Like a million other people, I can’t get over a good book days after I have finished reading it. No I am not talking about the Harry Potter mania here (though I knew my childhood was over the moment I flipped the last page of Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows). I am rather talking about the urge to step back in time and follow every word a certain author is writing, every thought in his mind. ‘Cause his book has answered your unasked questions in ways no one could.
I just finished reading “ Lord of the Flies” by William Golding. Published back in 1954, the book revolves around a group of school students who find themselves abandoned on an island after a plane crash. Images from “Lost” swarming your head? Well, mine too. My research tells me, the television series was probably inspired by the book. The plot is predictable (at least in this era of terrorism): scared, confused children struggling for survival. The struggle that robs them of their innocence and leaves them with blood tainted hands.
Listed as one of the best and also as one of the most disturbing novels of all time, the book, in its own way, made me realize how the human society functions.
Inside all of us, lies a beast. A beast that makes us loath, makes us jealous. It makes us fear the dark at nights, fear something we can’t see. It’s a part of us. What else causes the tendency to hurt someone when wronged? Or dislike someone just because you have dissimilar interests? The feelings are subdued and in most cases, the violent urges not put to action. Yet we cannot rebuff that there IS a struggle between being civil and being savage.
The invisible boundaries of the society however, tame the beast and keep it from running loose. The cycle of acceptable behavior, rules and punishments keep us from unmasking the evil within us. Like Sigmund Freud puts it: the primal urges persist and also guide us, though unconsciously
Amid the fictional world and ours, nonetheless lies a difference. Unlike the book, the human society still exists, does not transform to an isolated island. There is restlessness in spite of the civilization, and we hunt even though we could do without a roasted pig for dinner. ‘Cause there is fear. So much so that it drives us to inhumanity.
I am myself unsure as to why I am writing about something so dark here. I guess it’s because I helplessly exist as part of a terror soaked human race. Because I still shudder when I hear about one of the hundreds of bomb blasts or when for the umpteenth time I read about a child stabbing his friend. Because in the town I live, a curfew replaces the hustle-bustle by 8pm and the army patrols, saving us from eternal danger.
When actually, we are all just struggling with ourselves.
But when everything seems to be falling apart, there is the thin thread of hope that we can always hold on to. In the book, the children constantly hope for a ship to come rescue them back to their homes, away from the forsaken island. Perhaps someday a ship will sail us to the realization that we have a choice: the choice to kill the beast within us. And may be, not all innocence will be lost.
I had precisely the same thoughts when I saw Avator. Like you deem this book, even the movie was quite predictable but it really made me pause and think - what if really something like this happened? wouldn't we humans function the same way as the ones in the movie? wouldn't we too destroy something as beautiful as this for our own selfish gain?
ReplyDeletesometimes, the inhuman nature of our race scares me.
P.S. loved the post! <3
Yes, exactly! A movie that covers the same subject but is wrapped with special effects and 3D graphics is applauded. But we debate over a book perhaps because it leaves the visualisation to our imagination. Deep down we are all scared.
ReplyDeleteAnd Thank you. :)