This week, John i s talking about one of his least favorite novels, The Lord of the Flies by William Golding. Lord of the Flies is a novel of ideas, and John doesn’t agree with the central idea of the novel, which diminished his enjoyment of the book. The central idea of the book is that everyone has evil in their hearts. Which we don’t necessarily agree with. That said, it’s a good read, and worth reading.
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When you write a book that is insulting to other -religions/women- *_EVERYTHING_*
But if the book is correct what brought about civilization to begin with?
Can you do a video about Pride and Prejudice?
Golding had his own point of view of war, from the frontline. There are many points of view in war especially from “higher” vantage points. It could be said that without war many of the things we take for granted today would have never come to pass. It can also be said that because we haven’t endured a “great” war in decades that the idea of community has been eclipsed by the “I” “selfie” generation. Humanity always needs something to fight for, a purpose. Complacency ultimately makes for an unhappy society.
Maybe part of the reason why there were no women was to highlight the savagery. Murder isn’t exactly something that would come as naturally to young girls, and this book wanted to highlight utter violent depravity, which probably would have been less represented by social sabotage as opposed to, you know, rendering a boy limb from limb.
Golding kept women out of the book because he thought women were superior to men.
though I understand that there are lawful socities that do use spears and face paints and that are civil but at least (if “steven-universafide”) that although it’s really harder to be “good” then to give into this kind of madness, that keeping your emathy is worth it and that anyone is capable of this stuff cuz’ you choose your destiny. wheather it would be light gray or otherwise though I might make an animated video based on this book
wait a sec………..oh…..watch steven universe instead.
The value you assume to the horrible concept of “novel of ideas” as just the ideas presented as valuable is quite wrong imo. I still remember the harsh description of rats inside a bucket carving the meat of the chest to flee from fire. I still remember the paranoid world of Fahrenheit, when it seemed the whole world wanted to kill that poor guy. I still remember the dark epiphany of a hanged parachute trooper, like a rotten christ on his cross. Man, so sad that such a smart fellow as you got it so superficially wrong. Still, keep up with the videos, love your work
Something that should be kept in mind about the “innocent” Ralph and Piggie, is that ALL of the boys at Jack’s tribe dinner kill Simon in a frenzy of excitement. Jack shows remorse for doing so afterwards. Given that Simon is their Christ figure, the act of sacrificing him affects everyone differently. For Jack’s tribe it became a show of strength. For Ralph s followers it was a crushing loss that led Ralph to hold onto his last shred of good.
Also worth noting while the authorial intent may not have been this way, I see the boys acting as “savages” because this is what British boys at the time thought of hunter – gatherer groups. They were racist, but imitating the racist stereotypes (the sins) of the adults in their lives. In living out their prejudiced fantasies they were liberated in the worst possible way.
The reason bringing women into the story breaks it is one simple fact: Women make men self-conscious
Hi, I’m John Green and this is Crash Course Literature.
RIP Simon
there no females bc in the time the book based girls and boys go to different schools
There was an theatrical adaptation of this novel in my city last weekend. They changed all the characters into young girls. Apart from that, the plot was still similar.
Crash Course is amazing. Keep up the good work and spreading learning 🙂
I don’t think that the lack of women on the island is sexist for two reasons–first, as mentioned below, the type of school that the boys come from seems to be a boarding school, which, of course, would be all-male. Secondly, I’ve always seen it as demonstrating just how toxic Western ideals of masculinity truly are, and how the inclusion of women is key for a society to function. Also, if there were girls on the island, you would have to deal with the boys sexually maturing and perhaps raping one of the girls, which would ensure that the novel couldn’t be taught in schools, and not being able to teach it to the audience that needs it most.
We all have the capacity for evil.
I feel that lord of the flies isn’t a sexist book, in 1954 the shock to see little girls acting like savages and killing each other would have made the publishers say no to the book
I finished reading this 30 seconds before watching this
(not john) it’s Cheetylious here
Ya savages without guns…Golding is brilliant… Hey buddy have you been to Compton or watched Mad Max?..I TOTALLY DISAGREE WITH YOUR VIEW….The novel is great.
Can you make a video on Macbeth and one on the sign of four please
The beast was also an old man that was very sick and hid himself on a cave and then got stabbed by a scared kid.
I absolutely loved Lord of the Flies, and watching this video helped me realize that it was because I also felt like the novel had a different message than what Golding intended. The way I see it, the novel shows that there are inherently good people as well as inherently bad people, but without the confines of order, the bad will always overwhelm the good. It’s pretty easily applicable to the world today.
I like the Simpsons episode better then the book, children left to themselves for 5 minutes turning into savage animals. Reminds me of my childhood.
Can you go over your books?
Specifically:
1. Fault in our stars
2. Turtles all the way down
3. Paper towns
PLEASE!! 🙂
I loved this book honestly
Is it wrong to like the Lord of Flies?
If anything, Nazi Germany was what Golding calls “civilization.” It was all based on law and order and authority. So, yeah, the idea that man needs social order to be “good” is pretty false in my opinion.