Lord of the flies quotes

"fair hair... school sweater"

Ralph is stereotypical, innocent British school boy.

"witch-like cry"

This simile for a tropical bird's call, sets a dark tone.

"made the jungle seem for a moment like the Home Counties"

Golding juxtaposes the exotic island with everyday life in England.

"He was shorter than the fair boy and very fat... think spectacles... my asthma"

Piggy's physical vulnerability is emphasised.

"Perhaps there aren't any grown-ups anywhere."

Ralph soon realises this is not a good thing.

"Them fruit" - give the boys diarrhoea

The tropical fruit trees are a reference to the tree of life in the Garden of Eden. The twist that Golding presents is that the fruit doesn't contain all the right nutrition; they need meat too.

"stood there naked"

This is another link to the Garden of Eden, taking off the clothes is a symbol for leaving civilisation behind.

"a mildness about his mouth and eyes that proclaimed no devil"

Important quotation that describes Ralph. Ralph is the good protagonist or hero who the reader sympathises with.

"I expect we'll want to know all their names"

Piggy shows his common sense intelligence; the boys don't actually manage this simple job.

"the atom bomb? They're all dead"

Ralph's faith in the world of adults is misplaced, the adults are busy killing one another with nuclear weapons.

"Here was a coral island"

Golding makes the link with Ballantyne's book.

"A conch he called it"

The shell becomes a symbol for democracy and law and order

"A deep, harsh note boomed under the palms,"

The sound of the shell has a magical quality.

"Something dark was fumbling along. The creature was a party of boys, marching approximately in step"

Jack's choir is described using a metaphor which hints at the threat they pose. The marching links to the idea of Hitler and the Nazis or other dictatorships

"You're talking too much. Shut up Fatty."

Jack bullies Piggy and sees no value in his intelligence.

"a slight furtive boy,.. with an inner intensity of avoidance and secrecy."

First description of Roger, who symbolises aggression and violence.

"the choir boy who had fainted"

First description of Simon, who symbolises spirituality.

"I ought to be chief, because I'm... head boy. I can sing C sharp"

Jack feels he should be in charge, Golding is being ironic, since singing C sharp isn't a good reason to be leader.

"an election by acclaim for Ralph himself"

Golding uses Ralph as a symbol for a democratic leader.

"freckles on Jack's face disappeared under a blush of mortification"

The first of several times when Jack is embarrassed by losing. When embarrassed, Jack lashes out.

"Jack's in charge of the choir" - which become known as hunters.

Ralph makes a leadership mistake here: by trying to appease Jack, he gives him a power base.

"The three boys walked briskly on the sand.... They were lifted up: were friends."

This exploration is a parody of "The Coral Island" it is the only happy time the boys have, contrasting with their other traumatic experiences.

"Like a bomb"

Rolling the rock foreshadows Piggy's death. The simile links it to the war going on in the adult world.

"Eyes shining, mouths open, triumphant, they savoured the right of domination. They were lifted up: were friends."

A reader could say this is the most positive moment in the book; it is significant that it is so short lived.

"the enormity of the knife descending and cutting into living flesh; because of the unbearable blood."

Golding puts across the idea that taking life is like crossing a boundary into savagery.

"Next time there would be no mercy. He looked round fiercely, daring them to contradict."

Jack sees his failure to kill as embarrassing and becomes obsessed with correcting this.

"We'll have rules. Lots of rules"

Jack misunderstands society as based on rules rather than a sense of morality

"Treasure Island, Swallows and Amazons, Coral Island"

Three famous children's adventures. Golding shows the reader that his novel is a comment on them.

"one side of his face was blotted out by a mulberry-coloured birthmark"

The littlun' is the first boy to die on the island - there are more!

"what you're going to do about the snake-thing... Now he says it was a beastie."

The beastie, which later becomes the eponymous "Lord of the Flies" is a symbol for irrational fear or evil.

"if there was a snake we'd hunt it and kill it."

Unconsciously, Jack uses the fear to justify his need for and army "the hunters". In doing so he acts like a Cold War political leader (think about Churchill's "iron curtain speech".

"Acting like a crowd of kids"

Piggy is the first to point out crowds behave in an irrational and unpredictable way.

"His specs - use them as burning glasses!"

Piggy's glasses are the only bit of technology on the island. They symbolise science and civilization.

"the conch doesn't count on top of the mountain"

Jack's comment, reveals how Golding uses different island locations to represent different things.

"After all, we're not savages. We're English;"

Golding ensures this comments is deeply ironic because of the savage things the boys do later in the novel.

