Lord Of The Flies (Sparknotes revision notes)(LOTF support booklet part 1)
Key Facts
FULL TI TLE · Lord of the Flies
A UTH O R · William Golding
TYPE O F WO RK · Novel
GENRE · Allegory; adventure story; castaway fiction; loss-of-innocence fiction
LA NGUA GE · English
TI ME A ND PLA CE WRI TTEN · Early 1950s; Salisbury, England
DA TE O F FI RS T PUB LI CA TI O N · 1954
PUB LI S HER · Faber and Faber
N ARR AT OR · The story is told by an anonymous third-person narrator who
conveys the events of the novel without commenting on the action or intruding
into the story.
PO I NT O F VI EW · The narrator speaks in the third person, primarily
focusing on Ralph’s point of view but following Jack and Simon in certain
episodes. The narrator is omniscient and gives us access to the characters’ inner
thoughts.
TO NE · Dark; violent; pessimistic; tragic; unsparing
TENS E · Immediate past
S ETTI N G ( TI ME) · Near future
S ETTI N G ( PLA CE) · A deserted tropical island
PRO TA GO NI S T · Ralph
MA JO R CO NFLI CT · Free from the rules that adult society formerly
imposed on them, the boys marooned on the island struggle with the conflicting
human instincts that exist within each of them—the instinct to work toward
civilization and order and the instinct to descend into savagery, violence, and
chaos.
R I S I N G A CT I O N · The boys assemble on the beach. In the election for
leader, Ralph defeats Jack, who is furious when he loses. As the boys explore
the island, tension grows between Jack, who is interested only in hunting, and
Ralph, who believes most of the boys’ efforts should go toward building shelters
and maintaining a signal fire. When rumors surface that there is some sort of
beast living on the island, the boys grow fearful, and the group begins to divide
into two camps supporting Ralph and Jack, respectively. Ultimately, Jack forms
a new tribe altogether, fully immersing himself in the savagery of the hunt.
CLI MA X · Simon encounters the Lord of the Flies in the forest glade and
realizes that the beast is not a physical entity but rather something that exists
within each boy on the island. When Simon tries to approach the other boys and
convey this message to them, they fall on him and kill him savagely.
FA LLI NG A CTI ON · Virtually all the boys on the island abandon Ralph and
Piggy and descend further into savagery and chaos. When the other boys kill
Piggy and destroy the conch shell, Ralph flees from Jack’s tribe and encounters
the naval officer on the beach.
THEMES · Civilization vs. savagery; the loss of innocence; innate human evil
MO TI FS · Biblical parallels; natural beauty; the bullying of the weak by the
strong; the outward trappings of savagery (face paint, spears, totems, chants)
S Y MB O LS · The conch shell; Piggy’s glasses; the signal fire; the beast; the
Lord of the Flies; Ralph, Piggy, Jack, Simon, and Roger
FORES HA DO WI N G · The rolling of the boulders off the Castle Rock in
Chapter 6 foreshadows Piggy’s death; the Lord of the Flies’s promise to have
some “fun” with Simon foreshadows Simon’s death
Context
William Golding was born on September 19, 1911, in Cornwall, England. Although
he tried to write a novel as early as age twelve, his parents urged him to study
the natural sciences. Golding followed his parents’ wishes until his second year
at Oxford, when he changed his focus to English literature. After graduating
from Oxford, he worked briefly as a theater actor and director, wrote poetry,
and then became a schoolteacher. In 1940, a year after England entered World
War II, Golding joined the Royal Navy, where he served in command of a
rocket-launcher and participated in the invasion of Normandy.
Golding’s experience in World War II had a profound effect on his view of
humanity and the evils of which it was capable. After the war, Golding resumed
teaching and started to write novels. His first and greatest success came with
Lord of the Flies (1954), which ultimately became a bestseller in both Britain
and the United States after more than twenty publishers rejected it. The
novel’s sales enabled Golding to retire from teaching and devote himself fully to
writing. Golding wrote several more novels, notably Pincher Martin (1956), and a
play, The Brass Butterfly (1958). Although he never matched the popular and
critical success he enjoyed with Lord of the Flies, he remained a respected and
distinguished author for the rest of his life and was awarded the Nobel Prize
for Literature in 1983. Golding died in 1993, one of the most acclaimed writers
of the second half of the twentieth century.
Lord of the Flies tells the story of a group of English schoolboys marooned on a
tropical island after their plane is shot down during a war. Though the novel is
fictional, its exploration of the idea of human evil is at least partly based on
Golding’s experience with the real-life violence and brutality of World War II.
Free from the rules and structures of civilization and society, the boys on the
island in Lord of the Flies descend into savagery. As the boys splinter into
factions, some behave peacefully and work together to maintain order and
achieve common goals, while others rebel and seek only anarchy and violence. In
his portrayal of the small world of the island, Golding paints a broader portrait
of the fundamental human struggle between the civilizing instinct—the impulse
to obey rules, behave morally, and act lawfully—and the savage instinct—the
impulse to seek brute power over others, act selfishly, scorn moral rules, and
indulge in violence.
Golding employs a relatively straightforward writing style in Lord of the Flies,
one that avoids highly poetic language, lengthy description, and philosophical
interludes. Much of the novel is allegorical, meaning that the characters and
objects in the novel are infused with symbolic significance that conveys the
novel’s central themes and ideas. In portraying the various ways in which the
boys on the island adapt to their new surroundings and react to their new
freedom, Golding explores the broad spectrum of ways in which humans respond
to stress, change, and tension.
Readers and critics have interpreted Lord of the Flies in widely varying ways
over the years since its publication. During the 1950s and 1960s, many readings
of the novel claimed that Lord of the Flies dramatizes the history of
civilization. Some believed that the novel explores fundamental religious issues,
such as original sin and the nature of good and evil. Others approached Lord of
the Flies through the theories of the psychoanalyst Sigmund Freud, who taught
that the human mind was the site of a constant battle among different
impulses—the id (instinctual needs and desires), the ego (the conscious, rational
mind), and the superego (the sense of conscience and morality). Still others
maintained that Golding wrote the novel as a criticism of the political and social
institutions of the West. Ultimately, there is some validity to each of these
different readings and interpretations of Lord of the Flies. Although Golding’s
story is confined to the microcosm of a group of boys, it resounds with
implications far beyond the bounds of the small island and explores problems
and questions universal to the human experience.
Themes (the fundamental and often universal ideas explored in a literary work)
Civilization 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. This conflict might be expressed in a number
of ways: civilization vs. savagery, order vs. chaos, reason vs. impulse, law vs.
anarchy, or the broader heading of good vs. evil. Throughout the novel, Golding
associates the instinct of civilization with good and the instinct of savagery
with evil.
The conflict between the two instincts is the driving force of the novel,
explored through the dissolution of the young English boys’ civilized, moral,
disciplined behavior as they accustom themselves to a wild, brutal, barbaric life
in the jungle. Lord of the Flies is an allegorical novel, which means that Golding
conveys many of his main ideas and themes through symbolic characters and
objects. He represents the conflict between civilization and savagery in the
conflict between the novel’s two main characters: Ralph, the protagonist, who
represents order and leadership; and Jack, the antagonist, who represents
savagery and the desire for power.
