Knowledge Organiser

Sound of the Shell

Some boys crash on an island and elect a chief (Ralph) and he selects Jack Merridew to lead the choir, who become hunters. Piggy immediately becomes the target of the other boys who make fun of him. Piggy finds the conch shell and shows Ralph how to blow it. The sound of the shell calls the boys together for assemblies to discuss important matters. At the assembly, Jack, Simon and Ralph decide to explore the island and find a trapped pig which gets away from them.

Fire on the Mountain

One of the littleuns mentions a snake thing, a beastie, which sends fear throughout the group. They debate its existence and determine the littleuns were having nightmares. Ralph decides they need to make a fire on a mountain as a rescue signal. They use Piggy’s glasses to light the fire. The fire rages out of control. One of the littleuns dies in the conflagaration (large fire). Piggy and Jack argue.

Huts on the Beach

Jack is obsessed with hunting pigs although he has yet to catch one. Ralph and Simon work on the huts. Everyone else plays. Jack has started to become savage in his quest for blood. Jack and Ralph argue. Simon wanders off, helps the littleuns get fruit, and continues to an isolated location.

Painted Faces and Long Hair

Roger and Maurice bully the littluns on the beach. Jack paints his face for hunting. He leads the boys on a hunting expedition. As Jack and the hunters are out, a ship passes by. Ralph realises the hunters have let the fire go out. He races to the top but is unable to light it in time. Jack and the hunters return with a pig. Ralph and Jack argue. Jack punches Piggy in the gut. One of Piggy’s lenses from his glasses breaks. The boys cook the pig and have a feast.

Beast from Water

Ralph tries to set things in order. He re-establishes rules regarding the fire. The subject of the beast is brought up. Jack argues the island is too small for a beast. One of the boys claims the beast comes from the sea. The boys argue. Simon suggests that they are the beast- they all make fun of him. The arguing continues. Jack storms away from the meeting with his hunters, who make horrific sounds in the darkness. Piggy begs Ralph to call them back using the conch. He longs for grown-ups to make things right.

Beast from Air

A plane is shot down high above as the children sleep. A dead parachutist lands on the island stuck in the rocks and trees. Samneric see the dead parachutist and mistake it for the beast. The boys hunt for the beast on a new area of the island; they can’t find it. Jack thinks he’s found a good fort from which to throw rocks at people. After not finding the beast, Ralph notices the fire has gone out. None of the others, especially Jack, seem to care.

Shadows and Tall Trees

The hunt for the beast continues. The boys come across a pig run and Ralph sticks a boar in the nose with a spear. The boar escapes. The boys act out a pig hunt with Robert playing the part of the pig. Even Ralph enjoys the spectacle. The quest for the beast continues until the evening. Jack, Roger and Ralph agree to scale the mountain. The three boys see the dead parachutist who they mistake for the beast and run away as far as they can.

Gift for the Darkness

Jack calls a meeting, insults Ralph, and asks for Ralph to no longer be chief. Nobody else agrees. Jack, embarassed, leaves the tribe and goes to the forest. The assembly continues. Simon suggests they go up the mountain. Piggy suggests they build the fire on the beach since the beast is on the mountain. The boys gather wood. The littluns sing and dance. Roger, Bill and Maurice, and the other biguns escape into the woods, following Jack. Simon has also disappeared into his secret spot. Hunters track down a pig and kill it, offering it to the beast as a sacrifice. Flies swarm. The hunters race back to the beach to steal fire. Simon arrives at the pig’s head after the hunters have left. He imagines the pig’s head is speaking to him. The pig’s head tells Simon he can’t escape. Jack’s hunters raid Ralph’s camp for fire and invite the others.

The View to a Death

Simon passes out and wakes up. He explores, discovers the truth about the beast, and heads immediately to the beach to tell the others. Meanwhile, all the boys left the original camp to join Jack’s hunters. Even Ralph and Piggy go. There’s a dispute. It rains. Jack and his hunters begin their chant. Simon appears from the forest. They kill him, mistaking him for the beast in their altered, crazed state. The dead parachutist is driven by the wind, over the boys, and out to sea. After the storm ceases, the boys gather around dead Simon as his body is washed out to sea.

The Shell and a Glass

Ralph, Piggy and Samneric are the only ones left in the original tribe. Ralph and Piggy express their horror over witnessing/participating in Simon’s murder. Jack and his crew have taken residence at the fort. Roger approaches and is told of one of the boys (Wilfred) being tied up and whipped. Jack and his tribe have been transformed into savages. They plot to steal fire. They raid Ralph and Piggy’s camp and steal Piggy’s glasses.

