deals finding it funny to screw people over, multiple people clamored over who was in charge, people such as myself bounced from group to group doing devious deals or gossiping about what other groups were doing (I have always been a gossip queen), and by the second day we were all shouting at each other and feeling like we had somehow been so bad at this game that the teacher would never have his class play it again. Which, at that age, is sort of a mark of pride to some and so once the chaos began those few gleefully pushed for more chaos. Our teacher never interjected, only watched from afar while grading our exams from the previous week--a brilliant time management idea I've come to realize.

Finally our teacher stepped in. We eagerly awaited hearing we were terrible at this and fully destroyed the purpose of it, only to hear that this was what happened almost every single year. And then we read the book, which felt like looking into a mirror. Chilling moment to be confronted with yourself that way. He did this game every year until he retired, it's quite often cited as a favorite memory from high school for those who were there.

What a intense read, school boys on a desert island with no adults, first chapter pulls you right in to the drama of what is about to happen. I couldn't hardly put the book down, read it in two days trying to make the story longer. I recommend this book for young adults or older adults.

I was tempted to give this five stars, since in so many ways it strikes me as the kind of masterpiece, like Heart of Darkness, that I imagine will retain its horror and readability for centuries. The prose veers (or as Golding would say it, "tends") from plain to painterly. The story is well known: a sort of allegorical morality play set in modern times -- fancy English boys left to their own devices don't so much as revert to darkness as discover primitive outlets for the darkness reflected in their greater society. This is what I love about Heart of Darkness: try as one might, Kurtz cannot be pigeonholed into good or evil. He is excellent at what he does, and what he does is evil. Kurtz is a true reflection of what excellence was to Colonial Europe, and in so far as Colonial Europe was good, cultivated, honorable, and esteemed, so is Kurtz. Kurtz isn't good or evil; he is true.

Golding's version is darker. It centers mostly around the corrupting power of urges to overwhelm social order. Freudian criticism abounds, but the parallel I kept coming back to was Rome. I found that Piggy, no matter how truly annoying he is (another brilliant stroke by Golding is to make Piggy strangely unsympathetic), recalled those numerous Republicans of the Early Empire who advocated in a shrill but useless manner for a return to Senate rule but were shunted aside and usually killed by deranged sociopaths who behaved quite like like Jack. But be it Freudian or historic, any framing of this book feels cheap and hollow because the story has such a complexity of primal urges that it feels almost biological.

Golding said he came up with the idea of book after reading his children "Treasure Island or Coral Island or some such Island" in the years of the hydrogen bomb and Stalin and asked his wife, "why don't I write a children's story about how people really are, about how people actually behave?" To me that's a chilling question and it reveals an architecture not based on rigid Freudian or historical or symbolic parallels. Its portrait of sadism could have been lifted out of the newspapers; its struggle for dominion over the weak is an almost sexual frenzy recalls everything I know about torture in the dungeons of Argentine or US military prisons. In this respect, I think the book, like Heart of Darkness, is timeless.

But I chose not to give it five stars because at the center of Golding's book is a kind of rigid Christian iconography, like that you find in the Poisonwood Bible, that offends me, perhaps because it reminds me of the way I wrote my Freshman year of college, or perhaps because that rigidity, that allegiance to a=b symbolic logic insults my intelligence. The martyrdom of Simon, I felt, demeaned the human quality of Simon. I liked him best because he struck me as the most shrewd and practical. Reducing him to an icon transforms him into a variable: Simon = Paul or Peter or whomever, but ergo facto Simon ≠ Simon. When he comes down to the beach mutting "something about a body on a hill" Simon ceases to be a reflection of human complexity, or biological completeness, and instead becomes a rehashed precedent from Sunday school.

I've often felt that Heart of Darkness' genius was that it somehow reflected the effect of Darwin and modern thinking on the antiquated ideas of Colonial Europe, ie Kurtz isn't good or evil because good and evil are artifices that wilt beneath analysis. When Golding adheres to this materialist perspective, the book is masterly. When he swears allegiance to worn out Christian parables, that complexity is reduced to slips of paper.

This book shocked me. Not so much because of the content, I will come onto that, but because my gentle, kind, mother recommended it to me. My mum who mutes the TV when a swear word is coming up and who can't stand any type of violence recommended a book that involves children killing each other. Perhaps in her case familiarity has rendered the content less offensive--she studied it in high school and it had her childish scrawls all the way through, also entertaining! That said, there was a lot to this book. I can see why it has become a classic. I guess, I was just taken aback having started the story and expecting it to continue in a Peter Pan type "lost boys" style...when it took a violent turn in a "no going back" direction.

A group of boys are abandoned on an uninhabited island. Ralph takes the lead and formulates a rescue plan. But it isn't long before the group are embroiled in internal conflict as they battle for supremacy and status. What is really needed is for them to band together and for everyone to do their part to keep the group alive and alert any ships that happen to be passing. But they cannot even get that right--those meant to be tending the fire are off hunting pigs when the first vessel draws near. The divisions widen over time as some of the children begin to adopt savage-like behaviour resulting in tragedy.

