1. Lord of the Flies By William Golding Concepts for Study

2. Themes—the underlying truth The need for civilization: –Is man innocent and society evil? –Are laws and rules necessary to keep the darker side of human nature in line? –When institutions and concepts slip away or are ignored, do human beings revert to a more primitive part of their nature? Innocence and the Loss of it: -- Is the loss of innocence a condition of age or is it related to a person’s understanding of human nature? --Is losing innocence by coming to terms with reality necessary if humanity is to survive?

3. The Loss of Identity: -- When civilization slips away will his identity disintegrate? --what happens when we wear masks? --does the loss of a personal name personify the loss of selfhood and identity? Power: --what are the different types of power? i.e. Democratic power (choices and decisions are shared among many); authoritarian power (one person to rule with threats and terror); spiritual power (recognizes internal and external realities and tries to integrate them); brute force (most primitive and is indiscriminate)

4. Symbolism in Lord of the Flies OBJECTSYMBOLIC MEANING ConchAuthority, order Glasses Clear sight, perceiving what is best FireCivilization, hope Lord of the Flies Evil (in the boys and humanity) The islandA microcosm (the world) The beastDecay, destruction, fear FliesCorruption

5. Names in Lord of the Flies The choice of names metaphorically mirrors the novel: Ralph means “counsel”—he organized meetings and tried to keep everyone together Jack means “one who supplants”—or takes over by force (how he gains power) Simon means “listener”—hints at his spiritual role— only one who understands and hears the truth Piggy—a nickname, connected to the pig and to the hunt and kill Roger means “spear”—he is Jack’s right-hand man who uses brute force at will Sam and Eric—become Samneric (loss of name)

6. Point of View Golding shifts the point of view several times. –Mostly we see the story through the boys –Sometimes through Ralph’s eyes, sometimes through Piggy’s eyes, sometimes through Simon’s –Golding shifts to third person so that the author, himself, can give information not in the realm of the boys’ experience (i.e. parachutist =s war still going on in the world) –Note whose eyes we are looking through to comment on the perspective of the author

7. Topics for Debate The Natural Goodness of Man Theory: Is man corrupted by living in civilization? If he could be put back into a natural setting would he revert back to his original state of goodness? Views on Civilization: Is civilization evil and nature pure? Or, if stripped of civilization, will the “beast” surface? Political Allegory: Ralph =s Democratic power, Jack=s Totalitarian power, and Simon =s Religion Psychological Concepts: The novel as an expression of personality development—Jack =s the Id, Simon, Piggy =s the Superego, and Ralph =s the Ego and the struggle between each component

8. Golding’s Metaphors A Metaphor for Life: a philosophy that life starts out playfully and ends anxiously. Is this a story of young boys coming of age or approaching the end of innocence? A Metaphor for the Human Race’s Struggle to Survive: Are most blind to what is going on around them? Mirage as Metaphor: a mirage does not exist yet it has the power to suggest and influence behavior. Does civilization become a mirage? Masks: as camouflage, does it become a thing on its own? With masks, are we no longer ourselves?

9. Golding’s Use of Irony Used to bring us close to the action, but keeping us also distant from it—forces us to think about the world beyond us Jack says, “the boys are not savages” Ralph, himself, is aware of irony—i.e. his realizations of his own role, the change of the boys, his start from “fun and games” to “the meeting must not be fun, but business” Piggy’s use of double negatives—i.e. irony of his position to disprove the beast, his name (the boys hunt and kill pigs) The role of the parachutist itself!