Castle Rock

Piggy declares his intention to confront Jack and demand his glasses back. Ralph blows the conch at the fort entrance on Castle Rock. Ralph and Jack fight. Ralph demands Piggy’s glasses. Jack’s savages tie up Samneric. Piggy tries to talk some sense into the savages, Roger wedges the giant rock loose. It smashes the conch and knocks Piggy off the cliff. Jack and the others throw spears at Ralph, who runs away

Cry of the Hunters

Ralph flees and returns at night to speak with Samneric who are the new guards. They warn Ralph to go away. Ralph learns the tribe will hunt him for the next day like a pig. Roger is sharpening a stick at both ends. Ralph hides in a thicket. One of the twins gives away Ralph’s location. They eventually fill the thicket with smoke. Ralph charges out and runs for his life. The hunters pursue. Ralph notices the island has caught fire, The hunters chase Ralph down to a beach where he finds a naval officer there to rescue them.

Loss of Innocence

As the boys on the island progress from well-behaved, orderly children longing for rescue to cruel, bloodthirsty hunters who have no desire to return to civilisation, they naturally lose the sense of innocence that they possessed at the beginning of the novel. The painted savages in Chapter 12 who have hunted, tortured and killed animals and human beings are a far cry from the guileless children swimming in the lagoon in Chapter 3. But Golding does not portray this loss of innocence as something that is done to the children; rather, it results naturally from their increasing openness to the innate evil and savagery that has always existed within them. Golding implies that civilisation can mitigate but never wipe out the innate evil that exists within all human beings.

The Beast/good vs evil

This theme almost becomes like a character as the boys take the beast for different objects and people across the novel. Golding shows us the beast is not something seperate to ourselves; rather it is the inherent darkness and capacity for evil with which we are all born. It is the beast within ourselves. Good vs evil is shown as a battle between two forces: Ralph and Jack

Civilisation vs Savagery

The central concern of Lord of the Flies is the conflict between two competing impulses that exist within all human beings: the instinct to live by rules, act peacefully, follow moral commands and value the good of the group against the instinct to gratify one’s immediate desires, act violently to obtain supremacy over others and enforce one’s will on others

Struggle to build civilisation

This shows us the conflict between man’s desire to build and create a society that benefits us all, versus man’s desire for power and for fun, which leads to the destructive elements that destroy society. What is played out on the island represents whar happends in societies across the world, resulting in wars and conflicts, like WW2

Order and discipline

Golding was unhappy with the public school idea at the time that firm discipline was the right way to make children behave. As there are no adults on the island, Golding can explore what children would naturally do to create order of their own. Piggy’s brains and Ralph’s self-discipline are inherent within them- school didn’t need to bring these out. However, Jack’s worst crimes could have been prevented by some form of discipline. Golding explores the balance between discipline and freedom.

Mob mentality

shown to be very dangerous in the novel, as this ‘mob’ mentality causes the death of the death of Simon. Only Ralph takes personal responsibility for the death: “That was murder”. the mob acts as a cover for the others accepting their part in the death.

Ralph C1

‘fair hair’, ‘he might make a boxer’, ‘a mildness about his eyes that proclaimed no devil’

Jack C1

‘We’ll have rules!’ he cried excitedly

‘Lots of rules! Then when anyone breaks ‘em’

‘two light blue eyes…ready to turn to anger’

the Choir C1

‘black, bat-like creature’

‘the creature was a party of boys’

Jack in the choir C1

‘boy who controlled them’

‘vaulted on…with his cloak flying’

Jack C3

‘dog-like’

‘on all fours’

‘flared nostrils’

‘a compulsion to track down and kill that was swallowing him up’

Jack C4

‘Jack hid, liberated from shame and self-consciousness.’

‘the mask compelled them’

‘awesome stranger’

Simon (C5+C7)

‘Maybe it’s only us.’

‘You’ll get back to where you came from.’

Piggy C5

‘What are we? Humans? Or Animals? Or savages?’

‘What’s grown-ups going to think?’

Chant

‘Kill the pig. Cut her throat. Spill her blood.’

‘Bash her in’

description of Jack chapter 9

‘painted and garlanded, sat there like an idol.’

lord of the flies to Simon chapter 8

‘You knew, didn’t you? I’m part of you?’

‘Don’t try to escape!’

the boys in chapter 9

‘there was a throb and a stamp of a simple organism’

simon’s dead body in chapter 9

‘The water…dressed Simon’s course hair with brightness. The line of his cheek silvered and the turn of his shoulder became sculptured marble.’

