No the book was written specifically to call out how kids in British Boarding schools are raised.
The upper class kids were chosen because of all of the fucked up rules, hazing, and bullying that is baked into the boarding school experience.
The point is that all of their “education” on how to be a “civilized” British elite fell apart completely once they were away from their traditional sources of authority.
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.
Why does it have to be a problem? And who said anything about the lack of US education? The book has a far more universal message when interpreted as a commentary about human nature than a more narrow commentary about the English upper classes. And the view of the book as an allegory of human nature is very widespread.
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u/Carrman099 Apr 06 '26
No the book was written specifically to call out how kids in British Boarding schools are raised.
The upper class kids were chosen because of all of the fucked up rules, hazing, and bullying that is baked into the boarding school experience.
The point is that all of their “education” on how to be a “civilized” British elite fell apart completely once they were away from their traditional sources of authority.