Exploring Themes and Symbolism in William Golding's Lord of the Flies
William Golding's novel, Lord of the Flies, delves into the inherent struggle between good and evil, the loss of innocence, and the impact of societal constructs on human nature. Through symbolism, allusions, and literary techniques, Golding paints a vivid picture of a group of boys stranded on an island, revealing the complexities of human behavior and the fragility of civilization. The narrative explores themes of identity, survival, and the darkness within, providing insights into the depths of human nature.
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On Writing Lord of the Flies It was simply what seemed sensible for me to write after the war when everyone was thanking God they weren t Nazis. I d seen enough to realize that every single one of us could be Nazis. --William Golding
Goldings Message The theme is an attempt to trace the defects of society back to the defects of human nature. --William Golding
Themes for Annotation: good vs. evil (inherent) loss of innocence mob mentality nature vs. nurture identity survival of the fittest inner beast society as civilizing factor Things fall apart Fear of the unknown (The Beast Within)
Allusions Use of the names Ralph and Jack as the main characters from The Coral Island. Simon from the Bible Simon called Peter , Peter was the other boy s name in The Coral Island Mention of Coral Island and Treasure Island Numerous biblical allusions throughout
In Goldings day a popular boys adventure story was The Coral Island A story most boys and adults in England would be familiar with.
The Coral Island Written in 1858 A group of boys gets stranded on a deserted, tropical island The major characters are Jack, Ralph, and Peterkin It s an adventure story with a happy ending Other examples of children ruling without adults?
Goldings Literary Technique Heavy use of symbolism Irony Realism Abundant imagery and sensory detail Figurative Language Simile Metaphor Personification
Symbols Scar Conch Specs Snake Pig Fire Huts The Beast (imaginary?) Lord of the Flies Littleuns
Notes on Lord of the Flies The Characters 1. Ralph civilization Good-natured, fair, uses common sense 2. Jack savagery Uses fear and threats to control the boys 3. Simon spirituality Most spiritual character, not afraid to go alone into the jungle, understands the reality of the beast
Notes on Lord of the Flies The Characters 4. Piggy wisdom; order; technology; vision The most intelligent on the island, outcast, outsider, target 5. Roger Spear the cruelest character, uses brute force at whim, represents the worst in people when there is no society to keep people in check
Notes on Lord of the Flies For Consideration: Simon as a Christ figure : and confronts evil. Simon feeds, prophesizes, withdraws, fasts, is tormented Simon goes alone into the jungle
Notes on Lord of the Flies For Consideration: Lord of the Flies A literal translation of Beelzebub, a Hebrew name for the devil. The Lord of the Flies represents the incarnation of evil itself.
Notes on Lord of the Flies For Consideration: Natural Goodness of Man Theory: Left to themselves, humans would live good lives, and it is the influence of civilization that corrupts people.
Notes on Lord of the Flies For Consideration: Golding has said that Lord of the Flies is an attempt to trace the defects of society back to the defects of human nature. He acknowledges evil as a force that lurks within every person.
Days One and Two Group Work: Study guides and Secondary Sources Class discussion on findings: * Golding s inspirations? * Group discussion Qs *Vocab * Articles
Chapter 1: The Sound of the Shell Symbolism of shedding clothes? Namelessness? Scar Ralph stood on his head (10) Page 11-realistic? How are they still children? A lot of talk of shadows Made up words Sam and Eric (18) Jack and the Choir (19, 22) Kids are horrible (20, 23) Ralph as leader. Why? (21) Simon and fainting (22, 23) Why no girls? Why only 12 and under?
Chapter 1 Quotes (Do you guys have any?) No grownups (Ralph 8) As he received the assurance of something purposeful being done (3P 17) There s no man with a trumpet. Only me (Ralph 19) He hovered between the two courses of apology or further insult (3P 23) Ralph, faced by the task of translating ll this into an explanation, stood on his head (3P 23-24) This belongs to us (Ralph 27) peacock water (3P 27) The pause was only long enough (3P 29)
All of Goldings novel takes place on the remote tropical island.
Chapter 2: Fire on the Mountain Democracy The Beastie in the Dark Would you want to be rescued? Fire and inability to light it, keep it lit Simon What s up with the conch already? Trying to maintain time and order (40) Thoughts on Piggy? How many little uns are there? Mulberry kid?
