This quarter, Briar Woods sophomores were required to read The Lord Of the Flies in their English classes. Despite the book being decades old, the ideologies presented in the novel remain relevant as ever. It has a dark and enticing plot, exploring the frighteningly dark side of humanity.

Young boys land on an abandoned island in a fatal plane crash, far from civilization and without the accompaniment of adults. Alone, they are left to navigate the terrors of the island. What starts off as a supposed vacation, perhaps a world of freedom from the rule binding adult-run society, soon turns bloody.

With a supposed monster on the loose, the boys start turning on one another, irrational fear giving way to untamable chaos, the hunters soon becoming the hunted.

All efforts at peace become hopeless, the thin line between humanity and savagery vanishing. Greed, hunger, violence, and the never ending thirst for power tear the boys apart, until they themselves become the monsters inhabiting the island.

The author, William Golding, states in an interview that he wrote the novel in an attempt to, “trace the defects of society to the defects of human nature. The moral is that the shape of a society must depend on the ethical nature of the individual and not on any political system, however apparently logical or respectable.”

Alysa Yao, a sophomore, believes that despite being several decades old, the novel still holds incredible value and meaning to this day— including important morals that students would benefit to learn from. Yao said, “It is an important piece of literature, and literature doesn’t just die off in a few years. The novel really helps show us the extent of human savagery.”

When asked what she would rate the book on a scale from one to ten, Yao replies six. Many students seem to agree with the statement, having a few complaints about the length of the book. Yao said, “The story was enjoyable, but the book could be shortened a bit, and some parts could have been simplified.”

Deepshika Boppisetti, another sophomore, believes that the book’s praise is well deserved. Boppisetti said, “The amount of symbolism and analogies in the novel is incredible, and it really shows the amount of thought and effort the author must have put into the story.”

The Lord of the Flies, while certainly not loved by all students, is inarguably an incredible thought-provoking piece of literature of its time. The moral questions addressed, along with exploring the dangers of a lawless society, helps shed some light on human behaviors that are often overlooked.