Lord of the Flies

1. Lord of the Flies William Golding

2. “It was what simply seemed 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…”

3. Key Terms Allegory- a literary or visual work that uses symbolic figures, actions, or objects to make a larger point about life In LF, the characters and events all take on a larger meaning. Dystopian literature- genre used to explore social and political structures in dark, nightmarish worlds Dystopia- a highly imperfect world where everything becomes rather nightmarish and dark

4. Omniscient narrator- the voice in which a story is written that is outside the story but that knows everything about all the characters and events in the story

5. Ch.1- The Sound of the Shell • Group of British boys (5-12) suffer a plane crash, arriving on a ‘jungle island.’ • Ralph- first character introduced, then Piggy

6. World War II (and even the Cold War) are alluded to (mentioned) in the novel. • Golding served in the British Navy during WWII. His experiences motivated him to write this dark novel.

7. Exposition (Setting) • Mid 1940s/50s, entire outside world is at war • Piggy: “Didn’t you hear what the pilot said about the atom bomb? They’re all dead…”…. • World outside island- CHAOS

8. How/why did they get here? • A plane mistaken for military aircraft has been shot down….. • (The British actually did fear an invasion and did evacuate children to other countries during the war).

9. Ralph • “Fair boy” (light-haired) • Athletic- good swimmer • Somewhat of a kind face “mildness about his mouth and eyes” (10) (His physical appearance has much to do with how the boys respond to him)….

10. Piggy • “very fat” • wears glasses (“specs”) • short • suffers from asthma “ass-mar”

11. Piggy as a Target….. • Notice how Ralph immediately responds to Piggy- not nice to him • Piggy suggests they hold a meeting, take an inventory of survivors, etc • Ralph (and everyone else) never gives Piggy the credit he deserves….. • Why does he laugh at Piggy?...

12. Ralph can be Naïve…. • Piggy: “We may stay here til we die…” • Ralph- not as sophisticated a thinker as Piggy- thinks his dad, a Navy Commander, will rescue them…. • Piggy recognizes usefulness of the “creamy…pink” conch: it can be used to call meetings. • Ralph ‘steals’ his idea….

13. Cast of Characters • Jack Merridew- redhead, hostile, threatening, leader of choir, symbolically leads band of boys dressed in black- constantly mean to Piggy • Roger, a “dark boy” • Simon- innocent, sweet, peaceful, loves nature • Rest of boys- ‘littuns’: Sam and Eric (twins), Johnny, random others….

14. The Plot Thickens… • Who will be chief? (first conflict) • Jack and Ralph compete, but Ralph wins, mostly because of his appearance and commanding personality and because he has the conch! • Jack- leader of hunters (compromise) • “So we’ve got to decide if this is an island…” • Jack, Ralph, and Simon lead an expedition. Piggy not invited to join

15. Jack and the PigHis inability to kill the pig foreshadows his later ruthlessness and dark nature.“They knew very well why he hadn’t….because of the unbearable blood…” (31)

16. Allusion & Genre • Titles of island adventure books (Ralph: Treasure Island) • Title itself is an allusion (reference to the devil) • Genre: Allegory-story loaded with symbolism. Characters and events all take on a larger meaning.

17. Symbolism in LF • “Pink” : innocenceas seen in the conch, Piggy himself, nature, the hunted pig • littuns sucking their “pink” thumbs, “pink” rocks on island, Piggy’s face, scared pig they hunt. • Scar (site of plane crash): entrance of evil onto the island • Conch: order, democracy, rationality, civilized authority

18. Ch.2- The Sound of the Shell • Conch- firmly established as a symbol of order. • Ralph: Only those who hold the conch can speak. • Island still has order; boys are not yet savage. Freshwater is present as well as pigs, which will be their main food source. • Piggy continues to be the voice of reason and rationality. • “Nobody knows where we are.”

19. Ch.2- The Sound of the Shell • Boy with the mulberry colored birthmark tries to tell the group that there is a “beastie” on the island. • Ralph dismisses him. Piggy is only sympathetic one. • Responses among the boys: concern, confusion, some fear • Ralph: “We must make a fire.”

