but if you come to it without preconceptions and empathize with the boys, to me it feels much more like a book that's just about this huge grief for the consequences of war, and grief for the legacy adults leave to children and how hard it is to make a better world when you're starting from nothing & toxic masculinity & british classism
to me Lord of the Flies isn't a tragedy because the bloody ending couldn't have been averted because humans are all evil, it's a tragedy because the ending could have been averted, but wasn't, because humans are small and scared and frail and don't always know how to help each other even when they are really trying
also i'm re-reading a Fahrenheit 451 just a little and holy shit I sure did get to the bit about a lifesaving medical procedure for $50 and wonder if giving up all books would maybe be worth it
Golding was very much writing from the perspective of a former boy's school teacher, and the way things ultimately play out on the island is very specific to british boys of a particular time period - because the values they've been taught and the ways those values fail them are a big part of it
but the idea of "girls would get along and get off the island, that's how they're socialized" is wrongheaded. it'd be different, but not that much better
but like, the other major causes of problems after "Jack has toxic imperial masculinity" are 1) there's a dogfight and corpse in a parachute drops onto the island kicking off a wave of paranoia
The Coral Island vs LotF is making me laugh also because I'd decided that Norton tends to talk about his school days like "oh the fun and gaiety of boyhood!" when it wasn't really that fantastic, and although it definitely wasn't anywhere remotely near LotF bad, my brain is like "pretending LotF is The Coral Island."
it's even better because Jedao's issues about both singing and consent are so weird, if Betelgeuse hadn't proactively given him an out, he would have had trouble setting that boundary at all and it would have been messy and miserable for him but instead it was just...easy
Jack is still Jackmostly meowdy
nothing but torture and notes