William Golding’s
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Transcript of 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)