Background info Golding

1911-1993

fought in British navy for WW2

• D-Day

• knighted

• inspo LOTF → everyone has a bit of evil in them

• after → teacher and writer

He put two groups of his students against each other, which made them fight. This was also inspo for LOTF.

Tried to rape a girl at 18.

Civilisation is a recurring theme in his books.

General things

Genre

Lord of the Flies is an allegorical novel (ideeën roman), as Golding really emphasized his idea that everyone is inherintely evil and this is an often returning theme and has a connection to everything. He also included his vision on colonization, society and the government

When

The novel takes place right after the second world war. This isn’t directly mentioned, but we can see this as there was an atom bomb in the beginning of the book, which caused the plane to crash. Another hint is the fact that Ralphs dad in the Navy is, which was really important and present in Britain around WW2.

Where

An uninhabited tropical island somewhere in the Pacific Ocean, but all of the boys are from Britain.

Perspective

The story is told from a third persons perspective, this means that the reader can look into the thoughts and acts of more than one character and this makes that the reader knows (most of the time) what is happingen in all the different storylines. Since this narrator is impartial and distant, the reader can interpret events his or her own way, at a place above the action.

Language

Goldings writing style is really flourish and detailed. This can make the novel more difficult to read, but I love that it helps you feel the ambiance and he uses such beautiful words and discriptions.

Furthermore is the language really civil, as it’s rough and Piggy as a lot of grammatical errors.

Ending

It has an closed ending, since the reader isn’t left with any questions and we can assume the remaining boys get rescued.

Timeorder

The story is mostly in chronological order. There are minimal flashbacks, like when Ralph thinks of his books at home.

Tone

The tone is very dark, violent, pessimistic, tragic and unsparing, since it is mostly death and decay.

Where were the littluns when Simon was killed?

Summery

Themes

Savegery vs Civilization

• conflict between two instincts → live by rules, follow moral commands and value the good of the group against gratify one’s immediate desires, act violently to obtain supremacy over others, and enforce one’s will

• order vs chaos, reason vs impuls, law vs anarchy

• civilization = good & savagery = evil

• driving force of the novel

• Jack (savagery) vs Ralph (civilization)

• savagery → more primal instinct & fundamental to the human mind

• left on their own → people naturally revert to cruelty, savagery, and barbarism

Loss of innocence

• naturally lose innocence (which they had in the beginning)

• chapter 12 → savage who hunted, tortured and killed

• chapter 3 → little boys swimming in the lagoon

• The loss is not something ‘done’ to the children, but a result of their openness to the evil and savagery which always existed in them.

• symbol → forest glade in which Simon sits in Chapter 3 → first it’s a place of natural beauty and peace, but when Simon returns he finds The Lord of the Flies. The bloody offering - a powerful symbol of innate human evil disrupting childhood innocence - disrupted the paradise.

Struggle To Build Civilization

• At first everyone agrees with the democratic system, but the slow process of building an orderly society proves too difficult for many of the boys. → they don’t want to help with the shelters, fire or littluns, they choose fun and hunting over this

• At the end even Ralph is tempted to join Jack and forgets why the fire and rescue is important.

Man’s Inherent Evil

• young boys → evil is inherent, even in children

• Jack: first rules and civility, but later obsessed with hunting and empowered by the promise of violence

• Ralph and Piggy join the murder of Simon → Piggy tries to ignore this, but Ralph is devastated by his dark side and the fact that he is no better than Roger or Jack.

• Simon → men can resist their violent tendencies. He stands up for Piggy and the littluns and helps Ralph. He realises that the beast is not real but the darkness in the boys themselves.

Dangers Of Mob Mentality

• coming together as mob (group) → upsetting experience of killing an animal becomes bonding ritual

• acting as one group → worse and worse crimes

• warpaint → hiding identities as individuals → avoid personal responsability

• ‘liberation into savagery‘ → Ralp, Piggy and Samneric both fear as envy the hunters → their desire to be part of the group leads to their participation in the killing of Simon.