As the novel progresses, Golding shows how different people feel the influences
of the instincts of civilization and savagery to different degrees. Piggy, for
instance, has no savage feelings, while Roger seems barely capable of
comprehending the rules of civilization. Generally, however, Golding implies that
the instinct of savagery is far more primal and fundamental to the human
psyche than the instinct of civilization. Golding sees moral behavior, in many
cases, as something that civilization forces upon the individual rather than a
natural expression of human individuality. When left to their own devices,
Golding implies, people naturally revert to cruelty, savagery, and barbarism. This
idea of innate human evil is central to Lord of the Flies, and finds expression in
several important symbols, most notably the beast and the sow’s head on the
stake. Among all the characters, only Simon seems to possess anything like a
natural, innate goodness.
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
civilization, 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 civilization can mitigate but
never wipe out the innate evil that exists within all human beings. The forest
glade in which Simon sits in Chapter 3 symbolizes this loss of innocence. At
first, it is a place of natural beauty and peace, but when Simon returns later in
the novel, he discovers the bloody sow’s head impaled upon a stake in the middle
of the clearing. The bloody offering to the beast has disrupted the paradise
that existed before—a powerful symbol of innate human evil disrupting
childhood innocence.
Motifs (the recurring structures, contrasts, and literary devices that can
help to develop and inform the text’s major themes)
Biblical Parallels
Many critics have characterized Lord of the Flies as a retelling of episodes
from the Bible. While that description may be an oversimplification, the novel
does echo certain Christian images and themes. Golding does not make any
explicit or direct connections to Christian symbolism in Lord of the Flies;
instead, these biblical parallels function as a kind of subtle motif in the novel,
adding thematic resonance to the main ideas of the story. The island itself,
particularly Simon’s glade in the forest, recalls the Garden of Eden in its status
as an originally pristine place that is corrupted by the introduction of evil.
Similarly, we may see the Lord of the Flies as a representation of the devil, for
it works to promote evil among humankind. Furthermore, many critics have
drawn strong parallels between Simon and Jesus. Among the boys, Simon is the
one who arrives at the moral truth of the novel, and the other boys kill him
sacrificially as a consequence of having discovered this truth. Simon’s
conversation with the Lord of the Flies also parallels the confrontation between
Jesus and the devil during Jesus’ forty days in the wilderness, as told in the
Christian Gospels.
However, it is important to remember that the parallels between Simon and
Christ are not complete, and that there are limits to reading Lord of the Flies
purely as a Christian allegory. Save for Simon’s two uncanny predictions of the
future, he lacks the supernatural connection to God that Jesus has in Christian
tradition. Although Simon is wise in many ways, his death does not bring
salvation to the island; rather, his death plunges the island deeper into savagery
and moral guilt. Moreover, Simon dies before he is able to tell the boys the
truth he has discovered. Jesus, in contrast, was killed while spreading his moral
philosophy. In this way, Simon—and Lord of the Flies as a whole—echoes
Christian ideas and themes without developing explicit, precise parallels with
them. The novel’s biblical parallels enhance its moral themes but are not
necessarily the primary key to interpreting the story.
Symbols (the objects, characters, figures, and colors used to represent
abstract ideas or concepts)
The Conch Shell
Ralph and Piggy discover the conch shell on the beach at the start of the novel
and use it to summon the boys together after the crash separates them. Used
in this capacity, the conch shell becomes a powerful symbol of civilization and
order in the novel. The shell effectively governs the boys’ meetings, for the boy
who holds the shell holds the right to speak. In this regard, the shell is more
than a symbol—it is an actual vessel of political legitimacy and democratic
power. As the island civilization erodes and the boys descend into savagery, the
conch shell loses its power and influence among them. Ralph clutches the shell
desperately when he talks about his role in murdering Simon. Later, the other
boys ignore Ralph and throw stones at him when he attempts to blow the conch
in Jack’s camp. The boulder that Roger rolls onto Piggy also crushes the conch
shell, signifying the demise of the civilized instinct among almost all the boys on
the island.
Piggy’s Glasses
Piggy is the most intelligent, rational boy in the group, and his glasses represent
the power of science and intellectual endeavor in society. This symbolic
significance is clear from the start of the novel, when the boys use the lenses
from Piggy’s glasses to focus the sunlight and start a fire. When Jack’s hunters
raid Ralph’s camp and steal the glasses, the savages effectively take the power
to make fire, leaving Ralph’s group helpless.
The Signal Fire
The signal fire burns on the mountain, and later on the beach, to attract the
notice of passing ships that might be able to rescue the boys. As a result, the
signal fire becomes a barometer of the boys’ connection to civilization. In the
early parts of the novel, the fact that the boys maintain the fire is a sign that
they want to be rescued and return to society. When the fire burns low or goes
out, we realize that the boys have lost sight of their desire to be rescued and
have accepted their savage lives on the island. The signal fire thus functions as
a kind of measurement of the strength of the civilized instinct remaining on the
island. Ironically, at the end of the novel, a fire finally summons a ship to the
island, but not the signal fire. Instead, it is the fire of savagery—the forest
fire Jack’s gang starts as part of his quest to hunt and kill Ralph.
The Beast
The imaginary beast that frightens all the boys stands for the primal instinct of
savagery that exists within all human beings. The boys are afraid of the beast,
but only Simon reaches the realization that they fear the beast because it
exists within each of them. As the boys grow more savage, their belief in the
beast grows stronger. By the end of the novel, the boys are leaving it sacrifices
and treating it as a totemic god. The boys’ behavior is what brings the beast
into existence, so the more savagely the boys act, the more real the beast
seems to become.
The Lord of the Flies
The Lord of the Flies is the bloody, severed sow’s head that Jack impales on a
stake in the forest glade as an offering to the beast. This complicated symbol
becomes the most important image in the novel when Simon confronts the sow’s
head in the glade and it seems to speak to him, telling him that evil lies within
every human heart and promising to have some “fun” with him. (This“fun”
foreshadows Simon’s death in the following chapter.) In this way, the Lord of
the Flies becomes both a physical manifestation of the beast, a symbol of the
power of evil, and a kind of Satan figure who evokes the beast within each
human being. Looking at the novel in the context of biblical parallels, the Lord of
the Flies recalls the devil, just as Simon recalls Jesus. In fact, the name “Lord
of the Flies” is a literal translation of the name of the biblical name Beelzebub,
a powerful demon in hell sometimes thought to be the devil himself.
Ralph, Piggy, Jack, Simon, and Roger
Lord of the Flies is an allegorical novel, and many of its characters signify
important ideas or themes. Ralph represents order, leadership, and civilization.
Piggy represents the scientific and intellectual aspects of civilization. Jack
represents unbridled savagery and the desire for power. Simon represents
natural human goodness. Roger represents brutality and bloodlust at their most
extreme. To the extent that the boys’ society resembles a political state, the
littluns might be seen as the common people, while the older boys represent the
ruling classes and political leaders. The relationships that develop between the
older boys and the younger ones emphasize the older boys’ connection to either
the civilized or the savage instinct: civilized boys like Ralph and Simon use their
power to protect the younger boys and advance the good of the group; savage
boys like Jack and Roger use their power to gratify their own desires, treating
the littler boys as objects for their own amusement.
