William Golding
I have to tell you, the Trump campaign has made me dream about Lord of the Flies. Golding's horrific 1954 allegory about children abandoned on an island, left to their own devices to develop a society, was required reading when I was a student. I think maybe that is no longer the case, or someone might have already noticed. . .
The group of English boys'-school youngsters are a cross-section of personalities, and at first they try to organize themselves according to the rules and procedures that they already understand. They have to find shelter and food and a mode of organizing their decisions, as must we all. But more disruptive personalities, usurped and directed by the most aggressive boy, Jack, make this difficult; and when a "beast" is discovered in the forest that scares the bejeezus out of all of them, the group quickly devolves along power lines, the strong bullying the weak, and almost all of them find their primitive ancestry, the human condition, in short shrift.
Golding's point is that without a civilizing influence, without some good intentions and common goals, human beings will revert to savagery under the tutelage of an aggressive and consciousless leader. The boys take to smearing their bodies with "war" charcoal and sharpening spears. They band together in fear of the unknown beast in the forest, and they psych their weapon-carrying selves into a salivating, pulsing, blood-lusting mob around the fire and drums of ritual.
Sound familiar?
The movie appeared in 1990. I saw it in the theater and found it extremely affecting. The thing is, there is a deus ex machina that about stops your heart, and at the time I thought I would never want to watch it again. But maybe now I will, just for that. Just because I know there is a resolution. Just because it is only a story, and I could us a little escapism.
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