LORD OF THE FLIES William Golding

1
LORD OF THE FLIESWilliam Golding

• David E. Sheppard, Instructor
• English 12
• Horton High School

2
Part One
William Golding
3
(No Transcript)
4
A group of British schoolboys become stranded on
an isolated coral island, somewhere . . .
5
(No Transcript)
6
(No Transcript)
7
We meet a group of decent, civilized young boys .
. .
8
Our students have exciting social events . . .
9
(No Transcript)
10
Ralph.
11
PIGGY.
Simon.
12
JACK
13
The LORD of the Flies
14
OR Beelzebub?
15
(No Transcript)
16
The Lord of the Flies has been reprinted again
and again, with millions of copies sold.
17
It has been a staple in North American high
schools and colleges for over 40 years.
18
The novel has become a cultural icon, the source
of allusions from serious literature to The
Simpsons!
19
William Golding Born Cornwall 1911 Published Lord
of the Flies in 1954 Nobel Prize 1983 Met Shep
1985 Knighted 1988 Died Cornwall 1993
20
Guess whos coming to dinner?
21
This is how Mr. Golding felt before his dinner
with Mr. Sheppard!
22
Lord of the Flies

• Why study this novel from 1954?
• What can it possibly say for us?
• Why did its author win the Nobel Prize for
  Literature in 1983?
• Why was he knighted in 1988?

23
PART TWO
INFLUENCES
24
Who knows what EVIL lurks in this Garden of Eden?
25
I was sitting one side of the fire and Ann was
sitting the other, and I had just been reading a
God-awful book . . . To David--a book about boys
on an island. . . . I remember saying to Ann,
Oh, Im so tired of this business. Wouldnt it
be fun to write a book about boys on an island
and see what really happens? And she said,
Thats an awfully good idea. You do that. So I
got a piece of paper and started to work out the
story . . . (William Golding)
26
A careful reading of THE LORD OF THE FLIES
reveals that Golding was influenced, as any
writer is, by other writers, thinkers, and world
events.
27
Goldings primary inspiration was the 1860s
schoolboy novel, Coral Island by R.M. Ballantyne.
28
Coral Island is the story of three English
schoolboys who are stranded on a coral island and
must use their superior British wits to survive.
29
The boys are captured by fearsome PIRATES who
threaten their lives. Only one of these pirates
survived . . . . . . .
30
To Terrorize students at Horton High School 150
years later . . . . . .
31
Fierce cannibals attack the boys . . . BUT, as
Jean Paul Sartre said, WHO ARE THE SAVAGES?
32
There are two film versions of the novel, one
British and one American.
33
(No Transcript)
34
(No Transcript)
35
Young Golding was much influenced by his
experiences in World War 2.
36
Professor Sigmund Freud, the Father of
psychoanalysis, made an impact on Goldings
novel, with its veiled references to the Oedipus
Complex, and dreams.
37
The Philosopher, Henri Bergson, investigated
INTUITIVE INTROSPECTION, which may have helped
Golding to create the character SIMON in the
novel.
Henri Bergson
38
Another great influence on William Golding was
the Polish/English novelist Joseph Conrad, author
of THE HEART OF DARKNESS and LORD JIM.
39
JOSEPH CONRAD
40
THE HEART OF DARKNESS inspired the great film,
APOCALYPSE NOW, about the War in Vietnam.
41
(No Transcript)
42
The LORD of the Flies
43
PART THREE
Rescue?
44
(No Transcript)