World Actress

As a book lover and lover of words, you can bet that I’ve read William Golding’s Lord of the Flies as both a child and an adult. Lord of the Flies is a novel by Nobel Prize-winning author William Golding about a group of British schoolboys stuck on a deserted island who try to govern themselves -with both disastrous and deadly results.

Published in 1954, Lord of the Flies was Golding’s first novel. When it was first released, it wasn’t the literary legend that it is now, and in fact sold only about 3,000 copies. Since then, the novel’s questions about human nature and individual welfare versus the common good have left students and scholars alike discussing topics such as groupthink and individuality, rational and emotional reactions, and morality and immorality.

Througout the world of entertainment, Lord of the Rings has influenced many artists. There has been 2 movie adaptations of the story; one directed by Peter Brook in 1963 and one directed by Harry Hook in 1990.

World reknown author Stephen King has stated that the Castle Rock in Lord of the Flies was the inspiration for the town that has appeared in a number of his novels, including Misery and Cujo. And Rob Reiner’s production company’s name ”Castle Rock Entertainment”, was inspired by Stephen King’s Castle Rock!

Heavy metal band Iron Maiden composed a 1995 song of about the novel. The song has the same name.  The ever popular 1980 debut album of U2 takes its title, “Shadows and Tall Trees”, from Chapter 7 in the book – and the album’s artwork is very similar to the novel’s cover artwork.

TV shows South Park and The Simpsons have episodes based on the book.

Interesting fact: Lord of the Flies is the literal English translation for the Hebrew word ”Beelzebub”, a demonic figure that is often considered synonymous with Satan. Very fitting to the story, don’t you think?

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