Politically Correct "Lord of the Flies" - The New Yorker
by Joe Keohane
http://www.newyorker.com/humor/daily-shouts/politically-correct-lord-of-the-flies
A satirical view on "Lord of the Flies", showing how the book would have played out in a 21st century setting.
Rito,
ReplyDeleteI find this article really interesting because so much of it is different to the story William Golding wrote. The fact some of the boys didn't want to be rescued showed how these days people want to be independent, and forget that we all need to be assisted, especially in hard times. Also how Percival says, "I feel unsafe," instead of crying shows how we are reluctant to let our feelings out. The fact that Jack brought up killing of the pig so quickly also shows how humans are less respectful of other creatures. In the book even Jack doesn't want to kill the piglet, but gets over it when he feels they really need meat to survive. Humans kill animals these days for their own enjoyment, not with any care of what they're doing, and not for survival, though many people who eat meat don't even need it to survive. The article shows how humans are becoming more and more closed and selfish.
-Phoebe
Phoebe,
ReplyDeleteI really liked the point you made about how nowadays people are reluctant to let their feelings out. Also, when a Littlun said "He or She, imposes a binary view of sexuality that excludes the gender-non-conforming." This struck me because it was a Littlun who said that. Nowadays these kinds of concepts are introduced at much younger ages, compared to the setting of Lord of the Flies. This article was very eye-opening and makes me think about how much times have changed.
Good job!
I agree with your comment about how it is much more common for this sort of concept to be discussed in today's day and age. In the time of Lord of the Flies, the boys were probably raised by more traditional parents and the idea of "gender-non-conforming" was likely completely foreign to them. In fact, people today still have trouble accepting the fact that there are more than two genders.
DeleteI found that this article you linked is so cool! I found it interesting that people now act differently based on time. I also believe what Phoebe said was really good. She said that humans kill animals these days for their own benefit. I always think about this and I agree that the article shows how humans are more selfish.
ReplyDeleteIt really shows the reasoning behind why nothing in our society really gets done because we are always so afraid of offending someone. It's like when the boat driver said "or else we'll get killed on twitter." This really shows how much we care about what people think about us and if we want to make everyone happy when we really can't.
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ReplyDelete“Mansplain the world to us,” Jack crowed, “oh wise, almighty white cisgendered hetero upper-class man". I found this bit very interesting. They experience privilege without even realising it, most of the time. From white privilege, to cishet privilege, to upperclass privilege, to even male privilege – they are able to take control and be in power because of the fact that they are still considered superior, even today. Meanwhile, members of the LGBT+ community are discriminated against, as well as the poor members of society, and women, too. Though the degree to which these groups of people were discriminated against was probably much worse during the time of Lord of the Flies, there's still a lot that needs to be done about discrimination today.
ReplyDeleteI agree that the boys are privileged in every sense, yet the irony of this article lies within the fact that these "privileges" are part of nurture, since they only apply in society. People are not born racist, and babies do not make fun of the LGBTQQIAAP community. Golding believes that humans are fundamentally evil, and that it is part of nature to be so. Therefore, he believes that in an environment such as The Island, race, sexual orientation, gender, and wealth will all become irrelevant and will reveal only the foundation of human nature: evil.
DeleteThrough this article, Joe Keohane is trying to highlight how society has reached an all time low, and how society overreacts to even the most minuscule of actions. Jack thinking that Ralph is "mansplain[ing]" them when all Ralph did was suggest a feasible solution to getting rescued shows how ludicrous Political Correctness has become. In the 21st century, PC seeps into everyday life, with people overreacting irrationally to just about anything, as shown in the article.
Post Script: LGBTQQIAAP is the official acronym for Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender, Questioning, Queer, Intersex, Asexual, Allies, and Pansexual. If you do not fit into any of these categories, please complain on the internet. Thank you.
DeleteThis is really interesting. It clearly shows how our society has changed over the past few decades. Do you think that kids in our society today would have reacted in the same way as the boys in Lord of the Flies?
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