• The mob’s shared irrational fear and proclivity toward violence results in a devastating act of ultimate cruelty.

War And The Future Of Mankind

• A view of what society might look like trying to rebuild after a largescale manmade catastrophe.

• rebuilding society → disagree on rules → descent savagery

• Social order, fairness and thoughtfulness have little value when basic survival is a struggle.

• Paratrooper → reminder that there is still war outside the island

Nature vs nurture

• Nature takes over as nurture is gone.

Colonisation

• colonisers & the colonized

• “We’ve got to have rules and obey them. After all we’re not savages. We’re English and English are the best at everything.”

• standing on the mountain → “This belongs to us.“

• impact and dominance of the colonisers during Colonisation → Jack’s tribe kills Piggy and Simon, they take their fire, territory and troops (Samneric)

Symbols

The Conch

• Using it to call meetings → civilization & order

• The boys using it like a ‘microphone‘ → vessel of political legitimacy and democratic power

• descend into savagery → loses it’s power

• Ralph clutches the shell as he talks about his role in murdering Simon

• Boys throwing stones at Ralph as he blows it at Jack’s camp.

• Boulder crushing Piggy & the conch → demise of civilized instinct among the boys

Piggy’s Glasses

• Piggy is the most intelligent & rational → intelligence & power of science in society

• Boys using it to light the fire

• Piggy loses his intelligence & usefulness as the glasses break and he loses them

The Signal Fire

• Attract notice of passing ships → barometer of the boys’ connection to civilization

• boys maintaining the fire → they want to be rescued

• fire burning low/going out → lost their desire to go home & accepted savagery

• irony → the fire which attracts the isn’t the signal fire but the savagery fire

The Beast

• the primal instinct of savagery that exists within all human beings

• boys afraid, only Simon realizes they fear the beast because it lives in all of them

• descend savagery → stronger belief in the beast

• leaving it sacrifices & treating it like a god

The Lord of the Flies

• the power of evil → a kind of Satan figure who evokes the beast within each human being

• Simon hallucinating → it tells him that evil lies within every human heart and promising to have some “fun” with him

• offering to the beast → says it is the beast and lives in everyone

Ralph

• order, leadership, civilization

• Is voted to be the leader

• Tries to keep the fire going in order to be rescued → civilization

Piggy

• scientific & intellectual aspects of civilization

• Comes with most of the ideas, like getting everyones name and making a fire

Jack

• unbridled savagery & desire for power

• Doesn’t care for the fire (civilization) and just wants to hunt.

Simon

• natural human goodness → Jesus

• Only one who showed no sign of the evil in everyone

• Jesus (him) talking to the devil (the Lord of the Flies)

• He gave Piggy some of his meat when Jack refused.

Roger

• brutality & bloodlust

Samneric

• loss of individuality

• They start off as Sam and Eric, but become Samneric → sheep-behaviour of humans and following the majority.

Littluns

• Common people, following rules, not interfearing

Bigguns

• Ruling classes & political leaders

• Relation between littluns → civilized boys (Ralph, Simon etc.) use their power to protect the littluns; savage boy (Jack, Roger) use their power to gratify their own desires, treating the littluns like objects for their amusement

Island

• paradise

• Garden of Eden

• They destroy it like we are doing

The Scar

• Rip in the forest caused by the crash landing of the boys plane

• Man and his savage nature, destroys paradise by merely entering it.

Characters

Ralph

• dad in navy → thinks he will rescue them

• blond → attractive

• charismatic & confident

• 12 years old

• Through the story he gets a bit absent and has a hard time finding his words, Piggy helps him with this

Jack

Piggy

Simon

Samneric

Roger

Key scenes

chapter 1

• 13 Ralph at the top and Piggy is below him → hierarchy. You can see this when Piggy asks Ralph’s name, but Ralph doesn’t ask it back.

