William Golding's Lord of the Flies and Literary Analysis

Flashcards covering key vocabulary, literary devices, psychological theories, character archetypes, and background contexts from William Golding's Lord of the Flies.

Focalization

The narrative "lens" or perspective through which the reader experiences the events of the plot, developed to clarify situations where traditional point of view categories become murky.

Zero focalization

A narrative mode where the narrator knows more than any character and moves freely between characters' minds, corresponding to traditional third-person omniscient point of view.

Internal focalization

A narrative mode limited strictly to what one character sees, knows, or thinks, corresponding to traditional third-person limited point of view.

External focalization

A narrative mode where the narrator recounts only externally observable actions and speech without accessing any character's inner thoughts.

Sigmund Freud

An Austrian neurologist (1856–1939) who theorized about the relationship between the mind and behavior, formulated the Oedipus Complex, and created a three-part model of personality.

Id

The component of Freud's personality model present from birth that governs instinct, desire, and impulsivity, characterized by the phrase "I want."

Ego

The rational component of Freud's personality model that weighs reality, costs versus benefits, and pros versus cons, characterized by the question "What's the realistic thing to do?"

Superego

The component of Freud's personality model that represents morals, civilization, and concepts of right and wrong, characterized by the question "What's the right or proper thing to do?"

Kleos

The wild, destructive pursuit of adventure.

Nostos

The yearning for home and the restoration of order.

Theoria

Retreating from human action to witness, contemplate, and perceive truth; translates literally to "vision."

Ascendant

Rising in power.

Descendant

Falling in power.

William Golding

An English symbolic novelist (1911–1993) who taught at a boys' school from 1945 to 1960, operated a rocket-launcher on a Royal Navy boat during D-Day in WWII, and won the 1983 Nobel Prize in Literature.

Lord of the Flies

An allegorical novel published in 1954 that traces the defects of society back to the defects of human nature through a group of British schoolboys stranded on a deserted island.

Setting of Lord of the Flies

A tropical island located in the Pacific or Indian Ocean, set in an undefined future during an atomic (nuclear) war over the span of several months.

Style and Structure of Lord of the Flies

A literary presentation featuring British juvenile dialect, realistic dialogue, detailed environmental descriptions of the ocean and jungle, and a third-person omniscient point of view.