Let's be honest...

I've gotta be honest.  Writing this blog is not what I want to be doing right this second.  As lame as it seems, I actually would rather be watching the (extremely addictive) Say Yes to the Dress!  WHYYY?

I don't know.  I think I let it go too long because of Christmas and all that it entailed (lots and lots of homemade gifting as well as shopping, wrapping, and watching Christmas movies because that is a freaking must) as well as a very brief and last minute trip to Ohio for New Year's Eve.  Can you believe that this is my second trip to Ohio in a row in which I did not get the benefit of Handel's ice cream?  I can't.  I was extremely disappointed that the THREE locations I tried on New Year's Day were closed (they all said See Other Locations, so I have no idea which ones were actually open)...

Anyway, the long and short is this: this post is going to be lame, so prepare yourself.

Maybe I do have a few notes, but they are mostly not worth mentioning.  Can I just tell you that when I posted and spread the word that we'd discuss Lord of the Flies, I had a lot more reaction than I think I've gotten on any book so far.  A lot of people read it for their English classes in high school.  A lot of people were supposed to read it for their English classes in high school but didn't.  A lot of people truly hated this book when they had to read it.  I think only one or two told me that they'd actually enjoyed it.  And most everyone gave me a warning... that it's a brutal read, or that they hated one character so much that even though they have read only a few books ever and probably don't remember what they were about, this character still grated that person's nerves so much that he was almost angry at me for bringing him back to the surface.  So I'm curious... what did YOU think?

As a young adult read, yes, I agree that it was somewhat brutal.  However, I read the Hunger Games series a few years ago with little disturbing my mind and this year I successfully completed The Stand by Stephen King, which had, in my opinion, much a much more graphic nature in the gritty bits.  Still, the hands-down most disturbing book I've ever read has got to be Sybil by Flora Rheta Schreiber.  That book kept me up all night not because I was afraid of the paranormal or anything like that.  It made me cringe as I thought about what was wrong with people in the world that they were able to inflict such abuse on others.  I realize that there is now a book out there stating that Sybil was a bit of a hoax and the many personalities were not real, but I have not read it and therefore do not know if the abuse from her mother was made up.  I honestly don't think that could have been made up as it was just that terrible and nauseating.  I suppose a very ill person could come up with some of it, but I'm digressing.  Anyway, comparatively, Lord of the Flies was almost a cake walk.

That said, I did not enjoy reading this book.  I found it dull and repetitive and difficult.  There were multiple instances in which I became so bored that I did not realize I'd read something important and had to go back and reread it, such as Simon's tragic and pretty disgusting death in the vicious "dance."  However, I did find a few bits worth mentioning, such as the CONSTANT use of the color pink in the beginning.  The boys' had pink faces, fingers, noses, etc.  The island was also full of pink.  But as the novel progressed, the children became more brown than pink.  The almighty conch also became bleached of its pink color to white.  Pink being the color representing innocence, these changes represent the loss of innocence.  Obvious, as that is the premise of the novel.

On page 39 in my copy, the boys are building the fire and Jack and Ralph find themselves working together.
"At the return Ralph found himself alone on a limb with Jack and they grinned at each other, sharing this burden.  Once more, amid the breeze, the shouting, the slanting sunlight on the high mountain, was shed that glamour, that strange invisible light of friendship, adventure, and content.
'Almost too heavy.'
Jack grinned back.
'Not for the two of us.'"

This small conversation alludes to the fact that if the boys could have worked together as from the beginning, if Jack's jealousy of Ralph for being elected leader, if his animal instinct to kill for meat could have been buried in teamsmanship, if Ralph could have controlled his anger at the first instance of the fire going out, it could have worked.  They could have remained the innocents they began as.  I saw this conversation as one not about the log, but about the situation at hand.

On 54 I found the simple truth and theme of the book in the line, "He wanted to explain how people were never quite what you thought they were."  This becomes more and more apparent as the children become ever more savage.

I could talk to you about the conch and its small inclination of civility and how it shattered, basically died, with Piggy's death.  I could talk to you about Piggy, annoying as he was, as the voice of reason and how he provided, through his references to his auntie's wisdom, the only female voice in the story.  I could talk about the final climax of the story, that while Ralph ran from his imminent death at the hands of Roger and his stick sharpened at both ends (which actually was pretty disturbing), or about Simon's visionary realization that the beast they hid from was them all along--that they were becoming more and more beastly as they turned from civility and let the rescue fire go out in favor of doing things their own way...  But I just don't feel like writing about it and I honestly didn't the whole time I read it.  I did find a quote that Golding wrote about his novel to be interesting.  It was included in the notes at the back of my copy of the book:  "The whole book is symbolic in nature except the rescue in the end when adult life appears, dignified and capable, but in reality enmeshed in the same evil as the symbolic life of the children on the island.  The officer, having interrupted a man-hunt, prepares to take the children off the island in a cruiser which will presently be hunting its enemy in the same implacable way.  And who will rescue the adult and his cruiser?"

Who indeed?  Are people inherently evil creatures?  Golding thinks so.  What do you think?

I will do a post on Room by Emma Donoghue a bit later as I know I am two books behind.  I enjoyed it much more and it may make for a bit of a longer post than this one.  Please discuss Lord of the Flies and your thoughts and opinions with me.  Just because I did not particularly enjoy it does not mean I don't want to hear what you thought!  :)