Is Lord of the Flies a utopia or a dystopia??

It is dystopian. The boys end up fighting and some die;
hardly an ideal of utopia.

The setting and circumstances
are utopian; children living free of the impositions of adults on an idyllic tropical
island. The fact that the boys crash on a desert island is meant to propose that it is
utopian because they come from a world engaged in atomic war. (The corollary is WWII).
The boys work together at the start but quickly devolve into fighting factions; all
arguing over the rules and fighting over the means of survival; namely Piggy’s
glasses.

Even utopian works can be interpreted as
dystopian. Utopia is an ideal society (so ideal that it is hard to imagine). Fittingly,
it means “no place.” The Lord of the Flies is on an island and this
is a direct reference to Sir Thomas More’s Utopia which was set on
an island. Ralph is a reference to Raphael in More’s book which may be a reference to
the archangel Raphael. In Christianity, Raphael means ‘healer.” In Islam, he is
responsible for signaling Judgment Day by blowing the horn (Sur) to send out a blast of
Truth. This is a clear reference to the conch as the means of restoring order. This also
illustrates that Ralph and Piggy in particular (The Lord of the
Flies) are characters which expose the Truth that this is not a Utopian
island. Both More’s and Golding’s books are satires since they metaphorically comment on
their own historical context. The Lord of the Flies is certainly
dystopian. And some might argue that More’s Utopia is also
dystopian, certainly in historical hindsight because it endorses slavery, severe
punishment for adultery, and euthanasia. So, even utopian ideas tend to be fraught with
contradictions.

Other dystopian novels: Brave New
World, 1984, Anthem, Animal Farm, A Clockwork Orange, The Giver.