Common Themes in Lord of the Flies and I’m the King of the Castle
‘Lord of the Flies’
Nature and setting
The settings are
important in both
novels. The island
setting in ‘Lord of
the Flies’ makes
the boys very
isolated, while in
‘I’m the King of the
Castle’, an isolated
house and a wood
play important
parts.
Comments
In ‘Lord of the Flies’ the natural
setting of the island can be viewed in
several ways. Firstly, it can appear
threatening with its intense heat.
Quotations
‘All round him the long scar
smashed into the jungle was
a bath of heat’ (p11)
‘He was clambering heavily
among the creepers and
broken trunks’ (p11)
Secondly, it can appear as a paradise
full of exciting possibilities for the
boys.
‘A kind of glamour was
spread over them and the
scene and they were
conscious of the glamour
and made happy by it.’ (p33)
‘Ralph spread his arms.
“All ours.”’ (p39)
Thirdly, the forest becomes a refuge
for Simon, who is unable to
communicate the truths he knows to
the other boys.
‘When he was secure in the
middle he was in a little
cabin screened off from the
open space by a few leaves.’
(p72)
‘Softly, surrounded by a
Nature seems to embrace him in a
‘I’m the King of the Castle’
Comments
Quotations
In ‘I’m the King of the Castle’ ‘Up the drive, and at the
the house, Warings, is set
back of the house, bunched
apart from the rest of the
between the yew trees,
village, and so the boys
were the great bushes of
could be said to be isolated
rhododendron.’ (p10)
from society in a similar way ‘Warings, built on a slope
to the boys in ‘Lord of the
leading out of the village,
Flies’. Also it is hemmed in
some distance from any
by large oppressive trees
other house.’ (p9)
and bushes.
At certain times, Kingshaw is
at one with the natural
world and is able to become
more fully himself through
it. The wood becomes a
place of refuge for him, and
it is to nature that he turns
when his future finally
becomes too horrific to
face.
‘a great surge of excitement
came over him, he felt again
the enormous importance of
being who he was, and
standing where he was, in
the middle of the wood.’
(p94).
‘He felt suddenly excited.
This was his place, it was
where he wanted to be’
(p221)
‘He began to splash and
stumble forwards, into the
middle of the stream, where
the water was deepest.
When it had reached up to
his thighs, he lay down
Relationships
between children
Strong emotions
are portrayed in
both novels. Also,
in both books the
boys find it hard to
express what they
are feeling.
very beautiful way after his death.
fringe of inquisitive bright
creatures, itself a silver
shape beneath the steadfast
constellations, Simon’s dead
body moved out towards
the open sea.’
slowly and put his face full
into it and breathed in a
long, careful breath’ (p222)
Birds can appear threatening and
scary in both novels. At the
beginning of ‘Lord of the Flies’ a bird
suddenly takes flight in an alarming
way.
‘A bird ‘flashed upwards
with a witch-like cry’ (p11)
In ‘Lord of the Flies’ there is a great
deal of conflict between Ralph and
Jack.
‘Ralph heard the mockery
and hated Jack’ (p149)
Kingshaw hates Hooper as
he bullies him so
relentlessly.
Because they are so young, the boys
are unable to understand and
manage the intense emotions they
feel for each other.
‘they looked at each other,
baffled, in love and hate’
(p70)
As he is only a child,
Kingshaw does not always
have the words to express
his feelings and explain his
problems
In ‘I’m the King of the
Castle’, Kingshaw is attacked
by a crow.
‘there was a single screech,
and the terrible beating of
wings, and the crow
swooped down and landed
in the middle of his back.’
(p32)
‘He knew that, quite simply,
he hated Hooper now’ (p46)
‘He could not explain that
he had wanted to go right
away for ever.’ (p128)
‘Kingshaw wanted to scream
and scream into both their
faces, shout and shout to
make them understand.’
(p129)
Adults in the
novels
Overall, both
Fielding and Hill
seem to suggest
that the children
do not get any
support from the
adults, and that
they must cope
alone
Bullying and
violence
Strong emotions
are portrayed in
both novels.
