Lord of the Flies - key quotations

The boys were a closed circuit of sympathy with Piggy outside.

Piggy is isolated but the other boys are unified.

The enormity of the knife descending and cutting into living flesh...

Jack fails to kill the pig.

This toy of voting...

The boys' initial view of democracy.

The boy who controlled them...

Jack's control and authority over the hunters is clear at his first description.

We got to do something.

Piggy shows his practical and pragmatic nature.

We may stay here till we die.

Piggy shows his clear-sighted realism.

This belongs to us.

Ralph understands that they have power (but also responsibility) over the whole island.

...on the unfriendly side of the mountain, the drum-roll continued.

The sound of the uncontrollable fire destroying the island.

That strange invisible light of friendship, adventure and content.

As the boys build the fire, Ralph feels a connection to Jack.

The conch doesn't count on top of the mountain, so you shut up.

Jack challenges the authority of the conch rule, even though it has only just been made.

We're not savages. We're English; and the English are best at everything.

Jack's jingoistic belief in English superiority.

Acting like a crowd of kids!

Piggy sees himself as different from the other boys - they are children, he is an adult.

With the martyred expression of a parent...

Piggy takes on the role of a suffering adult

This is our island. It's a good island. Until the grown ups come to fetch us we'll have fun.

Ralph believes that their time on the island will be happy and temporary.

We want to be rescued; and of course we shall be rescued.

Ralph shows his confidence and optimism.

Jack... became less a hunter than a furtive thing, ape-like among the tangle of trees.

Desperate to catch a pig, Jack has become like an animal.

They looked at each other, baffled, in love and hate.

Ralph and Jack's love-hate relationship and lack of understanding.

All you can talk about is pig, pig, pig!

Ralph shows his frustrating over Jack's obsession with hunting.

Henry was a bit of a leader this afternoon...

The littlun Henry's view of himself.

Jack looked round for understanding but found only respect.

Jack's passion for killing is not understood by the other boys.

Jack, laughing and shuddering...

Jack's memory of killing the pig - a mixture of pleasure and fear.

Just now he was being obedient because he was interested...

The littlun Johnny tolerates - temporarily! - Henry's authority over him.

Ralph watched them, envious and resentful.

Ralph is angry with the hunters for letting the fire out but also desperate to be a part of them.

The mask was a thing on its own, behind which Jack hid, liberated from shame and self-consciousness.

The description of Jack's mask.

Though there was no parent to let fall a heavy hand, Maurice still felt the unease of wrong-doing.

Maurice's feeling of guilt after smashing the littluns' sandcastles.

He became absorbed beyond mere happiness as he felt himself exercising control over living things

The littlun Henry controlling the lives of the tiny sea creatures on the beach.

They were on different sides of a high barrier.

After the fire goes out, Jack and Ralph are divided.

The buzz from the hunters was one of admiration at this handsome behaviour.

After the fire goes out, Jack's apology to Ralph helps gain support from the other boys.

They suffered untold terrors in the dark and huddled together for comfort.

The littluns' lonely and unloved experience on the island.

They let the bloody fire out.

In Ralph's anger over Jack's failure to keep the fire going, he uses the worst swear word he knows.

Here, invisible yet strong, was the taboo of the old life.

Roger cannot throw stones directly at Henry - he is subconsciously prevented by his 'old life'.

Roger's arm was conditioned by a civilization that knew nothing of him and was in ruins.

Even though the civilised world has been destroyed, Roger is still acting in a civilised way.

...mankind's essential illness.

Simon understands but cannot express the fact that there is evil within the boys.

The world, that understandable and lawful world, was slipping away.

After the boys have voted on the existence of ghosts, Ralph realises that they are facing an uncertain future.

Bollocks to the rules! We're strong - we hunt!

Jack rejects social order and democracy in favour of physical strength and violence.

Life is scientific, that's what it is.

Piggy expresses his rational worldview.

What are we? Humans? Or animals? Or savages? What's grown-ups going to think?

Piggy expresses his disgust for the actions of the other boys.

I can't think. Not like Piggy.

Ralph realises that he is not as clear sighted as Piggy.

We have lots of assemblies. We decide things. But they don't get done.

Ralph is frustrated by the failures of democracy.

We're all drifting and things are going rotten. At home there was always a grown-up.

Ralph's frustration over his lack of authority.

We've got to talk about this fear and decide there's nothing in it.

Ralph's confidence that discussion and democracy can get rid of the boys' fears.

You voted me for chief. Now you do what I say.

Ralph tries to assert his democratic authority.

Maybe there is a beast... maybe it's only us.

Simon understands that the beast is part of the boys' nature.

Conch! Conch! We don't need the conch any more. We know who ought to say things.

Jack rejects the conch.

That was a good game.' 'Just a game,' said Ralph uneasily

Ralph's uncertainty after the hunters' attack on Robert.

The desire to squeeze and hurt was over-mastering.

Ralph joins with the hunters in attacking Robert.

