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William Golding was losing [br]his faith in humanity.

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Serving aboard a British destroyer [br]in World War II,

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the philosophy teacher turned Royal Navy [br]lieutenant was constantly confronted

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by the atrocities of his fellow man.

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And when he returned to England [br]to find Cold War superpowers

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threatening one another [br]with nuclear annihilation,

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he was forced to interrogate [br]the very roots of human nature.

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These musings on the inevitability [br]of violence

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would inspire his first and most famous [br]novel: "Lord of the Flies."

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After being rejected by 21 publishers,

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the novel was finally published in 1954.

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It takes its title from Beelzebub, [br]a demon associated with pride and war—

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two themes very much [br]at the heart of Golding’s book.

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The novel was a bleak satire [br]of a classic island adventure story,

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a popular genre where young boys [br]get shipwrecked in exotic locations.

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The protagonists in these stories [br]are able to master nature

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while evading the dangers [br]posed by their new environments.

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The genre also endorsed [br]the problematic colonialist narrative

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found in many British works at the time,

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in which the boys teach the island’s [br]native inhabitants

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their allegedly superior British values.

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Golding’s satire even goes so far [br]as to explicitly use the setting

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and character names from R.M. Ballantyne’s[br]"Coral Island"—

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one of the most beloved [br]island adventure novels.

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But while Ballantyne’s book [br]promised readers

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"pleasure... profit... and unbounded [br]amusement,”

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Golding’s had darker things in store.

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"Lord of the Flies" opens [br]with the boys already on the island,

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but snippets of conversation hint [br]at their terrifying journey—

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their plane had been shot down in [br]the midst of an unspecified nuclear war.

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The boys, ranging in age from 6 to 13, [br]are strangers to each other.

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All except for a choir, clad in black [br]uniforms and led by a boy named Jack.

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Just as in Ballantyne’s "Coral Island,"

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the boy’s new home appears [br]to be a paradise—

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with fresh water, shelter, [br]and abundant food sources.

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But even from the novel’s opening pages,

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a macabre darkness hangs over [br]this seemingly tranquil situation.

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The boys’ shadows are compared [br]to “black, bat-like creatures”

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while the choir itself first appears as

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“something dark... fumbling along” [br]the beach.

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Within hours of their arrival,

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the boys are already trading terrifying [br]rumors of a vicious “beastie”

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lurking in the woods.

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From these ominous beginnings,

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Golding’s narrative reveals [br]how quickly cooperation unravels

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without the presence [br]of an adult authority.

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Initially, the survivors try [br]to establish some sense of order.

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A boy named Ralph blows into a conch shell[br]to assemble the group,

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and delegate tasks.

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But as Jack vies [br]for leadership with Ralph,

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the group splinters [br]and the boys submit to their darker urges.

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The mob of children soon forgets [br]their plans for rescue,

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silences the few voices of reason,

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and blindly follows Jack to the edge [br]of the island, and the edge of sanity.

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The novel’s universal themes [br]of morality, civility, and society

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have made it a literary classic,

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satirizing both conventions of its time [br]and long held beliefs about humanity.

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While island adventure stories [br]often support colonialism,

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"Lord of the Flies" [br]turns this trope on its head.

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Rather than cruelly casting native [br]populations as stereotypical savages,

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Golding transforms his angelic British [br]schoolboys into savage caricatures.

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And as the boys fight [br]their own battle on the island,

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the far more destructive war [br]that brought them there

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continues off the page.

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Even if the boys were to be rescued [br]from themselves,

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what kind of world would [br]they be returning to?

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With so few references [br]to anchor the characters

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in a specific place or period, [br]the novel feels truly timeless—

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an examination of human nature [br]at its most bare.

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And though not all readers [br]may agree with Golding’s grim view,

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"Lord of the Flies" is unsettling enough

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to challenge even the most [br]determined optimist.