Character List
Ralph - The novel’s protagonist, the twelve-year-old English boy who is elected
leader of the group of boys marooned on the island. Ralph attempts to
coordinate the boys’ efforts to build a miniature civilization on the island until
they can be rescued. Ralph represents human beings’ civilizing instinct, as
opposed to the savage instinct that Jack embodies.
Jack - The novel’s antagonist, one of the older boys stranded on the island. Jack
becomes the leader of the hunters but longs for total power and becomes
increasingly wild, barbaric, and cruel as the novel progresses. Jack, adept at
manipulating the other boys, represents the instinct of savagery within human
beings, as opposed to the civilizing instinct Ralph represents.
Simon - A shy, sensitive boy in the group. Simon, in some ways the only
naturally“good” character on the island, behaves kindly toward the younger boys
and is willing to work for the good of their community. Moreover, because his
motivation is rooted in his deep feeling of connectedness to nature, Simon is the
only character whose sense of morality does not seem to have been imposed by
society. Simon represents a kind of natural goodness, as opposed to the
unbridled evil of Jack and the imposed morality of civilization represented by
Ralph and Piggy.
Piggy - Ralph’s“lieutenant.” A whiny, intellectual boy, Piggy’s inventiveness
frequently leads to innovation, such as the makeshift sundial that the boys use
to tell time. Piggy represents the scientific, rational side of civilization.
Roger - Jack’s“lieutenant.” A sadistic, cruel older boy who brutalizes the littluns
and eventually murders Piggy by rolling a boulder onto him.
Sam and Eric - A pair of twins closely allied with Ralph. Sam and Eric are always
together, and the other boys often treat them as a single entity, calling them
“Samneric.” The easily excitable Sam and Eric are part of the group known as
the “bigguns.” At the end of the novel, they fall victim to Jack’s manipulation
and coercion.
The Lord of the Flies - The name given to the sow’s head that Jack’s gang
impales on a stake and erects in the forest as an offering to the“beast.” The
Lord of the Flies comes to symbolize the primordial instincts of power and
cruelty that take control of Jack’s tribe.
Analysis of Major Characters
Ralph
Ralph is the athletic, charismatic protagonist of Lord of the Flies. Elected the
leader of the boys at the beginning of the novel, Ralph is the primary
representative of order, civilization, and productive leadership in the novel.
While most of the other boys initially are concerned with playing, having fun,
and avoiding work, Ralph sets about building huts and thinking of ways to
maximize their chances of being rescued. For this reason, Ralph’s power and
influence over the other boys are secure at the beginning of the novel. However,
as the group gradually succumbs to savage instincts over the course of the
novel, Ralph’s position declines precipitously while Jack’s rises. Eventually, most
of the boys except Piggy leave Ralph’s group for Jack’s, and Ralph is left alone
to be hunted by Jack’s tribe. Ralph’s commitment to civilization and morality is
strong, and his main wish is to be rescued and returned to the society of adults.
In a sense, this strength gives Ralph a moral victory at the end of the novel,
when he casts the Lord of the Flies to the ground and takes up the stake it is
impaled on to defend himself against Jack’s hunters.
In the earlier parts of the novel, Ralph is unable to understand why the other
boys would give in to base instincts of bloodlust and barbarism. The sight of the
hunters chanting and dancing is baffling and distasteful to him. As the novel
progresses, however, Ralph, like Simon, comes to understand that savagery
exists within all the boys. Ralph remains determined not to let this savagery overwhelm him, and only briefly does he consider joining Jack’s tribe in order to
save himself. When Ralph hunts a boar for the first time, however, he
experiences the exhilaration and thrill of bloodlust and violence. When he
attends Jack’s feast, he is swept away by the frenzy, dances on the edge of the
group, and participates in the killing of Simon. This firsthand knowledge of the
evil that exists within him, as within all human beings, is tragic for Ralph, and it
plunges him into listless despair for a time. But this knowledge also enables him
to cast down the Lord of the Flies at the end of the novel. Ralph’s story ends
semi-tragically: although he is rescued and returned to civilization, when he sees
the naval officer, he weeps with the burden of his new knowledge about the
human capacity for evil.
Jack
The strong-willed, egomaniacal Jack is the novel’s primary representative of the
instinct of savagery, violence, and the desire for power—in short, the antithesis
of Ralph. From the beginning of the novel, Jack desires power above all other
things. He is furious when he loses the election to Ralph and continually pushes
the boundaries of his subordinate role in the group. Early on, Jack retains the
sense of moral propriety and behavior that society instilled in him—in fact, in
school, he was the leader of the choirboys. The first time he encounters a pig,
he is unable to kill it. But Jack soon becomes obsessed with hunting and devotes
himself to the task, painting his face like a barbarian and giving himself over to
bloodlust. The more savage Jack becomes, the more he is able to control the
rest of the group. Indeed, apart from Ralph, Simon, and Piggy, the group largely
follows Jack in casting off moral restraint and embracing violence and savagery.
Jack’s love of authority and violence are intimately connected, as both enable
him to feel powerful and exalted. By the end of the novel, Jack has learned to
use the boys’ fear of the beast to control their behavior—a reminder of how
religion and superstition can be manipulated as instruments of power.
Simon
Whereas Ralph and Jack stand at opposite ends of the spectrum between
civilization and savagery, Simon stands on an entirely different plane from all
the other boys. Simon embodies a kind of innate, spiritual human goodness that
is deeply connected with nature and, in its own way, as primal as Jack’s evil. The
other boys abandon moral behavior as soon as civilization is no longer there to
impose it upon them. They are not innately moral; rather, the adult world—the
threat of punishment for misdeeds—has conditioned them to act morally. To an
extent, even the seemingly civilized Ralph and Piggy are products of social
conditioning, as we see when they participate in the hunt-dance. In Golding’s
view, the human impulse toward civilization is not as deeply rooted as the human
impulse toward savagery. Unlike all the other boys on the island, Simon acts
morally not out of guilt or shame but because he believes in the inherent value
of morality. He behaves kindly toward the younger children, and he is the first
to realize the problem posed by the beast and the Lord of the Flies—that is,
that the monster on the island is not a real, physical beast but rather a
savagery that lurks within each human being. The sow’s head on the stake
symbolizes this idea, as we see in Simon’s vision of the head speaking to him.
Ultimately, this idea of the inherent evil within each human being stands as the
moral conclusion and central problem of the novel. Against this idea of evil,
Simon represents a contrary idea of essential human goodness. However, his
brutal murder at the hands of the other boys indicates the scarcity of that
good amid an overwhelming abundance of evil.
Lord of the Flies(Wikipedia revision notes)
Lord of the Flies
The original UK Lord of the Flies book cover
Lord of the Flies is a 1954 dystopian novel by Nobel Prize-winning English author William
Golding about a group of British boys stuck on an uninhabited island who try to govern
themselves with disastrous results. Its stances on the already controversial subjects of human
nature and individual welfare versus the common good earned it position 68 on the American
Library Association’s list of the 100 most frequently challenged books of 1990–1999.[2] The
novel is a reaction to the youth novel The Coral Island by R. M. Ballantyne.