20. Ch.2- The Sound of the Shell • Boys are thrilled at idea of fire- first indication of their potential savagery. • Piggy tries to make sure boy w/ mulberry colored birthmark is heard. Piggy is kind and sympathetic, can relate to the idea of being ignored.  • Jack suggests using Piggy’s glasses to start fire. Piggy is surrounded aggressively. • Jack’s responsibilities: hunting, fire, keeping lookout for ships

21. Ch.2- The Sound of the Shell • Fire erupts, goes out of control (44) • First signs of outright disorder. • “The crowd was as silent as death.” Why? • boy with the mulberry colored birthmark- Presumably killed by fire- no one hears from him again…

22. Inciting Incident(also called exciting force) • Early event in a literary work that drives all the action that follows • The inciting incident/exciting force in LF: Boy w/ mulberry birthmark is presumably killed in the fire that rages out of control (end of Ch. 2)

23. Ch.3 Huts on the Beach • Jack- increasingly obsessed with the idea of hunting. Recall his humiliation at failing to kill the pig at the end of Ch. 1. • “The madness came into his eyes again…” • Ralph complains that Jack is not doing his duty; he and Simon are only ones really committed to building shelters for everyone. They argue about this and Jack’s obsession with finding meat, and the antagonism (tension/conflict) between them is sharp. (50)

24. Ch.3 Huts on the Beach • Littluns are becoming unstable and fearful, mostly b/c of the talk of the “beastie.” Ralph & Jack agree on this, but notice how they butt heads. A power struggle develops between them. • Significance of Simon: symbolic of pure goodness, innocence, spirituality, quiet authority • Always peaceful, relates to Piggy, frequently found in nature…

25. Ch.4 Painted Faces & Long Hair • Events are getting increasingly stranger on the island: strange optical illusions that are occurring. “Sometimes land loomed where there was no land and flicked out like a bubble as the children watched….Piggy discounted all this…” (58) • Littuns spend their day playing, running around, suffer from diarrhea, “untold terrors.” (59)

26. Ch.4 Painted Faces & Long Hair • Percival Wemys Madison- 1st littun to go nutty. • Henry: “distant relative of boy with mulberry colored birthmark” • Johnny: yet another littun’ • Maurice & Roger reappears (“dark boy”)- Ch.1- both Jack’s sidekick

27. Ch.4 Painted Faces & Long Hair • Roger is jerky and a bully like Jack. • “Roger led the way straight through the castles, kicking them over, burying the flowers, scattering the chosen stones.” (60)- mean to littuns • Throws stones at Henry, aiming to miss….

28. Ch.4 Painted Faces & Long Hair • “Here invisible yet strong was the taboo of the old life.” (60) • Roger knows his actions toward littuns are wrong; he (and Maurice) still have some innocence left, some influence of past lives upon them. • Jack’s presence causes Roger to think about his actions. • Jack’s face painting- declining into savagery

29. Ch.4 Painted Faces & Long Hair • Jack’s obsession with hunting has cost the group greatly (missed a chance at being rescued). • Ralph: “They let the bloody fire go out.” • Jack let fire go out as ship passed by. • Jack does not seem to realize what he has done because he is delighted with himself. Why?.... • Piggy to Jack: “You didn’t ought to have let that fire go out…” • Jack becomes enraged, punching Piggy in the gut, breaking his glasses. (71)

30. Ch.4 Painted Faces & Long Hair • Maurice pretends to be a pig as the boys chant: • “Kill the pig. Cut her throat. Bash her in.” (75) – repeated throughout- also “Spill his blood!”

31. Ch.5 Beast From Water • Colloquialism: word, phrase used in everyday speaking, similar to slang Notice British colloquialisms in boys’ speech- esp Piggy’s and Jack’s. (lower class) • Ellipsis: use of punctuation (…) to show words/text that have been left out. • Associated w/ Ralph’s speech and narration describing him: he is frustrated

32. Ch.5 Beast From Water • Ralph:“I can’t think…like Piggy” (78) • Recognizes Piggy is sharp, perceptive, has good ideas • Leaders have to be “wise”, able to make good decisions, think quickly, critically and with an eye on strategy… • Ralph increasingly disgusted: Boys are not keeping lavatories clean, peeing anywhere, water supplies decreasing, not keeping fire going (79, 80)

33. Ch.5 Beast From Water • “Taken short” (colloquialism) 80 • Boys’ willingness to relieve themselves anywhere shows the extent to which disorder, chaos, and savagery have become theme of life on the island. Ralph: “We nearly set the whole island on fire.” 81 New rule: no fire except on mountain Phil and Percival both come forward: what message do they have for the group?

34. Ch.5 Beast From Water Phil: littun who says he saw something “big” and “horrid” moving in the trees Percival comes forward- seems to be going crazy- recites his full name (Percival Wemys Madison), address, but cannot remember his telephone number He echoes what Phil says.

35. Ch.5 Beast From Water Jack- dismissive, defensive about the beast (There are only pigs on the island). Remember how he had told Ralph, though, that he felt ‘hunted’ in the jungle…. Ralph- rules are important: without them, assemblies are dead. • Ralph: “Because rules are the only things we got!” (91) • Jack: “Bollocks to the rules!” (colloquialism)

36. Ch.5 Beast From Water • Ralph: “If I blow the conch and they don’t come back, then we’ve had it…we’ll be like animals.” (92) He can’t bear the thought of this defeat, senses the group is reaching point of no return. (“breaking up of sanity” 88) • Ralph about the outside, adult world: “If only they could get a message to us.” • What is happening to Percival? (94)- seems very nutty by now….