Chapter Two Quotes (Do you guys have any?) But I tell you there isn t a beast! (Ralph 34) After all, we re not savages. We re English (Jack 40) One patch touched a tree trunk and scrambled up like a bright squirrel (3P 41). Piggy glanced nervously into hell and cradled the conch (3P 41) Snakes! Snakes! Look at the snakes! (Boys 43)
Chapter 3: Huts on the Beach Time has gone by Tension builds Simon as Jesus? Hunters or hunted? Is this chapter realistic? The Fire Candle buds
C3 Quotes (Do you guys have any?) -the promise of meat. (O3 45) They talk and scream. The littleuns. Even some of the others. As if- (R 47) As if what? But we want meat! (J 49) He wanted to explain how people were never quite what you thought they were (O3 50) They walked along, two continents of experience and feeling, unable to communicate (O3 50) beef sounds (O3 52)
Chapter 4: Painted Faces and Long Hair Percival, Johnny, Henry, and the littleuns Roger and Maurice Sadism (schadenfreude) Masks Piggy is a tacit outsider (59) Piggy s specs The fire and the hunt Where is the Beast? Savagery vs. Civilization
C4 Quotes (Do you guys have any?) There were creatures that lived in this last fling of the sea, tiny transparencies that came questing in (O3 55) Roger s arm was conditioned by a civilization that knew nothing of him and was in ruins (O3 56) The fire was dead (O3 60) There was a ship (R 64) Kill the Pig. Cut her throat. Spill her blood (Hunters 62) You should have seen the blood! (J 64) Passions beat about Simon on the mountain top with broken wings (O3 65)
Loss of Innocence Springy logs (70) Politics (71) Dirty Things fall apart Ralph sadly wiser (83) No beast Cos things wouldn t make sense Houses an (P 83) Irony of the kids faith in grownups
C5 Quotes (Do you guys have any?) He found himself understanding the wearisomeness of this life waking life was spent watching one s feet (O3P 69) -what was a face (O3P 70) Things are breaking up (R 74) There aren t any beasts to be afraid of on this island (J 75) Percival Wemys Madison would not shut up (O3P 78) The sea an unknown indigo of infinite possibility (O3P 79) Jack says you can be frightened because people are frightened anyway (M 79) Simon became inarticulate in his effort to express mankind s essential illness (O3P 80) Bollocks to the rules (J 83) Fat lot of good we are. Three blind mice. (R 84)
Chapter 6: Beast from Air The sign from the world of grown ups? True unadulterated fear? Samneric. Are they lying ? Fear + hunting spears (or _____) Things fall apart Piggy! Who can relate to Simon? (bottom of 93)
C6 Quotes (Do you guys have any?) Soon the darkness was full of claws, full of the awful and unknown menace (O3P 89) The beast followed us- (SE 90) One of my faves: However Simon thought of the beast, there rose before his inward sight the picture of a human at once heroic and sick (O3P 93) And: Soon, in a matter of centuries (O3P 95)
On board: Individual: You re stranded on a beautiful island. No adults. Will you make it? What have you got to bring to the table? Is this going to be paradise? How are your flaws revealed?
On board: Group: You re stranded together on a beautiful island. No adults. Who will make it? Who will not? Will this be paradise? How are your flaws revealed?
