Lord of the Flies

Nada Khroub

900141762

Dr. Hoda Grant

Response paper 2

Pick one text you have read this semester and persuade me to read it.

         In this day and age with social media taking over our free time reading seems to be taking the backseat as a leisure activity. People would rather spend their time scrolling down Instagram than flipping through a book. While social media might be entertaining with its fast changing pace, it also destroys creativity and hinders individuals’ emotional intelligence growth. Emotional intelligence is being aware of your own feelings as well as the people around you. Emotional intelligence is usually gained through experiences and learning from other people’s struggles. When you indulge in a book you learn vicariously through the authors. I strongly recommend Lord of the Flies by William Golding to anyone who wants to break free from his daily mundane routines. Reading this book draws you in and makes you struggle and battle alongside the characters.

       Have you ever wondered what life would be like if you were deserted on an island with a group of children? Waking up everyday fighting to survive as things turned brutal and savage. Golding managed to illustrate the world we live in as a vicious place where people are driven by the simple need to survive. This book was written in 1954 however you will be amazed by how timeless it seems to be, Golding’s writings are still relevant to this today. It is not often that you find a book that makes you reflect on yourself, however Lord of the Flies opens your eyes to a whole new side to your personality. The author delivered a realistic interpretation of human behavior, you will often find yourself putting yourself in the characters’ shoes while reading this book. This novel will change your outlook on life as Golding reveals the harsh truth to us; the events inside the book will remain with you outside the book.  When Ralph comes to the realization, “Maybe there’s a beast…. Maybe it’s only us” (William Golding 125) this is about the same time you come to the realization that the things we fear the most are usually within us. Golding successfully built up to this moment to have a lasting impact on his readers.

     Lord of the Flies is one of those books that you cannot put down. At first you might think it is a slow paced book, however when you reach the third chapter events start from there and don’t calm down; therefore there won’t be a boring moment while reading it. We often find it hard to abide by the rules of civilization; sometimes we just want to rebel. The characters in the book are quite diverse therefore we watch them struggle to reach an agreement to how they plan to survive. Ralph believes in rules and order while Jack prefers following his baser instincts. The diversity of characters gives every reader a chance to find himself in one of them. This book is unlike any book I’ve read before as it keeps you at the edge of your seat the entire time, and it teaches you priceless life lessons. “The greatest ideas are the simplest”(William Golding 186), we can all learn something from this short sentence; simple things are usually underestimated whether it’s in business, a trip or even a gift idea. Entrepreneurs can also learn leadership lessons from this text as it puts things into perspective and teaches leaders that the toughest test is execution, plans are easily made however things start falling apart in the execution phase. There is a lesson to be learned for everyone in Lord of the Flies and that is the beauty of this book.