Background
The book indicates that it takes place in the midst of an unspecified nuclear war. Some of the
marooned characters are ordinary students, while others arrive as a musical choir under an
established leader. Most (with the exception of the choirboys) appear never to have
encountered one another before. The book portrays their descent into savagery; left to
themselves in a paradisiacal country, far from modern civilisation, the well-educated children
regress to a primitive state.
At an allegorical level, the central theme is the conflicting human impulses toward
civilization—living by rules, peacefully and in harmony—and toward the will to power.
Themes include the tension between groupthink and individuality, between rational and
emotional reactions, and between morality and immorality. How these play out, and how
different people feel the influences of these, form a major subtext of Lord of the Flies.
Plot
In the midst of a wartime evacuation, a British plane crashes on or near an isolated island in a
remote region of the Pacific Ocean. The only survivors are boys in their middle childhood or
preadolescence. Two boys—the fair-haired Ralph and an overweight, bespectacled boy
reluctantly nicknamed "Piggy"—find a conch, which Ralph uses as a horn to call all the
survivors to one area. Due largely to the fact that Ralph appears responsible for bringing all
the survivors together, he is quickly elected their "chief", though he does not receive the
votes of the members of a boys' choir, led by the red-headed Jack Merridew. Ralph asserts
three primary goals: to have fun, survive, and to maintain a smoke signal that could alert
passing ships to their presence on the island. The boys declare that whoever holds the conch
shall also be able to speak at their formal gatherings and receive the attentive silence of the
larger group.
Jack organises his choir group into a hunting party responsible for discovering a food source;
Ralph, Jack, and a quiet, dreamy boy named Simon soon form a loose troika of leaders.
Though he is Ralph's only confidant, Piggy is quickly made an outcast by his fellow "biguns"
(older boys) and becomes an unwilling source of laughs for the other children. Simon, in
addition to supervising the project of constructing shelters, feels an instinctive need to protect
the "littluns" (younger boys).
The semblance of order quickly deteriorates as the majority of the boys turn idle, giving little
aid in building shelters, and begin to develop paranoias about the island, referring to a
supposed monster, the "beast", which they believe to exist on the island. Ralph insists that no
such beast exists, but Jack, who has started a power struggle with Ralph, gains control of the
discussion by boldly promising to kill the beast. At one point, Jack summons all of his
hunters to hunt down a wild pig, drawing away those assigned to maintain the signal fire. A
ship travels by the island, but without the boys' smoke signal to alert the ship's crew, the ship
continues by without stopping. Angered by the failure of the boys to attract potential rescuers,
Ralph considers relinquishing his position, but is convinced not to do so by Piggy.
One night, an aerial battle occurs over the island while the boys sleep, during which a dead
fighter pilot is ejected from his plane. His body drifts down to the island in his parachute,
both get tangled in a tree near the top of the mountain. Later on, while Jack schemes against
Ralph, twins Sam and Eric, now assigned to the maintenance of the signal fire, see the corpse
of the fighter pilot and his parachute in the dark. Mistaking the corpse for the beast, they run
to the cluster of shelters that Ralph and Simon have erected and warn the others. This
unexpected meeting again raises tensions between Jack and Ralph. Shortly thereafter, Jack
decides to lead a party to the other side of the island, where a mountain of stones, later called
Castle Rock, forms a place where he claims the beast resides. Only Ralph and Jack's sadistic
supporter Roger agree to go; Ralph turns back shortly before the other two boys. When they
arrive at the shelters, Jack calls an assembly and tries to turn the others against Ralph, asking
for them to remove him from his position. Receiving little support, Jack, Roger, and another
boy leave the shelters to form their own tribe. This tribe lures in recruits from the main group
by providing a feast of cooked pig and its members begin to paint their faces and enact
bizarre rituals including sacrifices to the beast.
Simon, likely an epileptic,[5][6] wanders off on his own to think and finds a severed pig head,
left by Jack as an offering to the beast. Simon envisions the pig head, now swarming with
scavenging flies, as the "Lord of the Flies" and believes that it is talking to him. The pig's
head tells Simon that the boys themselves "created" the beast and claims that the real beast is
inside them all. Simon also locates the dead parachutist who had been mistaken for the beast,
and is the sole member of the group to recognise that the "monster" is merely a human
corpse. Simon, hoping to tell others of the discovery, finds Jack's tribe in the island's interior
during a ritual dance and, mistaken for the beast, is killed by the frenzied boys. Ralph, Piggy,
Sam, and Eric feel guilty that they, too, participated in this murderous "dance."
Jack and his band of "savages" decide that they should possess Piggy's glasses, the only
means of starting a fire on the island, so they raid Ralph's camp, confiscate the glasses, and
return to their abode on Castle Rock. Ralph, now deserted by most of his supporters, journeys
to Castle Rock to confront Jack and secure the glasses. Taking the conch and accompanied
only by Piggy, Sam, and Eric, Ralph finds the tribe and demands that they return the valuable
object. Turning against Ralph, the tribe takes Sam and Eric captive while Roger drops a
boulder from his vantage point above, killing Piggy and shattering the conch. Ralph manages
to escape, but Sam and Eric are tortured until they agree to join Jack's tribe.
The following morning, Jack orders his tribe to begin a manhunt for Ralph. Jack's savages set
fire to the forest while Ralph desperately weighs his options for survival. Following a long
chase, most of the island is consumed in flames, drawing the attention of a passing naval
vessel. Ralph suddenly runs into an officer from the warship and bursts into tears over the
death of Piggy and the "end of innocence". The other children arrive and, now realizing what
they have done, also spontaneously erupt into sobs. After criticising them for British boys
letting themselves fall into such feral behaviour, the officer awkwardly turns away to give
them a moment to pull themselves together.
Allegorical relationships
Ralph
When he and the others arrive on the island, Ralph quickly becomes the chief of the group,
not by any harsh, overt or physical action, but by being elected.[7] Ralph is described as
having "the directness of genuine leadership".[8] Ralph's first big decision is that they have
"got to decide if this is an island".[9] After Ralph, Jack, and Simon discover that they are truly
"on an uninhabited island",[10] Ralph suggests that a fire be lit because "if a ship comes near
the island they may not notice us".[11] However, towards the end of the book he forgets the
initial reason for maintaining the fire. This is representative of the debilitating effects
corruption has on even the most benevolent of men. Ralph may seem to mean well, but often
his obsession with being popular overcomes him and he resorts to bullying Piggy to regain
his power. Therefore, Ralph can be understood to symbolize mankind's optimistic ambition to
self-govern despite its historical record of failure and abuse of power. Still, in the midst of all
the island's chaos, it should be noted that Ralph has a tendency to be polite, selfless and
logical in the tensest of moments; for example, when the children are obliged to investigate
Castle Rock, Ralph takes the lead despite being afraid of "the beast". Ralph is sometimes
perceived as partially being a literary tool to aid the audience's realisation of inner evil
throughout the duration of the novel; "Ralph wept for the end of innocence".
