Lord of the Flies Introductory Notes
AUTHOR BIO: William Golding Born in England in 1911, Golding died in 1993. He is best known for writing Lord of the Flies, though other popular novels include The Inheritors and Free Fall. In 1983 he won the Nobel Prize for Literature.
AUTHOR BIO: William Golding During WWII, Golding served with the Royal Navy, where he participated in the D-Day invasion of Normandy.
AUTHOR BIO: William Golding Much of Golding’s writing was heavily influenced by the atrocities he witnessed in the war. Lord of the Flies is an allegorical microcosm of the world Golding knew.
THEME Lord of the Flies investigates three key aspects of human experience: 1. A desire for social order through government. 2. Man’s natural inclination toward violence and evil (shown by every nation’s need for a military). 3. The belief in supernatural or divine intervention in human history.
THEME The evil and aggressive nature of the degenerating boys on the island is juxtaposed with the proper reserve and civility of the British. Some of the boys reach a moment of self-discovery on the island: specifically, that at our core, we possess innately cruel natures.
THEME Golding suggests man must ultimately escape himself; that the only hope for humanity is to recognize and move from our own inclination toward violence.
Symbol and Allegory - Many critics of the novel have suggested Golding has created a social allegory of the way in which, when the restraints of civilization which we impose on ourselves are abandoned, the passions of anger, lust, and fear take control and destroy human reason. - Golding appears to investigate the way and the why men act through the central characters living on the island. In essence, the function like symbols. Carefully consider Jack, Ralph, Simon, and Piggy. - There is a fundamental and ancient battle being waged on the island: not simply democracy versus totalitarianism, but that of good against evil. Golding implies that the dichotomy between these forces is a valid and serious in young people as in adults.