• 15 Ralph being described → mildness, no devil

• 17 Piggy being happy to get called Piggy by Ralph→ happy to be aknowledged, eventhough it’s in a negative way.

• 38 Simon, Jack and Ralph standing on a mountain: ‘This belongs to us.’ → coloninization.

• 26 School choir joines the group → described as a dark blur, a creature, shadow and eccentric clothes (cloaks, frill, golden badge, silver cross)

• 30 Piggy proposes to blow the conch & suggest to make a name list (if someone goes missing)→ intelligence

• 30 Roger proposes a vote for chief → democracy & civilisation

• 40 Jack doesn’t kill the pig → civilised & innocent

chapter 2

• 52 Trying to make a fire on the mountain,

Irony

Foreshadowing

• Choir group joining the rest → described as a black blur → something bad involving them

• First fire out of control and presumably killing a littlun → Jack setting the forest on fire in the end to kill Ralph

Simon & his death

• The Lord of the Flies promising to have some ‘fun‘ with Simon → Simon’s death

• The weather is bad/dark right before Simons death

Piggy & his death

• Roger throwing stones at littluns & others roling rocks down Castle Rock → Piggy’s death

• Piggy losing his glasses → helpless & depentent → his death

• Piggy telling Ralph he has Asthma → “Sucks to your ass-mar!” → boys’ lack of concern about Piggy’s physical vulnerability

• The boys hunting pigs → violent nature of his death

• Golding steers the reader in the wrong direction of Piggy’s death, he makes us think Piggy will die because of his conditions and fragility, not an act of violence.

Title explanations

Lord of the flies

• It refers to Beelzebub, which is another name for the devil. → stands for the evil in everyone.

• Pig head on a stick → sybol of evil & savagery of Jack’s tribe.

• Ralph uses the stick as a spear

• Lord is a word of power & flies of death and decay → death and decay tied up with power and corruption.

The Sound of the Shell

• Refers to the conch being blown, which gathers all the boys.

• Symbol of authority → the boys immediately respond to the sound.

• Reference to WW2 → the sound can be compared to air raid sirens

Fire on the Mountain

• The fire is a distress signal, it shows the boys understanding of how they can help themselves get rescued.

• Symbolises the start of their destruction of the island and their civilised selves.

Huts on the Beach

• Created a view of a paradise away from reality and society → contrast to what it becomes (hell).

• Irony → huts are temporary, but the boys seem to be permenantly on the island and losing hopes of rescue.

Painted Faces and Long Hair

• Painted faces → hiding identities → the children are losing their identities by following Jack

• Long hair → descent into savagery (no tidiness)

• Suggests the creation of a tribe, causing a schism (split up)

Beast from Water

• Water → pure → the beast comes from purity and their innocence

• Water is the only thing seperating them from society and trapping them → water is their beast

Beast from Air

• The beast is from a different location → ambiguity (dubbelzinnigheid) about the beast and where it is from

• It has grown → suffocates and traps the boys

• The dead pilot falls → they think it’s the beast → foreshadowing them thinking Simon is the beast

Shadows and Tall Trees

• Shadows → something negative in Jack spreading like ink, everyone has their shadowside

• tall tree → Jack makes himself big → he has a very big shadow

Gift for the Darkness

• Comparison between gift (happiness) and darkness

• gift → the boys sacrificing a pig → descent into savagery & foreshadowing killing

A View to a Death

• Parachutist → first view, then dead

• Simon’s death → boys far from civilisation

The Shell and the Glasses

• shell & glasses → authority & wisdom → fragile authority

• Piggy’s death → foreshadowing loss of wisdom since he was the one remaining symbol

Castle Rock

• Home of violent and barbaric activity

• Symbolism → security & relief → Simon and Piggy don’t have to suffer anymore

The Cry of the Hunters

• The cry of the hunters as they are chasing Ralph

• Everyone’s emotional cry when they are rescued