Everything was all right; everything was good-humoured and friendly.

Ralph's daydream, remembering his childhood in Devon.

Ralph was full of fright and apprehension and pride.

After his first hunt, Ralph is frightened but excited.

The hunters followed, wedded to her in lust.

At the sow hunt, the hunters are desperate for blood.

They were heavy and fulfilled upon her.

After the attack on the sow.

This dreadful eruption from an unknown world made her frantic.

The sow's peaceful natural world is invaded by the hunters.

We shall do you. See? Jack and Roger and Maurice and Robert and Bill and Piggy and Ralph. Do you. See?

Simon's premonition that all the boys will take a part in attacking him.

He's like Piggy. He says things like Piggy. He isn't a proper chief.

Jack challenges Ralph's authority by comparing him to the most contemptible person on the island.

The half-shut eyes were dim with the infinite cynicism of adult life. They assured Simon that everything was a bad business.

The pig's head becomes the Lord of the Flies in Simon's mind.

You knew, didn't you? I'm part of you? I'm the reason why it's no go?

Simon understands that the beast is within the boys.

We can do without 'em. We'll be happier now, won't we?

Piggy suggests that society can carry on without Jack and the hunters.

Without the fire we can't be rescued. I'd like to put on war-paint and be a savage. But we must keep the fire burning.

Ralph wants to join the hunters but as chief feels a greater sense of responsibility to get the boys rescued.

A thing was crawling out of the forest.

The boys mistake Simon for the beast.

Even in the rain they could see how small a beast it was.

The boys' perception of Simon's dead body.

Jack, painted and garlanded, sat there like an idol.

At the feast on the beach, Jack is treated like a god.

Piggy and Ralph... found themselves eager to take a place in this demented but partly secure society.

Piggy and Ralph take their places in the hunting dance.

Piggy once more was the centre of social derision so that everyone felt cheerful and normal.

At the feast on the beach, violence against Piggy helps to relieve anxiety.

There was the throb and stamp of a single organism.

The boys' dance.

There were no words, and no movements but the tearing of teeth and claws.

Description of the boys killing Simon.

Power lay in the brown swell of his forearms.

Jack's power comes from his physical strength.

He turned to the poor broken thing that sat stinking by his side. The beast was harmless and horrible, and the news must reach the others as soon as possible.

Simon realises that the beast is just a parachutist.

Half-relieved, half-daunted by the implication of further terrors.

The hunters reaction to the news that the beast is not dead.

How could we - kill - it?

Jack suggests that the murder of Simon never took place.

It was an accident - that's what it was. An accident. He was batty. He asked for it.

Piggy denies the boys' responsibility for the murder of Simon.

He hit with more and more passionate hysteria as the face became slippery.

After Jack's attack on the camp, Ralph hits out violently in the darkness... at Eric.

Let the fire go then, for to-night.

Ralph begins to give up, abandoning his certainty about the fire.

Piggy.. That was murder.

Ralph expresses bluntly and clearly what happened to Simon.

...Right's right. Give me my glasses, I'm going to say - you got to!

Piggy standing up for justice after the theft of his glasses.

...the talisman, the fragile shining beauty of the shell.

The description of the conch before the death of Piggy.

Below him, Ralph was a shock of hair and Piggy a bag of fat.

Roger's dehumanising perception of Ralph and Piggy.

His head opened and stuff came out and turned red.

The boys' perception of Piggy's death.

Now the painted group felt the otherness of Samneric, felt the power in their own hands.

The tribe capture Samneric.

Roger, with a sense of delirious abandonment, leaned all his weight on the lever.

Roger pushes the rock to kill Piggy.

Which is better - to have rules and agree, or to hunt and kill?

Piggy's clear-sighted (but perhaps simplistic) view of the island.

Viciously, with full intention, he hurled his spear at Ralph.

After the death of Piggy, Jack is openly free to be violent towards Ralph.

You let me carry the conch Ralph. I'll show him the one thing he hasn't got.

Piggy understands that the conch represents something powerful which Jack can never control.

We won't be painted... because we aren't savages.

Ralph clearly and stubbornly refusing to give up on civilisation.

Fun and games.

The naval officer's perception of what has been happening on the island.

'Who's boss here?' 'I am,' said Ralph loudly.

The naval officer asking for someone to take responsibility for what has happened.

A semi-circle of little boys, their bodies streaked with coloured clay, sharp sticks in their hands...

The naval officer's perception of the hunters.

I should have thought that a pack of British boys... would have been able to put up a better show than that...

The naval officer shows his bafflement about what has happened.

Ralph wept for the end of innocence, the darkness of man's heart and the fall through the air of the true, wise friend called Piggy.

Ralph's final thoughts in the novel.

There was no Piggy to talk sense. There was no solemn assembly for debate nor dignity of the conch.

After the death of Piggy, Ralph realises there is no no chance of civilisation.

There was that indefinable connection between him and Jack; who therefore would never let him alone; never.

Ralph understands that Jack hates him and will kill him if he can.