Why did Golding write Lord of the Flies?

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Golding wrote ‘Lord of the Flies’ to show a very pessimistic vision of mankind. In the past some writers tended to take the view that if left to their own devices man would organise himself into effective groups that would act in a civilised manner. However ‘Lord of the Flies’ chillingly explores what Golding considers to be the reality. That is if there were no laws and no authority then man would descend into savagery and exploit the weak. The group mentality would swamp individual morality with terrible consequences. Ralph weeps for the loss of innocence because he is faced with the knowledge of just how horrific man can be.

20 thoughts on “Why did Golding write Lord of the Flies?”

  7. Sorry, I wanted to see what would happen before. I am a secondary school teacher from Chch, wondering about setting up a site like this for our department. It kicks keester by the way.

    Obviously you want your students in on the deal right? How do you ensure that it is your students submitting stuff?
    How is this all different from Moodle?

    I would appreciate your answers!

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  8. Hi Luke, the comments don’t go through automatically until I approve one of them. We use moodle for organising resources, exemplars and assessment information.Moodle does have forums but I prefer to use a blog. I don’t mind people from outside Katikati College commenting – in fact I welcome it. If you haven’t used moodle yet I would start there as I am a big fan of it and it is an easy, safe and non-threatening place to start. Good luck with what ever you choose to use! Natalie 🙂

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  9. yeee son this web site is sweet it helped me with a power point im doing for my highschool at lake Taylor high school

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  10. This really helped me on my essay on symbolisom fo rlord of the flies but i am having trouble finding a picture fro simon

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  12. omg! this helped me a ton with my book report….its kindof a hard book to understand. well…its hard to understand the base of it all.
    its really a sad, messed up book, and you really see alot of what humans would be like with no authority.

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  17. I have to disagree with this point of view. The idea that man would become LESS civilized when left to his own devices, without the guidance of laws, seems somewhat ridiculous. I say this because, if not from man, where did laws originate from? It might take time, but gradually man tends to try to form more effective groups, and laws/conventions help in this effort.

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