INTRODUCTION TO LORD OF THE FLIES

Essential Questions

• What is “Survival of the Fittest”?• What are the reasons we have laws?• What things are important in creating

a civilization?• What are the qualities of a good

leader?

WILLIAM GOLDING

• Born 1911• Village of St.

Columb Minor in Cornwall, England

• After graduation Golding became a settlement house worker and wrote plays

WILLIAM GOLDING

• 1939-Moved to Salisbury

• Taught English at Bishop Wordsworth’s School

GOLDING DURING WWII

• Served in the Royal Navy

• Involved in the sinking of the German battleship Bismarck

• Participated in the Normandy Invasion

GOLDING AFTER WWII

• Returned to writing and teaching with a dark view of humanity and its progress.

• His novel Lord of the Flies, set in the near future during wartime, was turned down by 21 publishers, until it finally appeared in 1954.

GOLDING’S VIEW. . . .

• Is pessimistic: human nature is inherently corruptible and wicked.

• The 20th century’s ideals of progress and education are based on false premises.

• Human nature is not changed; it is only disguised or controlled.

This is represented in the book because….• Although the boys have been taught

social skills, their desire to kill is unleashed when there are no strict rules to control their behavior.

• They live in the world of freedom, that is ruled by savages and the ultimate evil…the Lord of the Flies.

Information about Lord of the Flies

Themes

The most obvious of the themes is man's need for 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.

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.

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.

They’re the real thing

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.

...They’re the real thing

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 roll around in the sand, stand on their heads, and swim.

...They’re the real thing

Even their unkindness to Piggy is credible, for children often display a “natural cruelty to anyone they consider different or inferior.”

Characters as symbols

Ralph=common sense, and responsibility

Jack=immediate gratification and irresponsible authority

Piggy=ineffective intellectualism

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.

Characters as symbols

Dead parachutist= the “sign,” evil developing on the island

Each of the characters represents a part of man.

...Characters as symbols

We all have good, evil, common sense, intelligence, a sense of nature within us.

Objects as symbols

Conch shell law and order.

The Island A microcosm

representing the world

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 man’s capacity for evil

Objects as symbols

Huts represent the desire

to preserve civilization

The Scar Man’s destruction

Fire its use divides

civilization from savagery. Ralph uses it for hope; Jack for cooking.

Objects as symbols

Piggy’s glasses They signify man’s

ability to perceive, to think.

Night and Darkness an archetypal symbol

of evil, “the powers of darkness.”