2. William Golding
He was born in 1911 in Cornwall.
In 1930, he went to Oxford University. He
studied Natural Science for two years, then
changed to English Literature.
He served in th Royal Navy during the
Second World War.
He was a teacher. Between 1945 and 1961,
he taught at Bishop Wordsworth School in
Salisbury.
Lord of the Flies was published in 1954.
In 1983, he was awarded the Nobel Prize
in Literature.
In 1988, he was knighted by Elizabeth II.
Writing: The Inheritors (1955), Darkness
Visible (1979)
3. Discussion:
1. Golding’s life and experience in evident in the characters, setting and
plot of the novel.
2. What do you think is the significance of the island being solely inhabited
by boys? Consider the absence of women and the issue of sex and
gender in the novel. What is the significance of not having any females
on the island. Is this the reason for the collapse of the boys’ society?
3. Why might the boys have been on the airplane?
4. V. Roger
‘Roger led the way straight through the castles, kicking them over,
burying the flowers, scattering the chosen stones’
‘Roger advaneces upon them as one wielding a nameless authority’
5. IV. Piggy
‘Piggy… watched Ralph’s green and
white body enviously’
‘Piggy was a bore; his fat, his ass-mar and his matter-of-fact ideas
were dull: but there was always a little pleasure to be got out of pulling
his leg’
6. Fear/the beastie/ the beast
‘… talk of a thing, a dark thing, a beast, some sort of animal’
How does the idea of the beastie affect
the boys’ state od mind?
How do the boy’s reactions to the idea
of the beast from air
and the beast from water differ?
Why does Golding present fear as
infection in the novel?
7. Major characters analysis:
I. Ralph
‘You could see now that he might make a boxer… but there was a
mildness about his mouth and eyes that proclaimed no devil’
‘Listen everybody. I’ve got to have time to think things out. I
can’t decide what to do straight off’
Ralph vs. Jack ‘They walked along, two continents of
experience and feeling, unable to communicate’
8. What does the conch symbolize?
What are characteristics of a good leader?
The power struggle between Jack and Ralph
- who has the most power? Why?
Are rules necessary for a community?
Coopertion/leadership/desire for power
‘We’ve got to have rules and obey them. After all, we’re not savages’
9. II. Jack
‘They were bright blue, eyes that in this frustration seemed bolting and
nearly mad’
‘The madness came into his eyes again’
‘ ‘’I gave you food,’ said Jack, ‘’and my hunters will protect you from
the beast. Who will join my tribe?’
‘Jack stood there, streaming with sweat, streaked with brown earth,
stained by all vicissitudes of a day’s hunting’
10. What’s the significance of the hunters’ tribal dance/chant/masks?
What separates humans from animals?
Savagery vs. Civilization
‘What are we? Humans? Or animals? Or savages?’
What are the similarities and differences between civilization and savagery?
11. Fire
‘No fire; no smoke; no rescue’
What are the two uses of fire and which one does each tribe prioritize?
Debate the idea that fire is a symbol of both civilization and savagery.
12. III. Simon
‘his eyes so bright they had deceived Ralph into thinking him
delightfully gay and wicked’
Simon found for them fruit they could not reach, pulled off the choicest
from up in the foliage, passed them back down to the endless,
outstretched hands’
‘The line cheek silvered and the turn of his shoulder became sculptured
marble’
13.
14. The Lord of the Flies
‘… maybe there is a beast. (…) maybe it’s only us’
Discuss Simon’s encounter with the Lord of the Flies.
What is Ralph’s reaction to the Lord of the Flies?
What do you think the function of the Lord
of the Flies is?
15. A social hierarchy is natural and necessary.
Power and respect need to be earned and not simply assumed
through assertion.
Man is a fallen being. He’s gripped by original sin.
The only enemy of man is inside him.