Rating: 
Summary: From Civil to Savage
Review: In Lord of the Flies, his first novel, William Golding used a group of boys stranded on a tropical island to illustrate the malicious nature of mankind. Lord of the Flies dealt with changes that the boys (representing society in general) underwent as they gradually adapted to the isolated freedom from society (society's adaptation to the times). Three main characters depicted different effects on certain individuals under those circumstances. Jack Merridew began as the arrogant and self-righteous leader of a choir. The freedom of the island allowed him to further develop the darker side of his personality as the Chief of a savage tribe. Ralph, a "fair haired boy" started as a self-assured boy whose confidence in himself came from the acceptance of his peers. At first, his reliance upon Piggy for advice helped him maintain an orderly society. As the story progressed, it became apparent that the boys' desire for an orderly society fell wayside as the totalitarian Jack took control. Piggy was an educated boy who had grown up as an outcast. Due to his academic childhood, he was more mature than the others and retained his civilized behavior. But his experiences on the island gave him a more realistic understanding of the cruelty possessed by some people. The transition from civilized beings to a barbaric tribe illustrates Golding's view on society in his time. He believed that if we are not careful, we could revert back less sophisticated times and become animals again.
Rating: 
Summary: What's so good about this?
Review: OK, I must be the odd man out here. This book falls into many of the "listmania" lists of other books that I found to be quite good. So, I had it delivered and found it to be the worst book I've read in a few years. What do people see in this? I'll grant the fact that there is some nice symbolism with the conch, the boar head, and such. But that is all it has going for it. Golding attempts to show the reader how easily mankind can become corrupted when left to their own devices, but the story he masked it with is pretty poor. For something written as recent as 1950, I would have expected much better. First off, there is no mention of what happened to the plane. Just some boys on an island and the plane crash just seemed to be a way to get them there. There is no wreckage to deal with, no dead bodies smelling up the island. Secondly, there is no time reference at all. It seems that the kids hair just grew long, magically overnight. Without any mention to a timeframe, it appears they are on the island about a week. I'm sure it was longer, because nobody should have as little faith in humankind to think that we should devolve to savages so quickly. Maybe Golding did think it could happen that fast... I don't know. I wouldn't recommend this book to someone who really enjoys reading and likes to see the plot and the characters well developed. This seemed to be thrown together with no regard to the plot whatsoever. If this book comes on a recommended list, but there are other options, AVOID THIS ONE!
Rating:
Summary: Classic power struggle
Review: I found that Golding's book was more about a power struggle than exposing the orginal sin inside the human race. A group of young boys crash on an island, and one thing becomes clear immediately: only one can be the leader. I think this competition between two factions is accurate and exciting. The struggle becomes so fierce towards the end of the book, it got my adrenaline flowing just reading it. I don't think the book has to constantly be interpretted as 'democracy vs. anarchy' or in terms of decent society vs. brutal savagery. The book can be simpler than that if you, as the reader, want it to be. Just a note: I think the most important character was Simon. Keep an eye on him as you read, I haven't quite figured him out yet.
Rating:
Summary: A great adventure
Review: The lord of the flies is a wonderful nature book and how many stranded kids get along on their own. It is about a group of boys who are stranded on an island because a plane crash. As the story progresses the boys split up into diffrent groups and parts of the island. The boys have many diffrent ways of surving. This book is full of adventure. I reccomend this book to any one over 11 years of age. The book is very excitin throughout itself.
Rating:
Summary: lord of the flies
Review: Lord of the flies is a book about a group of kids who crash on an deserted island. It is about how they survive and the stuff they do. They face many hardships while there in the jungle. They give people jobs to do so that they don't fight as much. Ithink this book is a good book. It is kind of long but it is good.
Rating:
Summary: Hello from Canada
Review: "Lord of the flies"
The book in the beginning was interesting but when i reached the part when they go after ralph and piggy and try to get them,
that's what i didn't undrstand. How could 13 or 14 years old kids
try to kill each other,and don't care.
The book after all was not bad,it lets u read it even if your not interested. I like the way golding flies us from on idea to the another.
for me i give it 2 stars
Rating: 
Summary: Absolutely atrocious
Review: Oh. My. God. Can we say ATROCIOUS?! One star is too much for this piece of dung. Symbolism is nice and quite beautiful in some places and for certain writers, but this book had WAY too much of it. Golding's novel is very horrendous in the fact his absolutely mind-numbing style immediately drove me away in his tedious and unnecessary description that wasn't even striking in any way. I'll give it a bit for having good description in a few places, but only a miniscule few. But that isn't even the reason for this rating. What I found most unpleasantly apalling was the content of this so-called classic. It completely and utterly disappointed me in its horrific plot that I wouldn't even care to mention. Am I a happy-go-lucky reader? No; In fact, I quite often enjoy the sad and angry scenes in many novels, but an element of this one that I still can't quite name and don't care to that made those scenes so obtuse. This book should be completely wiped off and eradicated from the lists of classics to read and analyze in schools.
Rating: 
Summary: The Good, the Bad and The Ugly
Review: Civilization didn't start off orderly and peaceful. It takes working every day to live among one another within the rules of society. This book is a great introduction to self-governance that all 10-16 year olds should read and discuss. I am currently in a mentoring program with a 12 year old and I read the book as a preview. We are going to be reading it together over the next six months and I think he will be very interested. It moves very well and the action is riveting. I didn't have any clue how it would end until the final page. That is one of the signs of a great book. I'm looking forward to reading more of William Golding's work.
Rating:
Summary: I give it a 2 for symbolism
Review: I really don't understand why many like this book and why it has become a classic. The plot is quite interesting. It's about 2 planes filled with British kids crashing on a deserted island. First of all, these kids would have died in a few weeks at the most! There is NO way normal men could kill wild boars, let alone young kids. Weapons are hard to make too, I don't know how the older young boys, around the age of 13, can make weapons that is sufficient and adequate enough to use for killing wild boars and other fierce creatures. This book is extremely far-fetched as I see it. But there are interesting elements too, I suppose. It's very symbolical. There's some symbols that I didn't fully interpret until I look into them closer, and I thought that was quite intriguing. It brings a more dark atmopshere into this book. One star for symbolism, and another one is to be respective for the effort of this book being made.
Rating:
Summary: Hmmmm
Review: I'm not quite sure how to describe this. At times, while reading this book I felt that I had to almost force myself to keep going. It's not that I felt bored by the story so much as couldn't get into it. However, I gave this book four stars because when I got to the very end I was greatly moved. I don't know why but I got very emotional and burst into tears. I then felt rewarded and knew that this book was much more than what I thought it was. I also saw the black and white film from the 1960's and would highly recommend it to anyone over the age of 14. It's better than the book.
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