Lord of the Flies

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Lord of the Flies Background Information
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You may want to consider taking some notes
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Now would be a good time to start that
note-taking thing
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Just a suggestion. What do I know? Im just the
teacher.
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William Golding

• Born in Cornwall, England in 1911
• He studied English and physics at Oxford
• He faced the atrocities of war
• Living through the First World war
• Joined the British Navy in 1940 (WWII)

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William Golding
Lord of the Flies was published in 1954 Booker
McConnel Prize (British Literature) Nobel Prize
(1983) Died in Wiltshire, England 1993
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Themes

• The most obvious of the themes is man has a great
  need for the construct of civilization. Contrary
  to the belief that man is innocent and society
  evil, the story shows that laws and rules,
  policemen and schools are necessary to keep the
  darker side of human nature in line. When these
  institutions and concepts slip away or are
  ignored, human beings revert to a more primitive
  part of their nature.

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Themes

• Evil (the beast) is within man himself.
• Golding implies that the loss of innocence has
  little to do with age but is related to a
  person's understanding of human nature. It can
  happen at any age or not at all. Painful though
  it may be, this loss of innocence by coming to
  terms with reality is necessary if humanity is to
  survive.

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Themes

• Fear of the unknown on the island revolves around
  the boys' terror of the beast. The recognition
  that no real beast exists, that there is only the
  power of fear, is one of the deepest meanings of
  the story.

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Is the novel realistic?

• Golding establishes a sense of reality by his
  descriptions of the boys and by the language of
  their conversations with each other.
• The boys have ordinary physical attributes and
  mannerisms of young boys. The group includes a
  variety of physical types short, tall, dark,
  light, freckled, tow-headed, etc.

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Is the novel realistic?

• To stress the universality of their later
  actions, Golding takes great pains to present the
  boys as normal. The littluns suck their
  thumbs, eat sloppily, etc., while the older ones
  rolling about the sand, stand on their heads, and
  swim.

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Is the novel realistic?

• Even their unkindness to Piggy is credible for
  children often display a natural cruelty to
  anyone they consider different or inferior.
• Nor does their metamorphosis from ordinary
  schoolboys into bloodthirsty savages seem
  unlikely, for Golding has taken the descent one
  step at a time.

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Characters as Symbols

• Simon - mystic, Religious side of man.
  Understands good and evil but no communication.
• Samneric - incapable of acting independently.
  They represent loss of identity through fear of
  the beast.

• Ralph - common sense, and responsibility
• Jack - immediate gratification and irresponsible
  authority
• Piggy - ineffective intellectualism

• Dead parachutist - the sign, evil developing on
  the island

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Characters as Symbols

• Each of the characters represents a part of man
• Good
• Evil
• Spiritual
• Intellectual
• Adventurous
• WHAT ELSE?

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Objects as Symbols

• Conch shell - law and order. The shell looses
  authority as anarchy grows. The conch fades in
  color and power. Its power is broken with the
  fall of piggy.

• Lord of the Flies -Refers to the head of the pig
  which Jack has left as an offering to the
  beast. Literal translation of the Beelzebub,
  prince of demons. Symbolizes mans capacity for
  evil

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Objects as Symbols

• Huts - represent the desire to preserve
  civilization when Jack gains power they move
  into caves like the animals they have become.

• Fire - its use divides civilization from
  savagery. Ralph uses it for hope Jack for
  cooking. It is Jacks group that allows the fire
  (hope) to go out

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Objects as symbols

• Piggys glasses - They signify mans ability to
  perceive, to think. That thought can be misused
  for destructive purpose is shown when Piggys
  glasses are used to smoke Ralph out.

• Night and Darkness -
• an archetypal symbol of evil, the powers of
  darkness. The boys would have recognized the
  chutist in the daylight, as would they have
  Simon. The beast is more real at night

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Objects as Symbols

• Face paint - The paint helps the boys hide from
  their own consciences, turning them into
  anonymous savages who are freed from the
  restraints of civilized behavior.

• Stick sharpened on both ends - Represents how
  much evil has taken the boys over. First it was
  used to offer the beast the pig sacrifice next
  to offer it Ralphs.

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Jack

• Jack, chief representative of evil in the
  novel, is too inhibited by societys teachings to
  teachings to slay the piglet the first day, he
  later progresses to exhilaration in his first
  kill.

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Jack

• Eventually he comes to kill for the sheer thrill
  of slaughter rather than the need for meat, and
  this becomes the motive for hunting.

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Ralph

• Ralph is a tall, blond twelve year old,
  establishes himself as the leader of the boys
  when he blows the conch shell to call the first
  assembly. Throughout the story, he struggles to
  maintain order and is forced to compete with Jack
  for respect.

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Ralph

• A dynamic character is one who undergoes a change
  during the story because he learns a truth or
  comes to a realization about himself.
• Ralph is such a character.

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Original Character

• 1. Enjoys the absence of adults on the island
• 2. Popular
• 3. Indifferent to Piggy
• 4. Enjoys the island
• 5. Likes Jack
• 6. Trusts others
• 7. Refuses to accept the beast.

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What changes him

• 1. Decay of order
• 2. Insistence on rules
• 3. Need for intelligence
• 4. Brutal behavior revealed
• 5. Savagery in Jack
• 6. Betrayed by all
• 7. Savagery in himself and other

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Character changed

• 1. Wishes adults were present on the island
• 2. An outcast
• 3. Appreciates and misses Piggy
• 4. Hates the island
• 5. Fears Jack
• 6. Trusts no one
• 7. Knows the beast is within