Chapter 7: Shadows and Tall Trees https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0gbmRSDTU0c Ralph matures. Is self conscious Simon Ralph reminisces (beautiful realism 102) Ralph likes hunting Berengaria Sadism and Bacchanalia Savagery and Civilization(ish) and the male ego
C7 Quotes (Do you guys have any?) Not one of them was an obvious suspect for a shower, and yet- (O3P 99) You ll get back alright (S 101) there were droppings that steamed. Jack bent down to them as though he loved them (O3P 101) Use a littleun (J 104) Ralph looked back at Jack, seeing him, infuriatingly, for the first time (O3P 107) Why do you hate me? (R 107) A stain in the darkness, a stain that was Jack (O3P 109) the darkness and desperate enterprise gave the night a kind of dentist's chair unreality (O3P 111)
Chapter 8: Gift for the Darkness Who s got the conch? Clever power shift. Almost. Piggy happy. Pure. Bacchanalia. Roger. The Beast. The Lord of the Flies. Civilization is struggling Simon
C8 Quotes (Do you guys have any?) The beast had teeth, said Ralph, and big black eyes. So we can t have a signal fire. . . We re beaten. Talk, said Ralph bitterly, talk, talk, talk. He laid the conch with great care in the grass at his feet. The humiliating tears were running from the corner of each eye (O3) This is sad: I m not going to play any longer. Not with you. (J) This is funny: Piggy was so full of delight and expanding liberty in Jack s departure, so full of pride in his contribution to the good of society, that he helped to fetch wood. (O3) He s cracked. (P)
Each of them wore the remains of a black cap and ages ago they had stood in two demure rows and their voices had been the song of angels (O3) They agreed passionately out of the depths of their tormented private lives (O3) The pigs lay, bloated bags of fat, sensuously enjoying the shadows under the trees (O3) and the hunters followed, wedded to her in lust, excited by the long chase and the dropped blood (O3) The butterflies still danced, (O3) Gorged, they alighted by his runnels of sweat and drank. They tickled under his nostrils and played leapfrog on his thighs. They were black and iridescent green and without number; and in front of Simon, the Lord of the Flies hung on his stick and grinned. (O3)
Cant they see? Cant they understand? Without the smoke signal we ll die here? Look at that! (P) No, not it. . . I mean. . . what makes things break up like they do? (R) Fancy thinking the Beast was something you could hunt and kill! said the head. (LOF)
Chapter 9: A View to a Death The Bacchae How is first paragraph foreshadowing? Simon as Jesus? Flies Storm brewing Mob mentality Other themes?
C9 Quotes (Do you guys have any?) preferring the pig s high flavor (O3P 132) The beast was harmless and horrible (O3P 134) Jack sat there like an idol (O3P 135) Piggy was more was the center of social derision so that everyone felt cheerful and normal (O3P 136) Evening was come, not with calm beauty but with the threat of violence (O3P 136) this demented but partly secure society (O3P 138) Him! Him! (boys 137) The sticks fell and the mouth of the new circle crunched and screamed (O3P 137) how small a beast it was (O3 137)
Chapter 10: The Shell and the Glasses Savages Ralph is forgetting. They are al forgetting. Sam. And Eric. Piggy s glasses
C10 Quotes (Do you guys have any?) Nowadays he sometimes found that he saw more clearly if he removed his glasses (O3P141) Simon (R 141) I m frightened. Of us. (R) He s going to beat Wilfred (Robert 145) He ceased to work at his tooth and sat still, assimilating the possibilities of irresponsible authority (O3P145) Ralph settled himself for his nightly game of supposing (O3P 150) The attraction of wildness was gone (150) Desperately, Ralph prayed that the beast would prefer littleuns (O3P 151) I got mixed up with myself in a corner (Sam 152)
Chapter 11: Castle Rock Can t get the fire lit Piggy s speech (156) Roger The hangman s horror clung round him. (165) Poor Samneric
C 11 Quotes (Do you guys have any?) Piggy sat expressionless behind the luminous wall of his myopia (O3P 154) Are we savages or what? (R 155) What s grownups goin to think? (P 155) Piggy s passionate willingness to carry the conch against all odds (156) They understood only too well the liberation into savagery that the concealing paint brought (O3P 157) Jack, identifiable by personality and red hair (160) The shivering, silvery, unreal laughter of the savages Samneric protested out of the heart of civilization Below him, Ralph was a shock of hair and Piggy was a bag of fat (O3P) Which is better, law and rescue, or hunting and breaking things up? (P) Roger advanced upon them as one wielding a nameless authority
Chapter 12: Cry of the Hunters You tell me.
Lord of the Flies in Pop Culture In Hook, Robin Williams compares Lost Boys to savages in LOTF The Simpsonsepisode Das Bus is a parody http://www.simpsonsworld.com/video/448356931860 Inspiration for the anime series Infinite Ryvius Mel Gibson s 2006 movie Apocalypto has a similar ending. T.V. shows Survivor and Lost are said to have been inspired from LOTF 2006 movie Unaccompanied Minors makes reference to LOTF
Popular Culture Cont. Stephen King uses the name Castle Rock (from the novel) as the name of a town in his books. He also makes reference to LOTF in the novels The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon, Cujo and Hearts in Atlantis Orson Scott Card makes reference in his novel, Ender s Shadow. Hook
