The real Lord of the Flies: what happened when six boys were shipwrecked for 15 months
When a group of schoolboys were marooned on an island in 1965, it turned out very differently from William Golding’s bestseller, writes Rutger Bregman
this post was submitted on 15 Oct 2025
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I read Bregman's book and can recommend it. The boys in question collaborated, grew crops and fished. Whenever they had a fight amongst them they'd retreat to cool down. One of them broke his leg and the others cared for him.
Honestly, I think six is likely the right number for this to work. I don't recall how many boys were in Lord of the Flies, but you get to 10-15 and you're absolutely going to start forming factions. And a hierarchy. And with more opinions you get more disagreements, and you're right back to Lord of the Flies.
Yeah, fragmenting into groups was an important part of the book.
Hey, thanks man, that was an interesting read, perfect for insomniacs trying to fall asleep.
Anyone know what the movie mentioned in the article is called? Could be a fun niche watch.
The name of that book is kinda stupid, IMO.
None of those kids even have the ability to command flies.
I was expecting one of the boys to get complete mastery of the word "the", then get the power of flight so he could leave the island. So disappointed.
"Shucks to your Ass-mar" Said Ralph, as his face grew white, his eyes lost focus, and a telltale buzzing began emanating from somewhere deep inside of him. His mouth drooped low and spread wide forming a horrifying O at least two feet in diameter. The buzzing became louder and more frantic, as thousands of flies began to spill from his mouth, hurtling towards the small, fat boy in front of him who even now was attempting, futilely, to run from the buzzing, angry, hungry swarm of flies.
"He truly is" said one of the other boys, glad not to be the object of Ralph's ire for once "the lord of the flies"
I don't remember it very well but I thought the title was a reference to something hypothetical one of the kids thought of
Like they saw something they didn't fully understand and extrapolated that the thing they were seeing was the lord of the flies
Baal-zebub: Baal is "lord" or "master", zebub means "fly".
Still better than the class about John Wayne Gacy, featuring Pogo the Clown.
I hated that damn book, but this (complete with conch) is hilarious.
I both dislike the book and dislike this comic for missing the actual point of the book, which is not in fact, haha, this is what would actually happen and it's just a group of random kids. It was specifically portraying british aristocratic children to criticize the colonizer mindset while discussing larger issues of human nature and civility and structure vs chaos.
I haven't read the book but how did it criticize the colonizer mindset? A cursory look makes it seem like a justification of paternalistic authority, so propaganda for kids to blindly listen to their parents haha.
If anything wouldn't this be justification for colonization, as colonized nations were often infantalized/dehumanized?
It was specifically a contrast on the colonizer mindset that was common both in culture and literature at the time. Showing a bunch of useless british aristocrats coming to "savage lands" and rather than taming the land they were shown that without their wealth and power and being taken care of by competent natives and labourers they became the savages they claimed to be inherently divinely better than.
I liked that book. It was eye-opening. And kinda made me appreciate the relative orderliness we have in a society run by adults. As much as kids would love to run wild & free with no supervision, but I was fortunate to be a child of the 1970's & 80s so I enjoyed the perfect balance of wild freedom with parental care at the end of every day.
If it’s really that eye-opening is debatable I would say. As another user has posted it already, this is a more realistic scenario: https://www.theguardian.com/books/2020/may/09/the-real-lord-of-the-flies-what-happened-when-six-boys-were-shipwrecked-for-15-months
Edit: I am not saying it’s not a good book. I enjoyed reading it myself. I just don’t like the picture it paints of society and the conclusions people draw from it.
Well imagine if one of the kids was young Donald Trump. Pretty sure it would be different.
Not really, he would disappear early on.
The idea of you debating their subjetive experience sounds funny
Lord of the flies is not based on a true story
Wat. I'm talking about them saying it was eye opening lol
Oh I see. You replied to the wrong person
it seems like I replied to the wrong person, not sure if that person meant to reply to me since I didn't say anything about it being a true story.
Reading it in the early 00s it made me wish I lived somewhere far more interesting with far more wild classmates.
All the rules and restrictions were so internalised, I think if we were abandoned on an island half of them would just sit still and starve.
I can't imagine any of them being interesting enough to try to start their own religious cult or anything.
When lunchtime approached at her usual morning time, Becca waited and waited, still and silent, till the sun set on the calm and foamy sea. She sat waiting in the golden hour sun, stomach churning, wondering why.
Can I ask why? It was actually one of my favorites in school, so just curious for a differing opinion.
I hated it because it was totally unbelievable, just a paternalistic rationalization for authority
I was confronted with the knowledge that the adults around me all thought the only thing keeping me from murdering someone was layers of rules and supervision. Like we're all just rabid animals barely held back by a watchful eye
Even then, I knew myself better than that. I knew people better than that
But that's how our society treats people. Like monsters that must be managed
Hmm, interesting. To be fair, I haven't read it since HS and that was...decades ago. Based on what you said I might reread and reassess.
Humans aren’t monsters until they reach a critical mass. Then they’re just awful.
Maybe it was presented to him as required school reading so that's why he hated it 😜
Watch out for that boulder, Piggy
Sucks to your assmar
Spoiler alert: >!Piggy died.!<
I'm reading the book at the moment and shouldn't even be in this thread but this was a spoiler for me!
LOL oops sorry. What are the odds this thread is being visited by someone reading Lord of the Flies for the first time in their life? 😆 But you were warned. That's the purpose of spoiler tags. To protect any virgin eyes out there.
As a European, the book wasn't in any of my curriculums. But I'm working my way through the classics. And as the other commenter said, your spoiler tag isn't collapsible. No worries though, my fault for reading this thread.
The spoiler tag isn't collapsible? That's weird, it's not working for anybody? This is what it looks like on my end: 
the spoiler didn't work for me, but I've already read it
Uhm guys we should have a meeting ☝️🤓
this is how my world history teacher introduced us to locke and hobbes