Lord of the Flies by William Golding is a classic dystopian book. The story occurs sometime in the future, during the next world war. A plane of young British boys crashes on a small island. With minimal resources from the outside world, the boys try to find ways to survive. Some are focused on getting rescued, while others just want to have some fun. Ralph, originally the boy placed in charge, struggles to maintain order among the boys, especially against Jack, who is leading the boys down a dangerous path. The boys find themselves in a dangerous position, especially as they break their ties towards innocence, civility, and order, instead resourcing to their darker, evil instincts.
I read this book in school. Since I was reading it through school, I learned a lot about the history of the author, William Golding, and all the world events that he had lived through that led him to write this book. From that perspective, it was interesting to read about how Golding combined Britain's history and his predictions for how history could repeat itself in the future. By reading this book in school, I also learned more about the symbolisms and what the characters represented throughout the book. This made it easier for me to relate to the characters, because they each had very distinct personalities, and they were each meant to focus on a separate piece of the story. Some of the characters were meant to represent good attributes, while others were meant to represent bad characteristics. I would never have chosen to read this book on my own since it is a very different type of book from my usual go-to. For this reason, I think that it was a good book, but it was not my favorite. I would recommend this book to anyone who likes to read classic, coming-of-age stories that include elements of historical fiction and dystopia.