In ‘Lord of the Flies’, there are no
adults until the children are rescued
at the end of the novel, but there are
suggestions that they have not been
close to their parents. Most of the
boys are at boarding schools, Piggy
has been brought up by an aunt, and
there is a hint that Ralph’s parents
have split up and that his home life is
unstable.
‘My dad’s dead….and my
mum - ……….I used to live
with my auntie’ (p19)
In the very final section of the novel
when their rescuers arrive, Ralph is
unable to relate to the officer and
explain what has happened.
In ‘Lord of the Flies’, Jack very quickly
singles out Piggy, who is overweight,
has bad eyesight and is of a lower,
social class than the others, as a
target for bullying.
‘Ralph looked at him
dumbly….the tears began to
flow and sobs shook him.’
(p248)
‘He was intimidated by this
uniformed superiority and
the offhand authority in
Merridew’s voice.’ (Piggy’s
reaction to Jack – p28)
‘We don’t want you.’ (Jack
to Piggy – p 32)
The bullying has a stifling effect on
Piggy.
‘If you're scared of someone
you hate him but you can't
stop thinking about him.
You kid yourself he's all right
really, an' then when you
see him again; it's like
‘In the succession of houses
that Ralph had known, this
one stood out with
particular clarity because
after that house he had
been sent away to school.
Mummy had still been with
them and Daddy had come
home every day’ (p139)
Although Kingshaw has a
mother and Hooper a
father, neither of them are
close to their parents and
there is a strong sense that
their parents do not
understand them and
behave rather coldly
towards them.
‘He thought, we should be
close together, we have only
one another, I ought to be
able to talk freely with him’
(of Joseph Hooper on p24)
Hooper takes a perverse
delight in bullying Kingshaw.
Like Jack in ‘Lord of the
Flies’, he exploits his
superior social class and
taunts Kingshaw for his
family’s lack of money.
‘She’s a servant, that’s all,
she gets paid, and she has to
do what my father says, and
that means you have to do
what I say.’ (p73)
‘she worried a good deal
about her own capacity for
motherhood, about whether
she said the right things and
looked sufficiently at ease,
in his presence.’ (p58)
‘He had never been faced
with such relentless
persecution as this’ (p34)
asthma an' you can't
breathe.’ (p116)
Evil
In both novels, evil
is a strong force
which is clearly
visible in the
actions of some
characters.
Evil is a key theme in ‘Lord of the
Flies’, and Simon is the only child to
realise that this evil does not come
from an external source, but within
the boys themselves.
‘maybe it’s only us.’ (p111)
The desire to hurt and kill grows
within Jack as the plot unfolds.
Jack doesn’t kill a pig on the
first sighting. ‘They knew
very well why he hadn’t:
because of the enormity of
the knife descending and
cutting into living flesh;
because of the unbearable
blood.’ ‘Next time there
would be no mercy.’
He loses all his humanity along with
his identity as a human being when
he paints his face.
‘He began to dance and his
laughter became a
bloodthirsty snarling…the
mask was a thing on its own,
behind which Jack hid,
liberated from shame and
self-concsiousness.’
Even Ralph, who is basically a ‘good’
Ralph too was fighting to get
In ‘I’m the King of the
Castle’, Hooper clearly takes
delight in his bullying of
Kingshaw.
‘All he could do was bait and
bait, seeing how far he
could go, trying to think of
new things’ (p34)
‘He could not have imagined
the charm it afforded him,
having Kingshaw here,
thinking of things to do to
him’ (p35)
More than once in ‘I’m the
‘He thought suddenly, I
Symbols
There are a
number of symbols
which link to the
key themes in both
novels.
character in ‘Lord of the Flies’, is
seduced by the idea of evil.
near, to get a handful of
that brown, vulnerable
flesh. The desire to squeeze
and hurt was overmastering. (p142)
King of the Castle’, Kingshaw
is tempted to harm Hooper,
but holds back.
could kill him, I could make
him fall off just by looking at
him, or touching him, or
telling him to take one step
the wrong way’ (p153)
Ralph experiences terrible remorse
after the death of Simon.
‘Don’t you understand,
Piggy? The things we did –‘
(p193)
Kingshaw knows that it was
wrong to wish Hooper dead,
and fears that God will
punish him for his thoughts.
