For the past few weeks, my son and I have read William Golding's classic, "The Lord of the Flies." We finished yesterday, and then went ahead and watched the 1990 movie, which is easily available, for free, on Youtube.
So, I decided it would be fitting to go ahead and review both in one blog entry, to kill two birds with one stone, if you will. Also, since this book was published many decades ago, and since not only one, but two movie versions based on the book have come out, I am taking the liberty of not posting warnings about any spoilers, since this novel is a famous one, and it seems that most people seem to at least have an idea of what happens in it.
Just in case anyone is still unfamiliar, this story is about a group of boys who get stranded on a desert island, without adult authority to guide them. It starts off fairly well at first, as they agree enough on some of the essentials, particularly with keeping a fire going on the top of the mountain in hopes that a passing ship will see the smoke, even from many miles away. But discipline among boys is often too easily compromised, and it does not take long for things to head south in a hurry in this one. One group of boys, the hunters, wants to focus on hunting for meat and on having fun. They break off from the larger group, but eventually, through intimidation, they become the bigger group. They pain their faces, and feel liberated with the de facto new identities that they get as a result of this. On many levels, they are anti-intellectual, rejecting the more cerebral and grounded goals of the former elected chief, Ralph, and his thoughtful companion, Piggy. Everything on the island seems light and fun at first, but things grow far more serious in a hurry, especially after the hunters kill a boy accidentally. After that, it seems like the violence becomes easier and easier every step of the way. They continually hassle Ralph and Piggy, and eventually steal Piggy's glasses, rendering him blind. When Ralph and Piggy go to try and get the glasses back, Piggy is killed, and Ralph is chased away. In the end, Ralph is literally hunted, and the hunters seemingly stop at nothing to try and kill him, until they shockingly encounter probably the only thing that actually will stop them from killing Ralph: adult authority.
There are some significant differences between the novel and the 1990 movie. In the novel, it is not entirely clear how the kids wind up on the island. We get the overall picture that they were attacked while on a military vehicle, and that is how they got stranded on the island. In the movie, we see them swimming for their lives in the water, and rescuing their captain, the only adult on the island. That explains another difference, as the "monster" on the island in the movie is this man, who has gone insane and essentially goes to die in a cave. In the novel, it is a "beast" that the kids are scared of, yet the identity of the beast seems interchangeable. At times, the older boys dismiss the idea out of hand. But there are times when the beast as become a dead man on a parachute, a pig's head on a stick, a literal pig, and some of the other boys on the island. In the novel, the boys are British, while in the 1990 movie, they are American. In the novel, the final chase ends when Ralph falls at the feet of a prim British Naval officer dressed in a white uniform, and Ralph and he exchange some words before Ralph breaks down crying. Meanwhile in the movie, Ralph falls at the feet of an American soldier, and he simply breaks down crying. Also, I noticed that there seems to be a lot less tension initially between Jack and Ralph in the early part of the movie, although tension already exists early on in the movie, when jack automatically assumes that he will become chief, but then loses the election to Ralph. Ralph ultimately shows some leadership skills, and maturity and understanding beyond his years, by extending the olive branch and making sure that Jack remains the head of the hunters. Finally, Jack is humiliated twice by Ralph, first in losing the election, and then in failing to gain support once he challenges Ralph's leadership before all of the boys. Both times, Jack is moved to tears at being humiliated in front of everyone, especially the second time. But they have been challenging each other for a while, and sensing a rift between them. In the movie, it almost seems to happen spur of the moment. There may be other differences that I did not remember or get to, but those were the main, most obvious differences.
There is tremendous symbolism throughout. Piggy and Ralph symbolize (and believe in) civilization, while the other boys, slowly but surely, go towards tribalism and anti-intellectualism. Piggy's glasses seemed, to me, to represent human knowledge and capabilities, and the theft of those glasses by the hunters, and the subsequent use to literally put the entire island on fire, seems to me to symbolize the hijacking of human capability by the world's militaries, and their seeming willingness and blindness to gamble with the possibility of setting the world on fire in pursuit of their enemies. In the book, the naval officer turns his back on the barbarism that he sees before him and sets his eyes on the military cruiser, although the Navy that he is a part of also engages in barbaric activity, as they have to perfect the art of destroying whoever happens to be the enemy of the moment.
After all, we have to remember that the novel was written less than ten years after the end of World War II, a war which it's author, William Golding, fought in. All of the horrors of that war, from the millions dying from indiscriminate, blanket firebombing, to the Holocaust, to the United States dropping the atom bomb on Hiroshima and Nagasaki, all of it had to leave an impression on people who felt alarmed that we human beings, and perhaps particularly we westerners, were effectively playing with fire and toying with collectively killing ourselves. Golding had also seen World War I, and he clearly seems to understand enough history to know that neither of these was some kind of aberration. The power struggles, the jealousy, and the sheer hatred and blind hunt all seem to attest to some darker aspects within the human psyche that Golding seems to have both witnessed and understood only too well. This is dark subject matter, which is certainly not new, but he places it in an idyllic setting, on some remote desert island in the middle of the Pacific Ocean, an almost Garden of Eden away from the trappings of our modern society. Yet, the kids bring the barbarity and excesses of western civilization with them, while preserving almost none of the better aspects of it. Again, this is a really, really dark story.
This was not the first time for me either reading the book or watching the movie. Technically, I read the book twice, although the time when I read it in high school hardly counts, since I admittedly barely paid attention. That was also the last time that I saw the movie, and although surely I paid a bit more attention to the movie, it seems telling that I hardly remembered that, either. The scene when Piggy gets hit by a rock would be the one scene that specifically comes to mind.
However, I did read the book some years ago on my own, and as an adult. Obviously, this time, I took it more seriously, and found it a haunting book. I had paid attention enough during high school to remember that much, at least. But the scope of how mindlessly violent the kids were able to get almost cared me on many levels, as did their blindness in being so willing to set the entire island on fire, just so that they could capture Ralph. By then, of course, Ralph was on his own and posed no threat at all. Eventually, they would surely get him if they wanted to, although it is scary to think about how they simply could not leave him alone. By putting the entire island on fire, of course, they are also sealing their own fate by destroying their limited food supply. The plants will be destroyed, and the animals that are left, assuming any survive, will also no longer have any food. It would be a matter of weeks, tops, before the tribe faces starvation and extinction themselves, unless they prolong the inevitable with the ultimate unthinkable: cannibalism.
The movie is not bad, although frankly, it does not hold a candle to the book. When asked his impressions of the movie, my son pretty much said the same thing. It is a relatively short movie, clocking in at under one and a half hours, but it will give you a good feel for what the story is about. However, if you want the full effect, both psychological and literary, do yourself the favor of opening a copy of this classic and giving it a read. It is dark and, in terms of how the characters think and behave, it can be disappointing. However, it is not disappointing as a literary work, and in fact, is more relevant and illuminating now than perhaps ever before in exploring the darkness and pettiness that can be found in abundance in our ever more adolescent modern societies.
Recommended!
No comments:
Post a Comment