Roger (C11 + 12)

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

‘sharpened at both ends’

Piggy

‘a bag of fat’

‘Piggy was an outsider, not only by accent, but by fat, and ass-mar, and specs’

‘arms and legs twitched a bit, like a pig’s…’

conch

‘- a conch, ever so expensive’

‘The note boomed again…a strident blare more penetrating than before’

destruction of conch (c11)

‘The conch exploded into a thousand white fragments and ceased to exist’

candle buds C5

‘The candle-buds opened their wide white flowers glimmering under the light that pricked down from the first stars’

Piggy (C5)

‘Life…is scientific…I know there isn’t no beast, there isn’t no fear either’

mock slaughtering of the pig c7

‘Robert was screaming and struggling with the strength of the frenzy’

naval officer comparing lotf to coral island sarcastically C12

‘Jolly good show. Like the Coral Island’

Jack’s defiance of Ralph and democracy C6

“Conch! Conch!’ Jack shouted. ‘We don’t need the conch anymore!’

initial crash effects C1

‘a bird, a vision of red and yellow, flashed upwards with a witch-like cry’

Ralph’s transition from childish naivety C12

‘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.’

An allusion to the Garden of Eden and Adam's innocence before he gained knowledge of good and evil. The original positive perception of the island C1

‘This is a good island’

‘Here was a coral island. Protected from the sun…he dreamed pleasantly.’

Jack’s initial struggle to deviate from societal norms and kill in C4

‘They new very well why he hadn’t: because of the enormity of the knife descending…the unbearable blood’

Conch at the start

‘A conch he called it…ever so valuable’

‘delicate pattern…deep cream…fading pink’

Jack’s direct challenge to Ralph (C5)

‘Bollocks to the rules! If there’s a beast, we’ll hunt it down. We’ll beat and beat and beat…’

Symbolism of the conch

civilisation, democracy, order

Symbolism of the glasses

intelligence, insight. Civilisation (used for lighting fire)

The fire

hope and rescue. Also symbolic of things getting out of control on the island- see death of the little’un with the ‘murberry coloured birthmark’ and the end of the novel.

The beast

represents boys’ irrational fear. Clear connotations of evil- links to the ‘beast within’ us all. When the beast is a dead parachutist, it links to the ongoing destruction adults are waging in the outside world.

The island

like a Garden of Eden before it was corrupted by man. Notice how the boys interact with the island too- respect (Simon) vs destruction. Its a microcosm of the way adults are destroying the outside world.

Irony

Boys are playing out the bigger war going on in the outside world.

The naval officer does not understand what has taken place ‘jolly good show’.

Irony of the fire

it is Ralph who has wanted to keep a fire going all along and yet that fire is used to ‘smoke him out’.

Irony in Piggy

he has poor eyesight, but his insight and intelligence are so strong.

Irony of the boys

The boys are evacuated from a war zone, only to then create one themselves

The importance of names

We never find out Piggy’s real name and Ralph is introduced as ‘fair boy’. This adds to the allegorical nature of the novel- the characters represent bigger ideas. Note how Piggy’s name links him with the other prey on the island- pigs. The boys never bother to find out his real name. Ralph and Jack were directly taken from Coral Island- conveys expected ideas of how boys would behave on an island. Percival Wemys Madison takes great pleasure in reciting his full name as that name links him to civilisation.

Foreshadowing

Golding continually hints at things to come. For example, Piggy’s death and the fire burning the island.

Ralph analysis

the primary representative of order, civilisation and democracy. His insistence of the use of the conch ties him to this key democratic symbol. While initially being described as an image of masculinity and strength, like the conch, His leadership becomes fragile. He demonstrates that everyone is susceptible of the dehumanising effects of losing civilisation.

Piggy analysis

represents intelligence and logic. His glasses are a symbol of this intelligence and hope - a testament to mankind’s scientific understanding. Physically he does not fit in and is of a lower class. As readers we partake in his bullying, only ever calling him ‘-’ He has a naive faith in the infallibility of adults. He is a victim throughout. Only fully appreciated at the end of the novel.

Jack analysis

He embodies what happens without the civilising influence of society- we become savages with dictatorial rule and ritualised violence. Golding uses him as a foil to Ralph, highlighting their leadership differences.

Simon analysis

can be interpreted as a Christ-like figure. He has an affinity with nature, seeks solitude, is kind and suffers from many hallucinatory and fainting experiences. It is through him that we hear Golding’s message explicitly: he speaks with the Beast and thus loses his innocence, understanding that evil is within all humanity. He is killed by the boys, demonstrating the power of savagery and the mob mentality.

