Lord of the Flies is a classist fantasy piece of English claptrap to justify the maintenance of social hierarchy. The fetters we impose on ourselves tend to be the strongest. And the fetters from these classist authoritarian lessons tend to be the difficult if not intractable to remove. The best real world example we have is a counter example. The kids cooperated, not killed. They resolved conflicts with timeouts. They worked together. They survived and unlike Gilligan’s Island, were rescued after a year and not 14 years.
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I so appreciate this take, I appreciate it so much I’m writing an oped, and will credit you….because this is a GOLDEN take.
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I literally was just having this conversation with my students!
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I found this perspective really interesting. I never studied or taught LOTF to K-12 folx. Rather, I used it in my university level classes on satire. I think critic Alvin Kernan talks about how well it conforms to the way satire works (a de-evolving plot where things start out bad and just get worse, and where an ideal alternative is tiny and lurks in the background, everything is exaggerated), and to other features of s. In this context I read and others have read the book as a complete condemnation of elite education for boys – even the “nice” school – as part and parcel of violent, colonialist, patriarchal practices. OTOH, it’s certainly possible to read it seriously, rather than ironically. I’m just sharing my and other students’ take.
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Thanks for commenting and adding to the discussion! At dinner, more later.
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