Just as mankind has demonstrated its limitations in effective self-governing, Ralph embodies
good intentions in the implementation of reason, but ultimately fails to execute these plans
soundly. Ralph's refusal to resort to violence throughout the novel is counterpoised by Jack's
inherent love of violence. Beginning with his self nomination as hunter, Jack eventually
degenerates into the beast he is consumed with slaying. Towards the end of the story, Jack
abandons the tribe and forms one of his own. His darkly irresistible nature, along with the
lure of meat, immediately sways the majority of the island dwellers to his tribe, which is a
much more violent group. Jack's insurrection begins a chain of events that drives the island
further into chaos, initially resulting in the frenzied mob murdering Simon during a primal
dance, and then culminating with the murder of Piggy by Roger before the group attempts to
hunt down Ralph.
Piggy
Piggy has poor eyesight, asthma, and is overweight.[12] He is the most physically vulnerable of
all the boys. He appears to be of working-class background, as evidenced by his non-standard
Cockney speech,[13] but he is the most intellectual of the boys, frequently appealing to reason.
By frequently quoting his aunt, he provides the only female voice.
Piggy has been described as "the only adult-type figure on the island".[13] His intellect benefits
the group only through Ralph; he acts as Ralph's adviser. He cannot be the leader himself
because he lacks leadership qualities and has no rapport with the other boys. Piggy relies on
the power of social convention. He believes that holding the conch gives him the right to be
heard. He believes that upholding social conventions produces results.
Piggy asserts that "Life ... is scientific".[14] Ever the pragmatist, Piggy complains, "What
good're you doing talking like that?"[15] when Ralph brings up the highly charged issue of
Simon's death at their hands. Piggy tries to keep life scientific despite the incident, "searching
for a formula"[16] to explain the death. He asserts that the assault on Simon was an accident,
and justifiable because Simon asked for it by inexplicably crawling out of the forest into the
ring.[16]
Piggy is so intent on preserving some remnant of civilization on the island that, after Jack's
tribe attacks Ralph's group, he assumes they "wanted the conch",[17] when, in fact, they have
come for Piggy's glasses[17] in order to make fire. Even up to the moment of his death, Piggy's
perspective does not shift in response to the reality of their situation. Because his eminently
intellectual approach to life is modelled on the attitudes and rules of the authoritative adult
world, he thinks everyone should share his values and attitudes as a matter of course. When
Ralph and Piggy confront Jack's tribe about the stolen spectacles, Piggy asks "Which is
better—to have rules and agree, or to hunt and kill? ... law and rescue, or hunting and
breaking things up?"[18] as if there is no doubt that the boys would choose his preference.
The Conch
When first blown, it calls the children to an assembly, where Ralph is elected leader. They
agree that only the boy holding the conch may speak at meetings to forestall arguments and
chaos, and that it should be passed around to those who wish to voice their opinion. The
conch symbolises effective democracy and, like Ralph, civility and order within the group.
When Piggy is killed, the conch is smashed into pieces,[18] signalling the end of order and the
onset of chaos. Originally the conch is portrayed as being very vibrant and colourful, but as
the novel progresses, its colours begin to fade, the same way society begins to fade on the
island.
Jack Merridew
Jack epitomises the worst aspects of human nature when unrepressed or un-tempered by
society. Like Ralph, Jack is a natural leader. Unlike Ralph, Jack appeals to more primal
desires in the children and relies on his status as leader of the choirboys to justify his
authority. Although his way of behaving is neither disruptive nor violent at the beginning of
the book, he does, at that time, express an unquenchable desire to hunt and kill a pig and
spends hours in solitude traversing the island.
This first time Jack has an opportunity to kill a pig, he cannot, "because of the enormity of
the knife descending and cutting into living flesh; because of the unbearable blood".[20] After
this hesitation, for which he is most ashamed, Jack's blood lust grows more and more
irrational, to the point where he abandons the fire (and causes the boys to miss a potential
rescue) in order to hunt. During Jack's metamorphosis, he begins to paint his face with clay
and earth, masking his humanity from the pigs and inspiring terrible awe amongst the boys.
Jack's transition puts him on a collision course with Ralph's elected authority. As Jack leaves
and takes the majority of the boys with him, lured by the promises of meat, play, and
freedom, there has arisen a clear dividing line between the two. Jack represents the irrational
nature of the boys, while Ralph represents rationality. Under Jack's rule, the baseness of
human nature is unleashed, and he initiates a period of inter-tribal violence, punishing other
children, inciting the frenzy that leads to the murder of Simon, and torturing the twins until
they submit to his authority.
The tale ends with Jack leading many of the boys in a frenzied attempt to kill Ralph. At this
time, the last remaining vestiges of civilization are gone, and Ralph's demise is only
prevented by the abrupt and unexpected arrival of a naval officer, who is disappointed by the
savage nature of the British boys.[21]
Roger
Roger, at first, is a simple "bigun" who is having fun during his stay on the island. Along
with Maurice, he destroys the sand castles made by three small children. While Maurice feels
guilt for kicking sand into a child's eye, Roger begins to emerge as a sadist as he throws
stones at one of the boys. The book states that Roger threw the stones to miss, and felt the
presence of civilization and society preventing him from harming the children.[22] Later, once
he feels that all aspects of conventional society are gone, he is left alone to his animal urges.
During a pig hunt, Roger shoves a sharpened stick up the animal's rectum while it is still
alive.[23] He kills Piggy with a boulder that was no longer aimed to miss, and becomes the
executioner and torturer of Jack's tribe. He also tortured Sam and Eric into joining Jack's
tribe. In the final hunt for Ralph at the end of the novel, Roger is armed with "a stick
sharpened at both ends,"[24] indicating his intentions of killing Ralph and offering his head as a
sacrifice to the "beast". He represents the person who enjoys hurting others, and is only
restrained by the rules of society.[25]
Simon
Simon is a character who represents peace and tranquillity and positivity. He is often seen
wandering off by himself in a dreamy state and is prone to fits of fainting and hallucination,
likely epileptic in nature. He is in tune with the island, and often experiences extraordinary
sensations when listening to its sounds. He loves the nature of the island. He is positive about
the future. He has an extreme aversion to the pig's head, the "Lord of the Flies", which
derides and taunts Simon in a hallucination. After this experience, Simon emerges from the
forest to tell the others that the "beast" that fell from the sky is actually a deceased parachutist
caught on the mountain. He is brutally killed by the boys, who ironically mistake him for the
beast and kill him in their "dance" in which they "ripped and tore at the beast". It is implied
that Ralph, Piggy, Sam and Eric partake in the killing. The final words that the Lord of the
Flies had said to Simon vaguely predicted that his death was about to occur in this manner.
Earlier in the novel Simon himself also predicts his own death when he tells Ralph that he
will "get back all right",[26] implying that, of the two of them, only Ralph will be saved.
Simon's death represents the loss of truth, innocence, and common sense. Simon is most
commonly interpreted as a Christ figure because of his ability to see through misconception,
unlike the rest of the boys, and the events he experiences in the book that parallel those of
Jesus' life.