"we'll be responsible for keeping the fire going - "

Jack let's everyone down in chapter 4 when he doesn't ensure this.

"Smoke was rising here and there among the creepers... The flames, as though they were a kind of wildlife"

Golding personifies the forest fire as a kind of uncontrollable animal. The fire and the death of the birth mark boy, foreshadow the violent savagery that the boys unleash.

"dog-like, uncomfortable on all fours yet unheeding his discomfort"

Golding's simile describes the way Jack is shifting from human to savage.

"the antagonism was audible"

Jack and Ralph's friendship degenerates into hatred.

"He's queer. He's funny"

Queer meaning strange - describing Simon.

"the green candle-like buds"

This simile associates the clearing, and Simon who goes there, with the idea of a church or spirituality.

"Round the squatting child was the protection of parents and school and policemen and the law. Roger's arm was conditioned by civilisation that knew nothing of him and was in ruins."

Golding is making an ethical point here to suggest that we behave well because society makes us. When society is ruined we may return to savagery. The novel is thought by many to be very pessimistic.

"He looked in astonishment, no longer at himself but at an awesome stranger."

The mask, or face paint, becomes a symbol for losing their civilized self.

"The mask compelled them."

This quotation suggests that savagery lies within the boys and is trying to escape.

"The fire was right out, smokeless and dead"

The fire on the mountain is a symbol for hope. Golding uses personification when he says it is "dead" to emphasise that hope has died.

"Kill the pig. Cut her throat. Spill her blood"

This chant becomes repeated and takes on a ritual quality. Jack has made them choose hunting over the hope of rescue.

"There was the brilliant world of hunting, tactics, fierce exhilaration, skill; and there was the world of longing and baffled common sense"

Golding shows how Jack and Ralph now represent conflicting priorities. He chooses attractive language for hunting to show how it is easy for the boys to be seduced by savagery.

"Then Maurice pretended to be the pig"

Golding represents the boys as creating their own primitive hunting religion. Golding wrote another book called "The Inheritors" about primitive pre-civilized people; he was interested in the topic.

"This meeting must not be fun, but business... aware all at once of urgency and the declining sun"

Golding brings drama to this chapter by emphasising that this meeting is Ralph's last chance to save their little society. The approaching darkness creates a sense of threat.

"if you were a chief you had to think, you had to be wise"

This quotation makes the point that none of the boys has all the attributes needed to be a leader (neither do Jack or Piggy).

"We decide things. But they don't get done."

Ralph's words uncover the problem of democracy, which depends on people being responsible.

"Things are breaking up. I don't understand why."

This is a metaphor for their civilization crumbling (and ours in the real world).

"talk of a thing, a dark thing, a beast, some sort of animal."

Ralph expresses the way irrational fears are now taking them all over.

""Life", said Piggy expansively, "is scientific.""

Again we see how Piggy symbolises rationality and science.

"Unless, we get frightened of people."

Piggy (and Simon later) identify that the fear and evil is within themselves.

"Percival Wemys Madison, The Vicarage, Harcourt St Anthony"

This littlun' who must be a priest's son, represent life back home. His despair shows us that home is lost to them. This little boy reappears right at the end of the last chapter - by then he has forgotten his name.

"He says the beast comes out of the sea."

Because the sea is huge and mysterious it becomes a place they could imagine the beast comes from.

"Maybe there is a beast. What I mean is... maybe it's only us."

Simon makes this point which the reader imagines is what Golding believes.

"What are we? Humans? Or animals? Or savages?"

Piggy's words show us the structure of Golding's novel, which shows civilization being overtaken by savagery.

"Because the rules are the only thing we've got!"

Ralph's intuition repeats Golding's point from Chapter 4 (Roger throwing stones) that it is only rules that hold our savagery in check.

"If only they could get a message to us,"

Golding makes Ralph's point deeply ironic in the next chapter, since adult world's message is a dead fighter pilot that scares the boys into believing in the beast.

"But a sign came down from the world of grown-ups"

The adult world's message is a dead fighter pilot that scares the boys into believing in the beast.

"Wasn't he waxy?"

This school slang word means angry.

"It's time some people knew they've got to keep quiet and leave deciding things to the rest of us."

Jack's words connect to the politics of dictatorship, which is the opposite of democracy.

"I'm chief. I'll go. Don't argue."

Ralph shows courage and leadership here - the whole book implies that these are not enough to prevent disaster.

"he saw the landsman's view of the swell and it seemed like the breathing of some stupendous creature."

Golding personifies the sea as a fearsome creature, he does this again when Piggy is killed.

"What a place for a fort!"

Jack has a military perspective, and sees the potential of the place.

