Book Review: Lord of the Flies

(Borrowed from the Flushing Public Library): Another of the 100 Books I'm supposed to read before I die, at least according to the BBC. This is one of those volumes most people read in school but it was never assigned to me and I haven't gotten around to it till now. William Golding's chilling allegory of the decay of civilization is terribly relevant now. We are witnessing a breakdown of social norms paralleling the one taking place on the desert island. The time is the beginning of an atomic war, a planeful of British schoolboys crashes on a Pacific island with no adult survivors. They attempt to organize themselves into an orderly society with rules and procedures, but with no mature supervision, they descend into chaos and anarchy. 

Each of the boys represents a different way of thinking. Ralph stands for structure and sanity while the animalistic Jack is all id. Intoxicated by the lack of restraint, he transforms the boys into a tribe of brainless savages, concerned only with the thrill of the hunt and not caring a whit for rescue. Piggy is the intellectual, shunned by the others because of his obesity,  asthma, and poor vision. Yet he supplies the spectacles to allow them to set the fires that supply them with heat, a signal to passing ships, and the means to cook the pig meat. 

Order breaks down in a conflict between Ralph and Jack as the majority of the boys lose their rationality. Golding masterfully builds the tension and masks his symbolism so that it seems you're reading an exciting adventure tale rather than an allegory like Animal Farm. The title refers to a symbolic figure of the beast within. The boys fear it because they sense the animalistic madness is within all of them.

We are undergoing a similar struggle with Trump as Jack, lawlessly grabbing for power for its own sake, tossing aside the rules of civility.