Lord of the Flies - Book Report #3

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 I knew what Lord of the Flies was about but hadn't read it or had a clue to how it became a short-hand description of any elimination game like Survivor, or used to describe a group of prisoners on the TV show Fire Country which was airing while writing this blog.

 

 The story starts in mysterious misery as two boys find each other after a plane crash.  There are no adults, which one boy thinks is great until it isn't anymore.

 

 A reference is made to a nuclear bomb as the first two boys bring a whole crew of boys into a clearing where they plan to engineer their own rescue.  It's a single reference that wasn't affirmed or debunked in the following pages.

 

 It's an incredible story but with gaps that left this reader wondering how the kids fed themselves and managed anything close to discipline.  There were six year olds on the island...it seemed they were treated just like the older kids, which didn't make sense.  There are more questions than answers.

 

The concept of disorder and the base instincts of humans ring true as situations become desperate.  That's one thing William Golding got right, the sense of humans failing to keep their collective eyes on the prize, whether it's a signal fire or caring out for others.

I'm glad I read the book, it was missing from my personal all-time book shelf so I'm glad to check it off my list.  However there are plenty of flaws in the story and the telling.  For me, the best thing out of the 187 Kindle pages was the definition of the title, Lord of the Flies.