William Golding has been a household name amongst young adult readers for sixty years because of his classic novel Lord of the Flies, which centers on a group of boys who must govern themselves after a plane crash leaves them stranded on a deserted tropical island.
Lord of the Flies remains as provocative today as when it was first published in 1954, igniting passionate debate with its startling, brutal portrait of human nature. Though critically acclaimed, it was largely ignored upon its initial publication. Yet soon it became a cult favorite among both students and literary critics who compared it to J.D. Salinger’s The Catcher in the Rye in its influence on modern thought and literature.
Labeled a parable, an allegory, a myth, a morality tale, a parody, a political treatise, even a vision of the apocalypse, Lord of the Flies has established itself as a true classic.
Young Adult Mag: You’ve written over a dozen novels. Why do you think Lord of the Flies has been the one people have talked about the most?
William Golding: I think it’s because it challenges reader’s ideas of order and chaos. People like to think that there are rules set it place that keep them safe. What they don’t realize is how fragile our world actually is.
YA: Lord of the Flies is frequently categorized as a dystopian novel. What do you think about the trend in dystopian young adult literature, especially those works being adapted for the screen?
WG: I think it makes a lot of sense. Young people tend to be very insecure, and reading about other young people who are facing much larger issues helps them to put their own issues into perspective.
YA: There’s no point in denying that you are a huge influence on this genre. Is there a particular work of which you feel proud to claim as part of your legacy?
WG: The Hunger Games trilogy does an excellent job of reframing a lot of the same issues I wrote about in Lord of the Flies.
YA: Which of your lesser-known works would you recommend for today’s younger readers?
WG: I would suggest they take a look at The Inheritors. It deals with one race of humanity, the Neanderthals, being wiped out by a more sophisticated branch of humanity, Homo sapiens.