‘He remembered what he
had thought and said about
Hooper, how he had wished
him to be dead. Now, he
was afraid of what would
happen, because of that.
Things came back on you.
You were never safe.’ (p173)
By the end of the novel, Ralph knows
that his innocent childhood is over.
‘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.’
(p248)
Kingshaw is aware of the
evil in Hooper, but is unable
to explain it to Fielding.
‘he had gone on and on,
trying to make Fielding see
how things were, the
terribleness of both present
and future. It was
pointless.’ (p181)
In ‘Lord of the Flies’, the conch is
used to represent order and
democracy, as it is used in meetings
to give the holder the power to
speak.
‘I’ll give the conch to the
next person to speak. He
can hold it when he’s
speaking.’ (p43)
Many of the symbols in ‘I’m
the King of the Castle’ are
linked with death and decay.
Yew trees are associated
with cemeteries, and
surround the Hooper family
home.
‘The yew trees had stood
here before the house,
Warings, had been built
around them’ (p10)
The Death’s Head Hawk
Moth has obvious
he Death’s Head Hawk Moth
‘already years dead,
The pig's head on a stick, covered in
flies, symbolises how far the violence
has come. Only Simon really
‘In front of Simon, the Lord
of the Flies hung on his stick
and grinned.’ (p171)
‘You knew, didn’t you? I’m
T
appreciates that the 'beast' is actually
the evil inside the boys themselves
and it is that which is breaking things
part of you? Close, close,
close! I’m the reason why
it’s no go? Why things are
what they are?’ (p177)
connotations of death in its
name, and it is literally
decomposing before
Hooper’s eyes.
disintegrated, collapsing
into a soft, formless heap of
dark dust.’
In contrast, the boy Fielding
is frequently linked with
new life (the turkeys and the
calf). However, the images
are unpleasant, and there is
always the reminder of the
fate awaiting the animals.
‘The turkeys were very small
and fluffed and ugly’ (p178)
‘the calf came out, slithering
and unwieldy’ (p177)
up.
So, the title of the novel reinforces
the idea that we all have something
of the 'devil' within us - and that the
'devil' can be released all too easily.
Weather
Oppressive, stormy
weather features
strongly in both
novels.
In ‘Lord of the Flies’, the heat is
intense.
‘the heat seemed to
increase till it became a
threatening weight’ (p20)
In the lead-up to Simon’s death, a
fierce storm is brewing on the island,
mirroring the tension between the
boys (pathetic fallacy)
‘revolving masses of gas
piled up the static until the
air was ready to explode.’
(p179)
‘I’m the King of the Castle’ is
set during an English
summer. The weather
varies from baking heat, to
heavy rain, to torrential
thunderstorms.
When Kingshaw and Hooper
are alone in the wood, again
a storm is imminent, again
suggesting that there will be
violent emotional scenes.
‘You ought to be here when
we do them at Christmas’
(p178)
‘they go for veal’ (p193)
‘It was raining hard again,
and great, bruise-coloured
clouds hung low over the
copse.’ (p16)
‘There was a feeling of
tension inside the wood, as
the sky darkened…he felt
everything around him to be
holding back some kind of
violence.’ (p83)
Foreshadowing
Events in both
novels hint at the
eventual tragedies
In ‘Lord of the Flies’, some of the
boys push a rock down a cliff. This
foreshadows Piggy’s fate later in the
novel, when Roger pushes a rock
over the cliff and kills Piggy.
A knot of boys, making a
great noise that he had not
noticed, were heaving and
pushing at a rock. As he
turned, the base cracked
and the whole mass toppled
into the sea so that a
thunderous plume of spray
leapt half-way up the cliff.
(p133)
In ‘I’m the King of the
Castle’, the housekeeper is
watching a film in which a
blind man is being chased by
a silent stalker. This mirrors
the way in which Hooper
pursues Kingshaw. To get
away from the tense film,
Kingshaw goes into the
kitchen where there is a
biscuit tin with a picture of
woods in the autumn on the
lid. This foreshadows the
final scene where Kingshaw
goes into the autumnal
woods to take his life.
‘There was a stream, and
piles of yellow-orange
leaves. That was how it
would be in Hang Wood,
soon.’ (p161)