Lord of the Flies, film based upon novel

It's been fairly cold lately, and I decided to watch some videos. There was one about the book that was an assignment back in high school in the seventies, called The Lord of the Flies. I had a vague recollection of the novel, and have never seen a film version of it, so I watched it.

After watching it, I decided to do a post about it, but what should I say? Not everyone who could read this may be familiar with the film or novel, so this would lack some background. Rather than go over all that here, I think I should refer anyone who might be interested to check it out. You can find it easily enough on Google or any search platform of your choice. The book seems to have won an award, so it isn't like some obscure book or anything. Rather than watching the movie, you could read the Cliff Notes, for example. Or any of the other study aids in order to save time, if time is a bit short.

Of course the book is about the inherent savagery inside us all. There was a struggle against the savagery, which wasn't successful. Consequently, the book has some rather dark overtones about human nature.

There was an angle that I thought I might use in reference to what happened to the group of boys on the island, and it might well be a stark parallel with what is going on now in our time. In particular, the COVID situation, and the resultant power grab arising from it. You see, the boys were afraid of a "beast", but the beast was in their imaginations, and was not real. The fear of the beast was being used to manipulate the boys in following a power mad leader. The parallel is rather striking. COVID fear was put in the hearts of vulnerable people, and this fear was used in destroying the civil society upon which we depend. The same kind of thing happened in the novel, as the boys were in the process of destroying the basis of their own survival in their hunt for a dissident to the power mad leader's control over the boys.

Anyway, this is what I got out of it. Others may have different reactions. I noted in Spark Notes that there was something objectionable in their analysis. But I won't go over that here.

The person in the novel, who discovered that the "monster" was not real, was murdered. Fear was driving the behavior of the boys, and this particular boy actually had the courage ( for want of a better word) to find out about the beast. It was the ignorance and the fear that drove the irrational behavior ( in my opinion). It is rather disheartening to see that a voice of reason is likely to be ignored. Such was the case in the novel ( and film), and this is probably pretty close to being the case. Those who would push back against irratonal fear are in danger of being subjected to violence or murder.

The story does not speak well of our future. Let's hope that irrational fears will not lead to the end of us all. It may well happen that way.