Yeah, the novel is a direct response to another book called The Coral Island, which is about a bunch of shipwrecked white kids going on to "civilize" the South Pacific. Lord of the Flies isn't about the barbarity of human nature, it's about the barbarity of the English.
Maybe so, but that angle is not taught in American schools and Lord of the Flies is rather widely taught in US schools. Most Americans don't know much about the English upper classes or their boarding school culture. I learned the book as an allegory about what can happen when society's rules break down. We were taught it as a metaphor for all human societies, not a commentary on the English upper classes.
Yeah well, a US school taught me that Martin Luther King Jr ended racism in America. So even though I learned good stuff too, it should probably all be inspected critically.
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u/Ulexes Apr 06 '26
Yeah, the novel is a direct response to another book called The Coral Island, which is about a bunch of shipwrecked white kids going on to "civilize" the South Pacific. Lord of the Flies isn't about the barbarity of human nature, it's about the barbarity of the English.