Naval Officer
Arriving moments before Ralph's seemingly impending death, the Royal Navy officer is
surprised and disappointed to learn that the boys' society has collapsed into chaos. He states
that he would have expected "a better show"[27] from British children. The sudden looming
appearance of an adult authority figure instantly reduces the savagery of the hunt to a brutal
children's game. Upon the officer asking who is in charge, Ralph answers loudly, "I am",[27]
and Jack, who was previously characterised as a powerful leader, is reduced to "A little boy
who wore the remains of an extraordinary black cap on his red hair and who carried the
remains of a pair of spectacles at his waist".[27] In the last sentence, the officer, embarrassed
by the distress of the children, turns to look at the cruiser from which his party has landed—a
symbol of his own adult war.
The Beast
The Beast represents the latent savagery within all human beings. It is first mentioned by a
"littlun" and the notion is immediately dismissed by Ralph. The Beast is thought to be within
the water and described by the littluns as such. Soon after the rumours of the Beast begin to
flourish, the corpse of a fighter pilot, ejected from his aircraft, falls to the island. His
parachute becomes entangled in the jungle foliage in such a way that sporadic gusts of wind
cause the chute to billow and the body to move as if still alive. Sam and Eric discover the
parachutist in the dark and believe that it is the beast. Ralph, Jack, and Roger search for the
Beast and encounter it on the mountain. The reality of the Beast is now firmly established in
the boys' minds. Simon discovers the parachutist and realises that the beast is really only the
corpse of a man. Jack's tribe feeds the Beast with the sow's head on a stick. This act
symbolises Jack's willingness to succumb to the temptation of animalism.
Simon is the first child on the island to realise that the Beast is created by the boys' fear. He
decides that "the news must reach the others as soon as possible".[28] Meanwhile, the boys
have been feasting and begin to do their tribal pig-hunting dance. When "the beast stumble[s]
in to the horseshoe",[29] the frenzied, terrified boys "leapt on to the beast, screamed, struck, bit,
tore".[30] While this is going on, the pilot's dead body finally falls out of the tree and down the
mountain into the sea. It becomes clear that the boys have mistaken Simon for the beast and
murdered him both when Golding describes "Simon's dead body move[ing] out towards the
open sea",[31] and on the morning after when Ralph tells Piggy, "That was Simon .... That was
murder".[15]
The Lord of the Flies
The eponymous Lord of the Flies exists physically as a pig's head that has been cut off by
Jack, put on a stick sharpened at both ends, stuck in the ground and left as an offering to the
"beast". Created out of fear, the Lord of the Flies is the remnant of a mother sow who, though
at one time loving, and innocent, has now become a manically smiling, bleeding image of
horror. It represents both an intelligent, supernatural malevolence with the power to evoke
"the beast" within all, as well as the power of evil in the heart of mankind. Near the end of the
book, while Ralph is being hunted down, he strikes the now skeletal pig's head twice in one
moment of blind anger, causing it to crack and fall on the ground with a grin "now six feet
across".[32] The name "Lord of the Flies" is a li
Lord Of The Flies - BBC Bitesize revision notes
Context
To understand the context of Lord of the Flies you need some background on the
writer himself and his experiences during World War Two. It's also useful to do
some thinking about the idea of the 'desert island' as it has appeared in other
earlier stories.
William Golding
William Golding was born in 1911. After leaving Oxford University, he worked as
an actor, producer and writer, and then as a teacher in a boy's public school.
During World War 2 Golding was lieutenant in the Royal Navy, in command of a
small rocket ship. While carrying out his duties he ordered the destruction of
German ships and submarines and he shelled German troops from sea during
the D-Day landings.
Golding and War
US soldiers in a Japanese prisoner-of-war camp
Golding was horrified by what war revealed about people's capacity to harm
their fellow humans. He was appalled by what happened in the Nazi
concentration camps, and by the way the Japanese mistreated their prisoners.
He was appalled too by the consequences of the British and American mass
bombing against civilians - and even by what he himself did as a naval officer.
During the war the British justified all the destruction they wrought on the
grounds that they had 'right' on their side, but Golding came to question this
smug assumption. He gradually learned to see all human nature as savage and
unforgiving: he knew that even the 'goodies' can become 'baddies'. In the novel
Ralph and Piggy get as involved in the dance that leads to the killing of Simon as
Jack and his tribe are.
World War 2 ended in 1945. The United Nations was set up after the war to try
to ensure that a global conflict never happened again, but in 1954, when Lord of
the Flies was published, the threat of a nuclear war was still very real. It was
entirely plausible to the novel's original audience that an atom bomb really could
destroy civilisation.
Desert Islands
Most imaginary desert islands are peaceful paradises where the shipwrecked
traveller manages to continue living pretty much as before - think of Robinson
Crusoe or Desert Island Discs!
In a book called Coral Island by RM Ballantyne, published in 1857, 100 years
before Golding's book, three young British boys are shipwrecked on a desert
island and have to survive without any adults. Brave and resourceful, they
thoroughly enjoy their experience and there is never a hint of trouble. As one of
the characters, Peterkin, says, There was indeed no note of discord whatever in
that symphony we played together on that sweet coral island.
From his experience as a teacher, Golding knew that the idyllic life of Coral
Island could never exist in real life. So, he set out to write a novel that showed
his ideas about the darker side of human nature starting from the same basis:
boys stranded on a desert island, away from all civilising influences. Lord of the
Flies was the result.
Paradise or Hell?
The island plays an important part in the novel. We see it first as a paradise - it
is a place of 'enchantment', where 'flower and fruit grew together on the same
tree.' Yet it is also full of dangers.
The table lists some of the things the boys find on their island, with descriptions
that suggest either an island paradise - or something more frightening or
sinister. You can probably think of other aspects of the island that at first seem
welcoming, but turn out to be the opposite (print out the table and add more
examples if you can...).
Contd.
Heaven and Hell in Lord of the Flies
Paradise
Hell on Earth
The sea:
"The white surf flicked the coral reef."
"...the long, grinding roar of the
breakers on the beach "
The
heat:
"The water was warmer than [Ralph's]
blood and he might have been swimming in
a huge bath."
The heat hit him.
Fruit:
"Everywhere was the scent of ripeness."
"They were now used to stomachaches and a sort of chronic
diarrhoea."
The
lagoon:
"Inside [the lagoon] was peacock water,
rocks and weed showing as in an
aquarium."
"The swell... seemed like the
breathing of some stupendous
creature."
The boys are initially excited about being in such an apparently perfect place,
just as they are excited about being away from adults. Yet they gradually find
out that the island is dangerous, just as they find that life without adults and
civilisation is dangerous.
(The Hellish side of the island is symbolised by the Lord of the Flies itself. See
the Themes section for more about this.)
Themes
A theme is an idea that runs through a text. A text may have one theme or
many. Understanding the themes makes the text more than 'just' a text. It
becomes something more significant because we're encouraged to think more
deeply about the story - about how it connects to real-life issues, and about
what it might mean to us.
The main themes that run through Lord of the Flies are: Things breaking down,
War, Violence, Relationships, The Island and Language.
Things breaking down
Golding himself wrote of his novel:
The boys try to construct a civilisation on the island; but it breaks down in blood
and terror because the boys are suffering from the terrible disease of being
human.
Wiliam Golding
The central theme in Lord of the Flies is that of things breaking down. This is
shown in a number of ways. Violence replaces peace, friends turn into enemies,
life ends in savage death. Everything degenerates.
Contd.
War
War is a running theme in the novel, starting from plane the boys were travelling
in.