"Shove a palm tree under that and if the enemy came - look!"

Jack use of the word "enemy" reveals the way he sees his fellows as potential enemies.

"We want smoke. And you go wasting time."

Ralph's words imply that the boys are losing interest in being rescued.

"I hit him and the spear stuck in a bit"

Even Ralph gets caught up in the excitement of the hunt.

"All at once, Robert was screaming and struggling with the strength of frenzy"

The boys act out their hunting ritual a second time, more violently.

"Use a littlun", said Jack, and everybody laughed

Although it is a joke, the boys think about the idea of ritual murder. This foreshadows Simon's death.

"I'll go if you like. I don't mind, honestly."

Simon is not afraid because his intuition tells him the real threat is within themselves.

"a dark figure moved against the tide.. Roger?"

In this dark scene, Roger instead of Simon is present unlike in the chapter 1 exploration. This second trip up the mountain is a parallel of the first.

"the creature lifted its head, holding towards them the ruin of a face."

Golding uses "ruin" a metaphor to express the way the corpse appears frightful to the boys.

"I've called an assembly," said Jack

Jack tries to make a coup, to take over as leader.

"The humiliating tears were running from the corner of each eye. "I'm not going to play any longer"."

Jack's takeover, fails at first and he is embarrassed and childish (this makes him want revenge).

"Only Piggy could have the intellectual daring to suggest moving the fire from the mountain."

More evidence that Piggy symbolises intelligence - unfortunately this good idea comes a bit too late.

"They went that way. The same way he went himself"

Even though Jack fails to become the elected leader, he still attracts followers.

"And about the beast. When we kill we'll leave some of the kill for it."

Jack proposes a form of sacrifice analogous to a primitive religion.

"sunk in deep maternal bliss, lay the largest sow of the lot."

Golding's description creates a sense of motherliness, creating sympathy for the animal that is about to die.

"wedded to her in lust, excited by the long chase and the dropped blood."

By using language associated with sex, "lust", Golding gives the sense that the boys are sexually excited by the violence of the hunt.

"The spear moved forward inch by inch and the terrified squealing became a high-pitched scream. Then Jack found the throat and the hot blood spouted over his hands."

The description of the kill is very graphic and this makes the reader, sympathetic for the animal and revolted by the violence of the boys.

"We'll raid them and take the fire."

Even though they could simply ask for it, Jack plans a raid, like a mini war.

"Sharpen a stick at both ends."

Jack refers to cutting a stick to place the pigs head on. This phrase is echoed to dramatic effect at the end of the book when Ralph is hunted.

"The head is for the beast. It's a gift."

Jack is unconsciously creating his own primitive worship of the beast god.

"The pile of guts was black blob of flies that buzzed like a saw."

The metaphor and simile combination emphasises a crucial moment.

"The Lord of the Flies hung on his stick and grinned."

The head is personified as a kind of god. In Hebrew, "Lord of the Flies" is Beelzebub, a secret name for the devil.

"what makes things break up like they do?"

Ralph struggles to understand chaos and corruption; the way civilisation falls apart.

"The two savages looked at each other... "The Chief has spoken.""

The use of the word savages, shows that Jack is the leader of a savage group and not a civilised one.

"I'd like to put on war-paint and be a savage. But we must keep the fire burning."

Ralph is show to be the symbolic opposite to Jack. The face-paint represents savagery and the fire represents civilisation and hope.

"Overhead the cannon boomed again"

This metaphor describes the thunder which creates a sense of threat and violence, because cannons are used in warfare.

"You silly little boy," said the Lord of the Flies.

Golding allows the reader to decide whether the words are really spoken, or are just what Simon imagines. Notice that in this section the narrative viewpoint switches briefly to Simon again.

"I'm part of you?"\`

We can see this as being Golding's message - the beast is inside us.

"I'm warning you. I'm going to get waxy"

This quotation has many layers of meaning. On one level Simon has a premonition of his own death. On another, the word "waxy" which was used in chapter 6, is associated with an angry teacher.

"Over the island the build-up of clouds continued."

Golding uses the approaching thunder storm to build tension in this chapter. The technique is called pathetic fallacy, where the weather matches the mood of the narrative.

"Simon's fit passed into the weariness of sleep."

Golding suggests Simon has had an epileptic fit and passed out.

"What else is there to do?"

Simon realises that he must approach the mountain to prove the beast is not there.

"The tangle of lines showed him the mechanics of this parody;"

Simon realises they did not need to be scared of the dead airman.

"The beast was harmless and horrible:"

The alliteration emphasises that their fears have been irrational.