That sense of inevitability that you just have to have weapons, you have to have hunters, and the hunters must become soldiers, that's a specific thing It's specific to their culture, to their class, and very obviously to their gender
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It's about some pretty specific things that were on Golding's mind as a British schoolteacher in the 1950s and to over-universalize it in a way that makes it easy to dunk on - What if they were girls? What if they were working class? What if they were Black? - misses the point
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Like the single biggest thing about the Tongan kids that contributed to their irl survival is THEY WERE FRIENDS WHO KNEW AND TRUSTED EACH OTHER BEFOREHAND The tragedy of LotF is none of the survivors manage to actually develop that kind of bond with each other
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The only real social relationship on the island is bullying Ralph and Piggy genuinely *want* to be friends but they, tragically, don't quite make it - Ralph can't get over Piggy being fat and ugly and annoying, Piggy can't stop condescending to Ralph because he's dumb
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I think it's obvious that Golding's view of "human nature" is not so dim that he doesn't think friends who genuinely trust each other can ever exist Just that it's sometimes tragic when you feel like people obviously desperately need a relationship like that but fail
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And that you see that happen - A LOT - in middle class schoolyards And those same ugly dynamics crop up disturbingly often in the halls of state in this supposedly advanced civilization of ours
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(I reveal my bias here but I think a lot about Ralph looking at Piggy and just thinking how funny his fat little face and whiny little voice is when he's trying to be serious and warn him about Jack "Ugh stop calling everyone you disagree with a Nazi you fucking nerd")
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("I don't know if he's right about all this wonk shit but I just wanna shove that guy into a locker you know what I mean")
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I don't know, it's been a looooong time since I read "The Inheritors", but my recollection is that Golding did seem to be saying something pretty bleak about human, or homo sapien, nature. But I barely remember it, and maybe I'm remembering wrong.
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Haven't read it so can't comment on it
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