•
The boys are on the island because the plane that was evacuating them from
Britain during a fictional nuclear war was attacked. Piggy reminds Ralph: "Didn't
you hear what the pilot said? About the atom bomb? They're all dead."
•
Ralph is proud of his father - a commander in the Navy. So, the character who
tries hardest to keep peace comes from a home that revolved around war.
•
We know that the civilisation from which they were trying to escape is being
destroyed. When Roger stops himself throwing stones at the littluns, we're told:
"Roger's arm was conditioned by a civilisation that knew nothing of him and was
in ruins."
•
The dead parachutist who lands on the island was gunned down during an
overhead battle.
•
Ironically, the naval officer who comes to their rescue is himself involved in the
war. The boys may have been saved from life on the island, but what sort of life
are they going back to?
Contd.
Violence
Violence is always present. It starts as a game, but grows more horrific
throughout the novel. For example:
•
When he first finds out Piggy's name, "Ralph danced out into the hot air of the
beach and then returned as a fighter-plane, with wings swept back, and
machine-gunned Piggy."
•
When the first pig is killed, Jack boasts, "You should have seen the blood!"
•
The ritual 'dance' revolves around violence: "Kill the pig. Cut her throat. Bash
her in."
•
The boys become like wild and savage animals: when Jack hunts a pig he is
"ape-like"; Simon is killed by the "tearing of teeth and claws"; Ralph becomes
like a hunted animal, not a boy, at the end: "He raised his spear, snarled a little,
and waited."
•
The murder of Simon is particularly horrific because it involves all the other boys
- they get caught up in the frenzied chant: "The crowd ... leapt onto the beast,
screamed, struck, bit, tore."
Contd.
Relationships
All the friendships and good relationships on the island break down, either
through bullying and violence or death.
•
Ralph and Jack seem to be friends at the start, yet Ralph knows Jack is hurt
when he is not elected chief. This rivalry for power is at the root of some of the
violence.
•
Ralph finds it hard even at an early stage to get things done. He and Simon are
left to build the third shelter by themselves, because everyone else is too busy
having fun. The community spirit of the assemblies is hard to maintain.
•
Even the littluns' games involve violence and broken friendships. Once Roger
watches them playing: "Percival had gone off, crying, and Johnny was left in
triumphant possession of the castles."
•
As pressure builds, the boys find that they have to take sides. When Jack defies
Ralph and goes off alone, he challenges, "Anyone who wants to hunt when I do
can come too." He ignores Ralph's effort to make peace.
•
Jack's tribe becomes ruled by fear. Most boys don't want to be involved, but
have no option. He keeps control by intimidating them and bullying them, such
as when he ties up and beats Wilfred.
•
Roger rules by terror too. When Samneric are captured, "Roger advanced upon
them as one wielding a nameless authority."
Contd.
The Island
The island slowly degrades as the story goes on, reflecting the break down of
the boys' relationships.
•
The island is first seen as like paradise, too good to be true. Ralph thinks: "Here
at last was the imagined but never fully realised place leaping into real life".
•
However, the island is soon found to contain many dangers. For example,
coconuts fall from the trees and just miss injuring Roger, the sun burns them,
and the isolation is a curse.
•
Ralph reflects at the end that the island once had a "strange glamour", but
becomes "scorched up like dead wood".
•
All this echoes the Bible story of the Fall of Man, when Adam and Eve were cast
out of Paradise as a punishment for disobeying God. The island becomes a burnt
wasteland, as if as a punishment for all the violence committed by the boys.
Contd.
Language
The language used by the boys progressively degenerates.
•
At the start of the novel the youngest boys are called small boys. They become
little'uns, littl'uns and finally littluns.
•
Percival Wemys Madison gradually forgets his name and address. When the
naval officer finds them, he has forgotten it completely.
•
Jack starts off as Merridew - the name he would have been called at school - but
soon becomes Jack, then Chief. His followers - originally the school choir become his tribe and are eventually seen as savages, having lost their individual
identity.
•
Sam and Eric become Sam'n Eric and then Samneric.
Contd.
The Lord of the Flies
•
The title of the novel comes from the Arabic for one of the manifestations
of the Devil. Baal-Zebub - or Beelzebub - means 'lord of the flies'.
•
In the novel, the pig's head on a stick, covered in flies, is a horrific symbol
of how far the violence has come. The pig was killed by Jack and his
hunters and the head is put on a stick as an offering to the 'beast'. Only
Simon really appreciates that the 'beast' is actually the evil inside the
boys themselves and it is that which is breaking things 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.
Character
When the boys first gather on the island they appear a very varied group, yet by
the end they all seem very similar. So, what happens to them to cause this
transformation?
Let's look at the most important characters in more detail. If you've time, jot
down the key points you've noticed about the characters featured here - then
compare your notes with ours.
Ralph
•
He is twelve years and a few months old.
•
He has an attractive appearance, which suggests that he has an attractive
character too. "You could see he might make a boxer, as far as width and
heaviness in the shoulders went, but there was a mildness about his mouth and
eyes that proclaimed no devil."
•
He is sensible: it was Ralph's idea to have a chief, establish rules and build a
signal fire so they can be rescued. He speaks wisely.
•
He is a good leader. He knows that it's important to keep Jack on his side and
speaks to Piggy with the directness of genuine leadership. "There was a stillness
about Ralph as he sat that marked him out: there was his size and attractive
appearance." Later on he feels the weight of being chief as a personal hell - but
he doesn't give up.
•
He wants to hang on to civilised values. When he realises that their lives are full
of dirt and decay, he feels a "convulsion of the mind". In the discussions about
the beast, he feels "the understandable and lawful world... slipping away".
•
He uses civilised language. Even when he is pleading with Jack for the return of
Piggy's glasses, he speaks like a school boy: "You aren't playing the game".
•
He is brave. He led the search for the beast at the fort alone: "I'm chief. I'll go.
Don't argue." It is Ralph who approaches the dead airman at the top of the
mountain, with leaden steps, while Jack and Roger stay back.
•
Yet even Ralph sometimes gets carried away with the hunt. Ralph starts the
game where they pretend Robert is a pig: "The desire to squeeze and hurt was
over-mastering". Later on, he becomes part of the 'dance' that kills Simon. Near
the end, he breaks the pig's skull on the stick with a sick fear and rage.
•
Ralph finally becomes an outcast. He tells himself this is "Cos I had some
sense".
•
When he meets the naval officer, he is seen as a little scarecrow, but Ralph is
still able to assert himself as the leader. Then he cries, for the first time on the
island.
Jack
•
Jack is the leader of the choir. He was the chapter chorister, can sing C sharp,
and was the head boy at school.
•
He has red hair and is tall, thin and bony. "His face was crumpled and freckled,
and ugly without silliness". His fiery hair and his ugly appearance give us clues
to his hot-headed, unpleasant character. "Out of this face stared two blue eyes,
frustrated now, and turning, or ready to turn to anger."
•
He is proud and arrogant.
•
He is hungry for power. When we first meet him he bosses the choir around;
later he undermines Ralph's leadership and sets up his own tribe against Ralph,
even though he loses a vote. He gradually becomes a dictator. When he orders
the tribe to tie up Samneric her boasts to Ralph "See? They do what I want."