Roger analysis

represents the innate evil. His violence escalates quickly from throwing stones in chapter 4 to ‘sharpening a stick at both ends’ to the brutal, blunt murder of Piggy. Contextually, he represents people who take pleasure in their persecution of others when sanctioned by authority, such as Jack.

Samneric analysis

As identical twins they merge together and gradually lose their individual identities as the novel continues. This change represents how easily it is to forget or change our social conditioning and lose our sense of identity.

The little’uns

remain mostly anonymous in the novel. However, the ‘boy with the birthmark’ is memorable, therefore its more apparent he is missing. This is the first death on the island and highly significant. Percival Wemys Madison’s forgetting of his phone number is just as significant, as it shows how social conditioning is beginning to fase. This makes the other littleuns cry in a display of existential angst as they realise their links to civilisation are fading too. Note who cares for the littleuns- Simon and Piggy- versus who finds them an annoyance- difference in leadership in society.

Allegorical novel

the characters and setting in the novel represent bigger ideas. For example, the island could be considered a microcosm of the world, and characters also have allegorical meanings (Ralph as democracy, Jack as autocracy, Piggy as rational thought..)

Adventure novel

popular in 19th and early 20th, they focused on exciting adventure, usually experience by child protagonists. However, Golding has inverted the usual ‘good defeating evil’ narrative of adventure stories in LotF. Rather than encountering evil and overcoming it, evil is within the boys in LotF and eventually them.

Structure

the action takes place over a number of weeks, but time is not very clear. Over this time we see the deterioration of order, the climax is Piggy’s death- the first and only deliberate, conscious killing of a boy.

‘atomic age’ following ww2

Golding tapped into a widespread cultural panic over nuclear destruction and man’s capacity for warfare in lord of the flies. After the first atomic bombs were detonated over Japan at the end of the war in 1945, the Soviet Union and the United States began building their nuclear arsenals, leading many people to fear apocalyptic nuclear conflict. The Soviet Union and the US engages in a policy of brinkmanship that would come to be known as the Cold War

As a member of the British Navy during ww2,Golding had been the captain of a ship that assisted in the invasion of Normandy, or D-Day, when the allies invades Nazi occupied France, and this experience directly informed his view of man’s capacity for cruelty. Golding wrote ‘Before the Second World War I believed in the perfectibility of social man…but after the war I did not because I was unable to. I had discovered what one man could do to another…’ Following the war, Golding worked as a headmaster at a boys’ school, which influenced his writing as well. By setting his story among schoolboys, rather than grown men fighting an actual war, he made his themes of brutality and the breakdown of civilisation innate and inevitable. He intended his novel to be a direct warning about the specific dangers of nuclear proliferation, but his editor at Faber and Faber, Charles Monteith, edited out a lengthy beginning describing a nuclear war that sets the plot in motion, leaving a sense of global apocalypse.

LotF as a criticism

Criticises the totalitarian regimes rising up in the East. In the 1950s, the Soviet Union was ascendant, and Western countries began learning about Soviet gulags for political dissenters, their violent political purges, and the breadth of the Soviet government’s domestic power. At the same time, awareness grew of the holocaust in Nazi Germany and the fascist regime that perpetrated it. Golding was particularly interested in ‘groupthink’, a term coined by George Orwell in 1984 to describe how essentially good people ae able, through coercion and fear, to excuse and enable injustice.

Robinsonades

Both William Golding and his fictional characters were familiar with this, a 19th century genre that took its name from Daniel Defoe’s novel, Robinson Crusoe. Written in the 18th century, Robinson Crusoe is an adventure tale about a shipwrecked sailor who survives by his wits for several years before finally returning home to England. Writers as influential and varied as Edgar Allen Poe, Herman Melville and Goethe wrote novels about sea faring adventures that pitted man against the elements. For Golding, though, the most influential - was R.M Ballantyne’s 1958 novel, Coral Island: A Tale of the Pacific Ocean- a novel about 3 British schoolboys stuck on an island who show bravery and valour in a series of adventures and conquests. Golding said in interviews that this novel was a boyhood favourite of his, and was a part of the inspiration for Lord of the Flies.

1st use of atomic weapon

Hiroshima and Nagasaki in 1945, a key background to the novel. It is now quite possible that civilisation could be completely destroyed in a single conflict. In 1949 the Cold War began when the Soviet Union detonated its first A-bomb. This was an ideological battle between belief systems. Many people were accused of being Communists and a climate of fear prevailed.