Lord of the Flies by William Golding

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Lord of the Fliesby William Golding
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• William Golding (1911-1993)
• Born in Cornwall, England
• Son of a schoolmaster
• Published a book of poems in college
• Became a teacher in 1939, a the start of WWII
• Joined the Royal Navy in 1940 participated in
  D-Day landing

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• Writing Influences
• WWII was turning point
• War experiences influenced his dark views about
  human nature
• I began to see what people were capable of
  doing. Where did the second world war come from?
  Was it made by something inhuman and alienor was
  it made by chaps with eyes and legs and hearts?

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• Lord of the Flies
• On a literal level, Lord of the Flies deals with
  what happens to a group of boys stranded on an
  island with no adult supervision.
• On a symbolic level, Lord of the Flies
  investigates what happens to civilized people
  when the structures of civilization disappear.

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• Lord of the Flies
• Based on the 1857 English novel, The Coral Island
  by Robert Michael Ballantyne
• The characters in Ballantynes novel live in
  harmony and happiness the characters in
  Goldings novel do not live in harmony and order.
• an attempt to trace the defects of society back
  to the defects of human nature.

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• As you read, pay attention to
• Setting
• Conflict
• Characters
• Character motivation
• Symbolism
• Suspense
• Irony