•
He knows as soon as Ralph asks him that the choir should be hunters. Hunting
then pre-occupies him more and more through the novel.
•
He can't kill the first pig he sees because of "the enormity of the knife
descending and cutting into living flesh; because of the unbearable blood". Yet
he quickly puts aside any doubts.
•
Jack thinks of nothing but hunting. "All you can talk about is pig, pig, pig!" Ralph
says angrily.
•
Jack paints on a mask to help him hunt better. The paint gives him a liberation
into savagery: he is able to do savage things now he looks more like a savage.
•
He is so moved by having killed a pig that he isn't anxious about the ship that
went by while the fire was out. All he thinks about is the knowledge that "they
had outwitted a living thing, imposed their will on it, taken away its life".
•
By the end, Jack has moved on even further. His prey has gone beyond pigs - he
is keen to hunt Ralph.
•
He commits the first act of violence towards another boy on the island when he
thumps Piggy. "His voice was vicious". He gets gradually more violent towards
other boys: he has no thought for Piggy when he steals his glasses and later he
ties up and beats Wilfred.
•
He pretends not to be frightened of the beast - but is shivering and croaking
when he sees the 'beast' on the mountain. Does this suggest that he's not really
as brave as he'd like to think he is?
•
Although Jack says near the start: "We're not savages", it's soon clear he
doesn't care about the rules or being civilised: "Bollocks to the rules! We're
strong - we hunt!" He rejects the order that had been established on the island:
"We don't need the conch any more".
•
At the end, he has no remorse for Piggy's death. He declares himself Chief. He
has lost the name Jack, which suggests he has lost all.
Roger
•
When he is first seen, he is described as "slight" and "furtive". "The shock of
black hair, down his nape and low on his forehead, seemed to suit his gloomy
face and make what had seemed at first unsociable remoteness in to something
foreboding."
•
He is a loner and uncommunicative by nature: he "kept to himself with an inner
intensity of avoidance and secrecy."
•
He is cruel. He deliberately spoils the littluns' games. Later, he relishes
sharpening a stick at both ends with which to kill Ralph.
•
He volunteers to go up the mountain with Ralph and Jack to find the beast.
•
He becomes Jack's right hand man: they torture Samneric together to find out
Ralph's hiding place. Yet he is capable of acting independently: he levers the
rock that kills Piggy on his own initiative.
•
He is an executioner. He kills Piggy and, in the final hunt, Ralph fears Roger
because he "carried death in his hands".
Piggy
•
He has physical disadvantages because he is fat and asthmatic and is short
sighted. Without his glasses, everything becomes a blur.
•
He is very intelligent - in Chapter 1 it is his idea to make a list of names, and it
is he who realises that no adult knows the boys are on the island. Later he
suggests making a sundial and hats. "What intelligence had been shown was
traceable to Piggy." Ralph recognises Piggy could think: "Piggy, for all his
ludicrous body, had brains."
•
However, he does not speak as grammatically accurately as the others:" How
can you expect to be rescues if you don't put first things first and act proper".
Perhaps this is to suggest he wasn't as well educated as the others and that he
is not from the right class of people to be a successful leader. At the time the
novel was written most power was still in the hands of the middle and upper
classes. "Piggy was an outsider, not only by accent, which did not matter, but by
fat, and ass-mar, and specs, and a certain disinclination to manual labour."
•
He is embarrassed by his nickname, and he behaves with dignity when Ralph
betrays the name to the others. We never know his real name.
•
He is kind and considerate to the littluns. He helps the boy with the birthmark
talk about the 'snake-thing' and helps Percival talk about the beast. He is later
often left to care for them when the others are exploring and hunting.
•
He has the most mature attitude of any boy on the island. He scornfully sees the
other boys "Acting like a crowd of kids".
•
He is pragmatic. When Simon dies, Piggy tries to convince Ralph there was
nothing they could have done: "It was an accident... and that's that".
•
Like Ralph, he believes in civilised values and clings to what creates order: " I
just take the conch to say this. I can't see no more and I got to get my glasses
back". When they go to the fort to confront Jack, he shouts "I got the conch!" to
try to show Jack that he has a right to be heard.
•
Piggy and the conch are destroyed together by the rock Roger levers. Thus both
intelligence and the symbol of authority are dead, so we know that there is
nothing left to stop Jack gaining full control.
•
At the end, Ralph mourns the fall through the air of "the true, wise friend called
Piggy".
Simon
•
•
The first time we meet Simon, he is in his choir robes. He faints on the beach
because of the heat and Jack mocks him. We know he is delicate. He has
epilepsy.
•
He is "a skinny, vivid little boy, with a glance coming up from under a hut of
straight hair that hung down, black and course". His hair hides his face, which
hints to us he is secretive.
•
He is imaginative: he sees the buds on the bushes as "Like candles. Candle
bushes. Candle buds".
•
He is helpful and works for the good of others; he is the only one to stick with
Ralph to make the shelters. He is kind to the littluns and finds fruit for them.
•
The others recognise he is 'different' to them in some way. Ralph says "He's
queer. He's funny." Piggy says "He's cracked".
•
He has "a secret place in a clearing full of flowers and butterflies", and is
sufficiently at one with the jungle to walk in it alone at night. He is at one with
nature and he has no fear. "He walked with an accustomed tread through the
fruit trees."
•
He seems able to prophesy - he is the first to suggest that "it wasn't a good
island" and he tells Ralph, "You'll get back to where you came from".
•
He is the most perceptive about the beast. He says "maybe there is a beast...
What I mean is... maybe it's only us". He is the only one to see that the
problems on the island stem from the boys' relationships with each other, not
from an outside force. Yet nobody understands what he's trying to say.
•
When the Lord of the Flies 'speaks' to him this idea is reiterated: the voice in
Simon's head says "Fancy thinking the Beast was something you could hunt and
kill!... You knew, didn't you? I'm part of you?"
•
He is killed just as he is about to reveal the truth. It is ironic that he is the only
one who finds out that the 'beast' was a dead parachutist, but is denied passing
on the message because the group of boys think, in their frenzy, he is the beast.
•
Simon's close relationship with nature seems to carry on even after he is dead: "
The waves turned the corpse gently in the water. ... Softly, surrounded by a
fringe of bright inquisitive creatures, itself a silver shape beneath the steadfast
constellations, Simon's dead body moved out towards the open sea".
Sam and Eric
•
The twins gradually lost their individual names on the island and become
Samneric. They depend upon each other and do everything together. "They were
twins and the eye was shocked and incredulous at such cheery duplication. They
breathed together, they grinned together, they were chunky and vital."
•
They are the first to see the parachutist (while they are tending the fire at night)
and think it is a beast.
•
They share Ralph and Piggy's dismay at the death of Simon.
•
They are involved in the first successful pig hunt with Jack, but more and more
they grow to support Ralph. They join the fight against Jack when Jack raids the
shelters at night to get Piggy's glasses. Finally, only Samneric and Piggy are left
on Ralph's side. Yet they are not strong enough to withstand a lot of pressure,
and ultimately reveal Ralph's hiding place to Roger and Jack. In the end evil
triumphs over good.