This is the last blog based on the BBC adaptation of William Golding’s Lord of the Flies.
I liked the way that the four episodes used four different characters as the frame through which the story is told. The four characters are Piggy, Ralph, Simon and Jack. It is interesting to see the story from the vantage point of a different character each week. It provides a fresh lens through which to view the unfolding narrative.
Some reviewers have criticised the over-psychologising of each of the characters by introducing a complex back story for each. This is not something that William Golding does with the novel. He is more interested in unfolding the growing sense of pervading darkness.
There is a line in the novel that brilliantly captures this darkness. It is a comment about the interaction between Ralph and Piggy. They seem to have a good relationship but there are moments when it breaks down. Piggy (who is overweight, bespectacled and asthmatic) has confided in Ralph that “Piggy” was the nickname he was given at school. He hates the name and asks Ralph not to tell anyone. Ralph, however, cannot resist sharing this “delicious” information with the others, to their amusement, and Piggy’s discomfort.
The line that reveals the hollowness of the relations can be seen in one of the interactions between Ralph and Piggy. Ralph smiles at Piggy but Golding writes,
“Piggy saw the smile and misinterpreted it as friendliness.”
This captures the deceptiveness of we hollow men, who can appear to be something, while in fact being the exact opposite! We all know the story of Judas betraying his Master with a kiss!
Yet the four viewpoints made me think about the way that the one story of Jesus is told through Four Gospels and the way that Luke relates the “we” passages in the Acts of the Apostles.
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Such an approach avoids our storytelling being one-dimensional.
One of the criticisms of preaching is that it is a monologue, with only one voice speaking.
Good sermons are populated with many voices, characters and experiences. Good preachers listen carefully to God’s word, God’s world and the people who live in it. This provides plenty of scope for other voices in the sermon.
One of my favourite bits of the novel is the ending, when a ship finally finds the boys and naval officer appears on the beach. Surveying the scene of boys who have become somewhat feral, the officer comments,
“I should have thought that a pack of British boys — you’re British, aren’t you? — would have been able to put up a better show.”
The rescue finally allowed Ralph the space to think of what might have been and to mourn what had in fact occurred on the island:
“Ralph wept for the end of innocence, the darkness of man’s heart, and the fall through the air of the true, wise friend called Piggy.”
None of us can live in a better story unless we have encountered the one whose life, death and resurrection tells a better story.
This does not come by listening to the moralising of the naval officer but through the liberating gospel of Christ.
Photo by Meritt Thomas on Unsplash