It's been a quarter-century since I read this book. It's one of those books that I didn't really enjoy, but that I'm glad I read because of all the cultural references to it. I don't think it was a bad book, per se, but simply one that I didn't like.
My problem with the book is that I read it as a straightforward story of some kids on an island who basically went to war with each other, while my English teacher told us that every single little detail in the book was a symbol of something else. The dead airman was a symbol. Piggy's glasses were a symbol. The conch was a symbol. This was a symbol. That was a symbol. This other thing was a symbol. I couldn't read the book without trying to decipher all the symbolism, which took away from any enjoyment I had in reading it.
Many years later someone told me that actually, Golding didn't intend for all those items to be symbols at all and he got tired of all these people claiming that they were.
Yeah I know most people that have said they like it for all the symbols but I didn't read it for that. I just read it as a regular story. Maybe that's why I didn't like it.
And for me, I probably would have liked it better as a regular story rather than something full of symbolism. I'm a very concrete person. I want a cigar to be a cigar.
That is one of the things that frightened/impressed me about this book. Because he used kids, the message seemed to be "all humans are savage animals at the core, even though they try to pretend that they are something better - and no one is immune from that, no matter how cute or innocent they may look"
My problem with the book is that I read it as a straightforward story of some kids on an island who basically went to war with each other, while my English teacher told us that every single little detail in the book was a symbol of something else. The dead airman was a symbol. Piggy's glasses were a symbol. The conch was a symbol. This was a symbol. That was a symbol. This other thing was a symbol. I couldn't read the book without trying to decipher all the symbolism, which took away from any enjoyment I had in reading it.
Many years later someone told me that actually, Golding didn't intend for all those items to be symbols at all and he got tired of all these people claiming that they were.
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* Unless it's badly done or overly obvious, in which case it makes everything unintentionally hilarious.
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