37. Ch.6 Beast from Air • Introduces dead parachutist floating in from outside world- situational irony: (more examples to follow) • Contrast between what happens and what was expected (or would seem appropriate). • How is Ralph’s wish an example? The sign he gets is certainly not what one would expect….

38. Ch.6 Beast from Air • “But a sign came down from the world of grownups, though at the time there was no child awake to read it.” (95) • Dead parachutist who lands on island is presumably a casualty of war. • He eventually lands on the mountain-top…. • Samneric: “We’ve seen the beast with our own eyes….It was awful…it kind of sat up.” (100) • They believe dead parachutist is the “beast”; the hysteria continues…

39. Ch.6 Beast from Air • Notice how the conch and the authority the boys attach to it has changed: • Jack: “We don’t need the conch anymore.”- foreshadows its later physical destruction • Broken conch symbolizes CHAOS

40. Ch.6 Beast from Water • Simon’s reaction to the beast: Maybe it’s only us (89) & I don’t believe in the beast. (105) • Jack leads the way into the jungle as they search for the beast (103). • Ralph: ‘A strange thing happened in his head. Something flittered there in his mind like a bat’s wing, obscuring his idea.” (107, 8) • He is woken up, reminded that fire signal needs to be maintained if they hope to be rescued.

41. Ch.7 Shadows and Tall Trees • Ralph: “These were the conditions he took as normal now…” (110) • Boys are always disheveled, messy. • One side of island- mirage & lagoon helps one think of being rescued. • Other side of island facing ocean- makes one feel almost in despair

42. Ch.7 Shadows and Tall Trees • Simon- character of innocence & purity- tells Ralph, “You’ll get back to where you came from….I just think you’ll get back all right.” He is a positive force on the island. • Notice how mood changes once they start hunting- Ralph even starts to act savage. • Weird, savage war chant is in effect again • Robert is hurt during the boys’ reenactment of the pig hunt- foreshadowing of later violence enacted on anther character….

43. Ch.7 Shadows and Tall Trees • Ralph, Jack, and Roger go looking for the beast. • The dead parachutist is the “beast” they see at the end of the chapter (123).

44. Ch. 8 A Gift for the Darkness “Beelzebub” is the Greek form of the name “Baal-zebub,” a pagan Philistine god worshiped in the ancient Philistine city of Ekron during the Old Testament times. It is a term signifying “the lord of flies” (2 Kings 1:2). Even archaeological excavations at ancient Philistine sites have uncovered golden images of flies.

45. Ch. 8 A Gift for the Darkness It was later on that the Jews changed the name from “Beelzebub” to “Beelzeboul,” as used in the Greek New Testament, meaning “the lord of dung.” Beelzeboul referenced the god of the fly which was worshiped to obtain deliverance from the injuries of that insect. Some biblical scholars believe it was also known as "the god of filth" which later became a name of bitter scorn in the mouth of the Pharisees. As a result, he [Beelzeboul] was a particularly contemptible deity and was used by the Jews as an epithet for Satan.

46. Ch. 8 A Gift for the Darkness • The phrase Lord of the Flies comes from a Hebrew and a Greek term Beelzebub, a Satanic figure seen in various books of the Bible, namely Kings and Matthew. The term Beelzebub is essentially a name used for Satan and is seen in various forms of medieval literature.

47. Ch. 8 A Gift for the Darkness • Power structure on island is under great strain: • Jack and Ralph continue to fight over key issues: effectiveness of conch, who should be leader, when to hunt, the beast… • Jack tries to have Ralph removed from his position as leader. He is humiliated when the boys don’t really respond so well to this idea.

48. Ch. 8 A Gift for the Darkness • Simon: “I think we ought to climb the mountain.” (128) • Black and red are associated w/ Jack and his hunters- symbolic of violence and darkness • Simon experiences a strange hallucination, optical illusion, when he experiences the pig’s head from the boy’s hunt in the forest. • The pig’s head ‘speaks’ to him- or does it?

49. Ch. 8 A Gift for the Darkness • How is Lord of the Flies an allusion to the devil? • The phrase Lord of the Flies comes from a Hebrew and a Greek term Beelzebub, a Satanic figure seen in the Bible (Matthew 12) and in medieval literature. • Notice how Simon is the one the ‘devil’ speaks to. (137,8 & 143,4) • Simon’s death is foreshadowed as devil speaks to him.

50. Ch. 8 A Gift for the Darkness • Simon’s episode with the talking pig’s head, or Lord of the Flies, is an allusion, a metaphor, a symbol, and even irony. • Black and red continue to be symbolic, repeated colors- associated with Jack, violence, the pig’s head, savagery. • Simon regains consciousness, finds dead parachutist.