It is not a Christian book but there are a great number of spiritual analogies and lessons worthy of comment. The book reminds us that children do not learn sin from their parents. They are born sinful and if not disciplined, given appropriate boundaries and taught right from wrong, they will choose sin as it is predetermined due to the fall--"born in sin and shapen in iniquity." The book also reminds us that man is not basically good or innocent but the opposite.

There is also a lesson about the pack mentality. How much easier is it to fall into sin or temptation in a group than it is alone? When young people goad, dare and egg each other on they can be capable of great evil--peer pressure is a powerful force. We see it in the media when a group loses control and in a violent frenzy attacks a person in the street. But we will not ultimately stand before God in a group but by ourselves to account for our behaviour. It is why the Bible warns us about the company we keep and who we choose to be our friends.

I was also reminded of the damage that can be done to children who spend too much time playing video computer games. They become lost in their own worlds of darkness where theft, violence and killing are normalised and those who murder are heroes not criminals. Lord of the Flies made me realise how easy it was for these children to begin playing a very dangerous game with life and death when they became immersed in their own world and had lost touch with reality. Maybe it will make some parents think about what their children are filling their minds with alone in their bedrooms. We shouldn't be surprised when the same children translate their video game world into a murderous rampage on our streets. That is what they have been taught to do!

The last chapter of the book was for me the most impactive as the sequence of events was unexpected. The narrative is chilling in places but definitely held my interest and I wanted to know what happened to the children in the end. There are a few swear words in the book but nothing major. There is no sexual content. There is some graphic violence and animal slaughter. This book is not really suitable for younger children but may hold lessons for older teens.

I would recommend the book for Christians for the spiritual lessons that can be learned but it is not particularly uplifting!

A hard book to rate as although its well written and is very thought provoking, the content gets unpleasantly graphic and some aspects are awkwardly dated (eg the assumption the British boys should be jolly good chaps - “we’re not savages, we’re English”).

Plot

It starts off as a conventional adventure: a mixed group of boys (some know each other; many who don’t) survive a plane crash on a desert island and struggle to survive. It is somewhat confused and confusing at first – perhaps to make the reader empathise with the boys’ confusion.

From the outset there are issues of priorities (Jack’s instant gratification of hunting or Ralph’s long term need for shelter and maintaining a fire signal) and leadership. It’s inevitable that standards of “civilization” will slip.

There is also an infectious fear of “the beast”, although whether one interprets it as animal, airman, hallucination, or symbolic may vary at different points in the story. Certainly the tone of the book changes after Simon’s first encounter with Lord of the Flies.


Image: Teaching Lord of the Flies, by The Jenkins Comic (Source)


Group Dynamics

Eventually the boys split into two groups: hunters who become ever more “savage” in appearance and behaviour, and the remainder who want to retain order, safety, common sense – and their lives. Why do the obedient and angelic choir turn to savagery - does the fact they have an identified leader, who isn't the overall leader once they're on the island, contribute? One also wonders how the story might be different if it was a mixed sex group, or even an all girl group. Very different, certainly, and I suppose it would provide a distraction to what Golding was trying to say about human (or just male?) nature.

It illustrates how petty bullying can be condoned and encouraged within groups (exacerbated by rituals, chanting, body markings etc) and how it can escalate to much worse. Nevertheless, one of the main victims, Piggy, is proud of his differences, demonstrates knowledge and intelligence and actually grows in confidence as his leader loses his.

Milgran, Zimbardo, Christianity...

It questions whether it is power or the environment that makes some of the boys so bad (echoes of Zimbardo’s prison experiments and Milgram’s obedience experiments - if a book can echo things which came after it was written).

In fact, Golding "experimented, while a teacher at a public school, with setting boys against one another in the manner of Lord of the Flies"! See HERE (thanks Matt).

The more Christian concept of original sin runs through it, which was probably Golding's intention (his editor made him make Simon less Jesus-like), along with other Christian analogies relating to snakes, devils (aka Lord of the Flies), self sacrifice, and redemption/rescue.

And then there are the conch and fire as symbols of order and god, respectively, in total contrast to the warpaint etc of the warriors.

Lots to think about, but more the stuff of nightmares than dreams.

Compared with The Hunger Games

It's interesting to compare this with The Hunger Games, which modern teens probably find much easier to relate to (see my review HERE). I think one problem Lord of the Flies has is that the period is tricky: too far from the present to seem "relevant" (though I think it is), but not long enough ago to be properly historical.

Compared with I Have No Mouth and I Must Scream

For another dysfunctional group trying to survive a very different ordeal, see Harlan Ellison's horrific short story about an evil supercomputer, which I reviewed HERE.