William Golding’s

WilliamGolding’

s

William William GoldingGolding•Born in 1911 in

Cornwall, England•Became a teacher•1940 he joined

the Royal Navy and fought in WWII

•Lord of the Flies published in 1954

•Is novel is an allegory

•Allegory: characters and objects have symbolic significance that show the novel’s central themes and ideas

Setting: Tropical IslandSetting: Tropical Island

Plot:Plot:• A plane

evacuating a group of schoolboys is shot down over a deserted tropical island.

• This means that the boys have no adult supervision and are entirely on their own.

THEMESTHEMES•The theme of a piece of fiction

is its view about life and how people behave.

• In fiction, the theme is not intended to teach or preach. In fact, it is not presented directly at all. You extract it from the characters, action, and setting that make up the story.

Civilization vs. Savagery

Loss of Innocence

What happens to young boys when there is no one to protect them…

Evil comes to the island through temptation.

The island is symbolic of The Garden of Eden.

CONFLICT:

The instinct to live by the rules and value the good

of the group.

VS. The instinct for

immediate gratification of your desires.

With no laws…some boys will become savages.

SymbolsSymbols

What are some of the symbols in Lord of the Flies?

The Beast is a biblical name Beelzebub, a powerful demon in hell sometimes

thought to be the devil himself.

Symbolizes: the Power of

evil itself

The ConchThe Conch

•Civilized authority

•Democracy

The island is Paradise…

before the boys arrive (Garden of Eden) and then after the arrival of the boys, corrupted by the

world of humankind.

Signal FireSignal Fire

Hope

Chanting and Dancing of Chanting and Dancing of the Huntersthe Hunters

•Blind emotion

•Loss of reason

Piggy and his GlassesPiggy and his Glasses

• Insight

•Wisdom

•Knowledge

The Killing of the First The Killing of the First PigPig

•Original Sin

Jack and RalphJack and Ralph

•Cain and Abel

Broken ConchBroken Conch

Failure or breakdown of society on the

island.

The Big Boys/ The Littuns The Big Boys/ The Littuns / The Naval Officer/ The Naval Officer•The emerging

generation of evil•The next

generation of evil.

•The present generation of evil.

RalphRalph•The Protagonist•Name means

“council”•Represents the civilized instinct

…RALPH• Ralph, in addition to supervising the project of constructing shelters,

feels an instinctive need to protect the “littluns”.

• he quickly establishes himself as the chief of the group, although not by any harsh, overt or physical action, but by being elected.

• Ralph has many leadership skills yet sometimes lacks confidence

JackJack •The antagonist

•Name means “one who supplants”

Jack becomes an immediate threat to Ralph’s leadership,

jealous of Ralph.

Turns his choir group into “hunters”, who are responsible for

hunting for meat and taking care of the fire.

Jack’s tribe gradually becomes more animalistic and

savage.

SimonSimon •Only naturally “good” character

•Name means “listener”

•Christ-like figure• Simon is also

epileptic. Seizures often cause his hallucinations.

PiggyPiggy•Ralph’s

“lieutenant”•Represents the

rational, scientific side of civilization

•Also, represents the pigs on the island who Jack slaughters

PiggyPiggy•His real name is never revealed.

• is Ralph’s chief adviser and “true, wise friend.”

•He represents the role of intelligence, reason and civilization.

RogerRoger• Jack’s “lieutenant”•Name means

“spear”• Represents the evil

lurking within• Roger, at first, is a

simple "bigun" who's having fun during his stay on the island

Sam and EricSam and Eric• incapable of acting

independently of one another, they act as one; names blend as together as novel progresses and they lose identity through fear of the beast

• Easily influenced as time passes.

The Lord of the The Lord of the FliesFlies• represents evil;

superstition; fear; the sin of gluttony associated with Beezlebub; he rules over excessive eating and drinking (what Jack offers to the tribe); the glutton lives to eat- a state that soon escalates to forgetting gratitude

BeelzebubBeelzebub•Fallen angel

•Considered Satan himself (or possibly 2nd in command)