Why Lord Of The Flies Should Not Be Taught In High Schools Essay

Lord of the Flies, by William Golding, is a book that is infamous among high school juniors and seniors. From lovable characters like Ralph and Piggy to an interesting plot about a fictional beast, Golding’s book is definitely one that is a captivating read for all high schoolers, whether or not English is their subject. However, the book fails to capture one important feature that takes away from the education of high schoolers: applicability to the real world. Because the original motivations of the author are outdated and fail to educate students on new content, Lord of the Flies should not be a required or even suggested reading in high schools all across America. The teachings of the book are delivered in an outmoded fashion and are historically irrelevant in today’s changing world. The first half of the book focuses on a “dark thing, a beast, some sort of animal” that terrorizes the boys at night (83). While this beast provides an interesting plot to the story about a mysterious being, the true terrors of modern society have nothing

Although the plot may have been shocking when “Jack bounded out from the tribe and began screaming wildly” 50 years ago, the same effect is not achieved in the present (181). The transformation of people who were civilized and honest was something that shocked people when Germany became Nazi Germany, but the continued horrors since that time have already exposed many of the modern high school students to these gruesome truths with the Taliban, ISIS, genocide in Rwanda, and modern racism and sexism. Even when “the rock struck Piggy a glancing blow … [and he] fell forty feet and … the body of Piggy was gone,” this death is child’s play compared to, for example, the gruesome recorded beheadings of ISIS or a scene of entertainment for many Americans where a man’s head is crushed by another man in the acclaimed show Game of Thrones