theme / issue : Loss of Identity

1. LORD OF THE FLIES
ISSUES “LOSS OF
IDENTITY”

2. LOSS OF IDENTITY
 The boys go through gradual degradation into the abyss of bestial behaviour. They
take off the mask of socially organised English lads and replace it with wild nature.
 They go through metamorphoses as they gradually embark on a new life free from
social restrictions and punishment. The transformation is particularly observed in the
three major characters of the novel; Ralph, Piggy and Jack.
 The experiences the three boys undergo on the island expose them to the evil that
lies beneath their civilised surface. The experiences affect them drastically both
physically and mentally to the point where they lose their own identities.

3. RALPH
 Ralph, a fine example of a disciplined and ordered English lad, is chosen. He has the conch that
summoned and assembled them. His father is a navy officer so he has an idea of how to lead.
 As the novel progresses Ralph follows the flow and descends into savagery. At the mountain top when
observing a boar he participates in wounding it and then performs the blood dance with the others. In fact
the very removal of his clothes earlier is symbolic of his desire to drown his former identity and to adopt one
more fitting with the new environment.
 He is unable to unite the boys. He is unable to bring order and discipline until finally disintegration creeps
in. He admits, to Simon and Piggy, his failure and need for adults.
 Ralph has constant fights with Jack, who calls him a coward. Jack even attempts to convince the boys to
turn against him, an action which is against the English tradition that they have been brought up to
acknowledge. They have been raised to accept and respect a leader, to follow his orders and most
particularly never to fight with each other. Being on the island they forget all about that.

4. PIGGY
 Piggy retains his civilised conduct. He is more mature and more educated than the others.
 His experience on the island reveals how deep evil is embedded in man. He develops a realistic
understanding of life and the cruelty possessed by seemingly good boys.
 Ralph, whom Piggy entrusted with his nickname, tells them that his real nickname is Piggy. They
laugh. Piggy stands isolated, humiliated and hurt. Piggy has been living with this nickname for so
long that he'd become used to it. When Ralph and Jack joke about it, it is like stripping his identity
from him.
 Piggy suffers humiliation especially when they take his glasses to try to start a fire. The glasses are
like his window to the world, without them he cannot identify objects. They represent his eyes and
his identity. The others plucked his eyes and whole identity away. He experiences a descent into
blindness, even worse into his own death. He loses not only his identity but his life as well.

5. JACK
 Former choirmaster and the head boy in his school.
 Arrived on the island, he managed to exert control over others by dominating the choir with his
militaristic attitude. His cruelty and the dark side of his personality come to the surface when he
decides that he will lead his tribe to be hunters.
 His interest is hunting, an endeavor that begins with the desire for meat and builds to the
overwhelming urge to master and kill other living creatures. He has a knife sharpened and ready
for hunting, and seems ready to kill any boar he encounters “Jack snatched from behind him a
sizable sheath-knife…..”
 Hunting develops the savagery that already ran close to his surface, making him "ape-like" as he
prowls through the jungle. His domain is the emotions, which rule and fuel his animal nature.

6.  Jack provides more insight into the beast's identity when he asserts that "The beast is a hunter,"
unwittingly implicating himself as part of the problem, a source of the boys' fears.
 Sitting in front of his tribe, "Power . . . chattered in his ear like an ape." The figurative devil on his
shoulder is his own animality, looking to master other creatures.
 Golding pairs the devolution of Jack's character with Simon's hallucinatory revelation to paint a
complete picture of humankind's dark side — that which the boys call "the beast."

7. THE ISLAND
 The island is self-sufficient, it can help them survive. It can provide them with fruit, trees, vines,
pigs to hunt, and shelter. Not only is it a hideaway but probably the gateway to their rescue. Its
mountaintop provides a place where they can look over the whole island and its surrounding sea to
watch for rescuers. But the island is not as paradisiacal as it appears.
 On the surface it seems a beautiful harmonious place, but in fact beneath the surface it is a
manifestation of evil and wild nature. The fruits are at first a source of nutrition for Ralph, but later
they cause him diarrhea (page 59) . “They ate most of the day, picking fruit where they could reach
it and not particular about ripeness and quality. They were used now to stomachaches and a sort
of chronic diarrhea”. The jungle within the island is inhabited by wild pigs, the very source of their
fear. As night approaches the true nature of the island is revealed.