【寒假最强书单】《蝇王》: 熊孩子的荒岛逃生记
经常有人问：怎样才能成为一枚有追求、有文化、有知识、有B格的四有骚年？世纪君答：诸君，去读书吧！是的，假日属于书，那些跃动着的文字，让你如沐春风。这个假日，世纪君就奉上一份“寒假最强书单”。为何“最强”？因为世纪君：综合了英国教育部考试委员会、作家JK Rowling、Philip Pullman以及英国《卫报》、美国《纽约时报》等多家国际媒体开出的青少年书单；参考了香港教育图书公司、《澳门日报》、台湾国立图书馆所列的青少年必读书目；邀请了曾在北外任教、与世纪君共事多年的英国文学博士Paul Brennan先生，一起精选出这十本书。每日一读，如抱暖阳。
人之初，究竟是性本善，还是性本恶？不管是《三字经》还是孟子的《告子上》大概都让我们笃信性善之说。然而英国诺贝尔文学奖获得者威廉·戈尔丁（William Golding）在其代表作《蝇王》里却意外地给出了一种不同的解说。在荒岛中求生的孩子们会有怎样的结局？出版于1954年的《蝇王》是一部带有神话色彩的儿童文学，虽然故事的主角是一群六岁至十二岁的孩子，但它并非一般意义上的儿童文学，因为其展示的儿童世界仅仅是成人世界的一个缩影。今天，让我们翻开《蝇王》，借助孩子的视角，窥探人性中最深层的黑暗面。
In the English language there are the words “utopia” and “dystopia”. The first word is used for a perfect human paradise in which all are equal and happy. The second word is used to describe a world which is the opposite. George Orwell’s Animal Farm is a novel in which a utopia becomes a dystopia. At first the animals rule the farm as equals, but later, they are ruled by one corrupt pig and his clique. As a result, the utopia becomes a dystopia.
The same thing happens in English writer William Golding’s Lord of the Flies. Published in 1954, nine years after Animal Farm, it is also a book about a paradise turning into a nightmare. It is the story of a group of English boys. During a war, they are left on a supposedly safe tropical island. At first, it seems like the perfect adventure playground. But it is a story that turns very dark indeed.
荒岛之上，没有大人在身边，孩子们试图延续文明世界的管理秩序。然而，在欲望面前，人类文明的社会秩序还能维持多久？这群孩子个个性格鲜明：拉尔夫阳光帅气、理性而勇敢，是理所当然的领导者；戴着眼镜的猪崽仔出身低微、体弱多病却爱思考问题；杰克则自命不凡、野蛮狂躁、有着极强的控制欲。
Ralph is a handsome boy who the others want to be their leader. He and Piggy, an overweight boy with glasses, organize a way for the boys to govern themselves. The boys decide that they will make decisions together, and whenever anyone wants to speak he must hold a seashell. At first, this arrangement works well. They have an army of protectors and hunters led by a boy called Jack.
But things begin to go wrong. Jack and his hunters think they are more important than others and begun to act in a dictatorial way. Some of the hunters are cruel, bullying the younger boys. There are disagreements in the boys’ government. On one hand there is Jack, and on the other hand there is Piggy, the intellectual. He is the voice of reason throughout the novel. But clever as he may be, he is not popular, and he is certainly not as well liked as “strong man” Jack and his hunters.
Between Jack and Piggy, there is Ralph. He is good-natured but weak. Sometimes he sides with Piggy, sometimes with Jack. He gradually loses his respect and power.
在争夺小岛领导权的过程中，本来应是“世外桃源”的小岛最终变成了“地狱”，而造成这一悲剧的却是孩子们自己。其实，书中的“野兽”或是“蝇王”到底是什么似乎并不重要，它们仅仅代表着人类本能的邪恶一面而已。不难看出，受战争影响的戈尔丁对人性充满了失望与沮丧。
A key turning point in the novel happens after a battle in the air over the island. A paratrooper has been killed, and he hangs from a tree by his parachute. The boys think he is a monster. Jack and the hunters say that they will protect the other boys from the monster.
The paradise of the beginning of the story, when the boys thought their lives on this beautiful, sunny island would be nothing but endless fun, becomes violent and terrifying.
It becomes clear that Golding has a point to make in the novel: A civilized society is only skin-deep. Even educated English boys, left to themselves, become savages. They turn to war as surely as the adults who fight each other in the battles have done.
背景知识：
那么，到底什么是“蝇王”呢？“蝇王”即“苍蝇之王”，源自《旧约·圣经》中古希伯来语Beelzebub一词，意思是“污物之王”。在小说里，“蝇王”不只是悬挂着的猪头，“野兽”也不只是一具苍蝇横飞的尸体，他们更象征着孩子们心中的邪恶和人性中最深层的黑暗面。
What is the “Lord of the Flies”? Following a fight between planes over the island, a paratrooper has fallen to earth and gotten caught up in the branches of a tree. He is found dead and thought by Jack and his hunters to be a monster. They then try to please this “monster”. Later a character called Simon finds a pig’s head that has been used by Jack and offered to the “monster”. He calls it the Lord of the Flies. The words are a translation of “Beelzebub”, which is a word for a demon from the Old Testament of the Bible. In the Christian tradition, this demon became Satan, or the Devil, God’s great enemy. Simon himself has seen the “monster” and understands that it is only a dead body. He also understands that the evil is not “out there” but in the boys themselves.
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