Lord of the
Flies
by Sir William Golding
 Author:
William Golding
 Year: 1954
 Famous for: The Beast, a talking pig’s
head on a stake, a horrific descent into
chaos and savagery
 Main character: Ralph
The scoop:
Every kid dreams of what life would be
like without adults. No rules, no curfews, and as
much of your favorite food as you could ever
want to eat. Sounds like paradise right?
Not for the cast of William Golding’s
novel. Of course, the complicating factor for
these boys is that they’re marooned on a desert
island. Which means they have to worry about
survival – and a lurking Beast – and can’t just
enjoy life without adults.
Photo
Analysis
The best way to understand
the time period is to see
what was going on.
Early Life
 Born
September 19,
1911 in Cornwall,
England
 Raised next door to
a graveyard
 Mother was a
suffragette
 Father was a
schoolmaster
 Tried
his first novel
at age 12; failed
 Turned to bullying
 Studied English
literature at
Brasenose College
at Oxford University
Teaching
 Took
a position
teaching English
and philosophy in
1935
 This experience
would later serve
as inspiration for his
novel
Royal Navy


Took a break from
teaching to join the
Navy from 1940-1947
Fought battleships at
the sinking of the
Bismarck, he ended
as a Lieutenant in
command of a
rocket-launching
craft
Golding on the war
 “I
began to see what people were
capable of doing. Anyone who moved
through those years without
understanding that man produces evil as
a bee produces honey, must have been
blind or wrong in the head.”
Lord of the Flies





Golding said that his experiences in World
War II inspired a view of humanity’s capacity
for evil that led him to write Lord of the Flies.
Turned down by 21 publishers
A junior editor, Charles Monteith, rescued the
manuscript from the reject pile at one of
those publishers
Sold 3000 copies before going out of print in
1955
Helped cement Golding’s nomination for
Nobel Prize
Golding on Lord of the Flies
“It was simply what seemed sensible for me
to write after the war when everyone was
thanking God they weren’t Nazis. I’d seen
enough to know that every single one of us
could be Nazis.
Nobel Prize


Won the Nobel Prize
for Literature in 1983
“for his novels which,
with the perspicuity
of realistic narrative
art and the diversity
and universality of
myth, illuminate the
human condition in
the world today”
Themes of the Book
 Civilization

democracy dictator
 Religion

established created
 Identity

society/school island
 Power

absolute - limited
 Fear

unknown - known
 Loss

of innocence
Child - adult
Golding’s Literary Technique




Heavy use of
symbolism
Irony
Abundant imagery
and sensory detail
Figurative Language



Simile
Metaphor
Personification
Some Terms You Need to
Know
You might want to open your study guides and take
a few notes. HINT HINT!!!!
Allegory
a
story with a symbolic level of meaning,
where the characters and setting
represent other things like political
systems, religious figures, or philosophical
viewpoints
Irony – 3 types
 Situational
Irony
 Verbal Irony
 Dramatic Irony
Situational Irony
When the expected
outcome does not happen.
- A fire station burns down.
Verbal Irony
Using words to convey a
meaning that is the opposite of
the literal meaning; sarcasm
Dramatic Irony
When the audience knows
something that the
characters don’t.
Simile
A direct comparison between two
different things using “like” or “as”
Metaphor
An implicit (hidden) comparison
between two unlike things that
actually have something in common;
no “like” or “as”
Personification