Lord of the Flies: Reading Guide & Historical Context

1. Do Now • Complete the anticipation guide on the first page of your packet

2. Lord of the Flies By William Golding

3. Before We Get Started • For Lord of the Flies, you will not have weekly reading logs. Instead, you will have a weekly quote tracker. • To receive full credit you must write down at least 10 quotes and write a 1-2 sentence explanation of the quote’s significance • This should be done while you are reading, and is meant to make exit tickets, essays, and tests easier • Hauck’s HR: Every day you must retrieve a book from the basket next to the door and bring it to your table • Warrior’s HR: Every day you must return your book to the basket at the end of the second English period • DO NOT PUT THE BOOKS ON THE FLOOR • There is a full copy of the book online, if you need to borrow a book, you must ask me first and sign a book out

4. Lord of the Flies • William Golding was born on September 19, 1911, in England. • When William was just 12 years old, he attempted, unsuccessfully, to write a novel. (awkward) • In 1935 Golding took a position teaching English and philosophy at Bishop Wordsworth’s School in Salisbury. • Golding’s experience teaching unruly young boys would later serve as inspiration for his novel Lord of the Flies.

5. What You Already Know • A UTOPIA is a description of an ideal society based around notions of equality, social harmony, economic prosperity, and political stability. • In contrast, a DYSTOPIA in its most basic sense, you could say that dystopia is the opposite of utopia, referring to fictional societies that are incredibly imperfect

6. Microcosms & Macrocosms Macro- (large) Micro- (small) Cosom- (world/universe) • A MACROCOSM is the “big picture,” or universe meant to represent the a large group of people at a specific point in time. • A MICROCOSM is a “little world.” It is usually represented as a small group of people meant to represent a much larger group (the macrocosm.)

7. Lord of the Flies • Macrocosm—the entire world at turmoil during the 1940’s (World War II) • Microcosm—the small island where the boys are stranded. • The behaviors of the boys and their “society” begin to take on, or mimic, the behaviors of the larger society (the world as a whole).

8. World War II & The Cold War

9. World War II • WWII began in Europe on September 1, 1939 when Germany attacked Poland and ended on September 2, 1945 • The Players: • THE ALLIES THE AXIS • United States 1. Germany • United Kingdom 2. Italy • Soviet Union 3. Japan • France • China

10. Background • 1914-1918: World War 1 • Germany owed huge war reparations (debts) that destroyed their economy and left the people resentful • Nations on the winning side including the US are optimistic and wealthy after the war • 1930s: The Great Depression • Devastated the world economies • Harsh authoritarian governments begin to spring up all over the world • Tone of dissatisfaction and frustration worldwide

11. Crash Course! FYI: This is John Greene! As in, the dude to wrote The Fault in Our Stars

12. So we just had a really bloody world war…no more war for a while right? WRONG

13. And then came the Cold War • In WWII, the US and Soviet Union (USSR) were allies but this alliance fell apart after the war. • Joseph Stalin, leader of the USSR wanted to expand communism, which the US interpreted as a direct attack on the “free world”

14. The Red Scare • The Red Scare was the promotion of fear of the rise of Communism that Americans felt post-WWII • Words that describe the Cold War: • Fear • Threat of Escalation • Xenophobia • Propaganda

16. Activity: Survivor • You are stranded on an island. There are no adults, and you have been made the leader. Use the handout in your packet to organize your group. • Your goal is to figure out all of the necessary steps to ensure peace and prosperity

17. Do Now • Imagine that you are in the 76th Hunger Games and you are being ranked by your skills. What skill do you think you have that nobody else has? • (example: Katniss is awesome with a bow and arrow)

18. Symbolism • A symbol is an object, place, name, character or even that represents something more or something other than itself. • Symbols are often used in literature to add meaning to a text. They are often shown through emphasis, repetition, and position. • To identify a symbol I should: • Look for something that the author draws attention to that may signify additional meaning • Consider what this may represent given the way the author uses it • Determine what meaning the author is trying to convey

19. Foreshadowing & Inferences • Foreshadowing is clues the author gives about what may happen next. • We use foreshadowing to make an inference. • An inference is a conclusion reached on the bases of evidence and reasoning.

20. Chapter 1: The Sound of the SHell • As we get started, remember to look for literary devices, and pay attention to important images that may end up being symbols.

21. Do Now: • Using the strips of paper on your table, paste the events in the order they occurred in Chapter 2 


22. Writing an Analytical Paragraph • An analytical paragraph is a paragraph that uses evidence to back up an argument. • In every paragraph you write, you should be using the book to prove your point. • Analysis is a detailed examination of something through discussion and interpretation

23. Deconstructing An Analytical Paragraph • Topic Sentence • Identify what your argument will be in your paragraph. • Evidence • Include specific details from the text to support the topic sentence • Paraphrase Evidence • Use your own thinking and language to express the author’s ideas • Analysis of Evidence • Explain the significance of the evidence and interpret it • Concluding Statement • Explain how the evidence connects to your topic sentence claim

24. Language of Good Paragraphs • YOU ARE EXPECTED TO BE USING THESE NOW THAT WE’VE GONE OVER IT! • “The Literary Present:”Use the present tense when for ELA writing assignments (ex: Ender feels sad vs. Ender felt sad) • Use the vocabulary words you have learned • Use the proper spelling of a word (ex: to/too, their/there) • Cite where you found your evidence at the end of the sentence. • ex: When Ender discusses his relationship with Peter, he makes it clear that he and his brother have fundamentally different outlooks on life (22).

25. What a Strong Paragraph Looks Like • Ender’s Game repeatedly makes references to the way in which the entire world is a game and the characters inside it are being “played.” Even in the first pages of the book Peter tells Valentine and Ender that it’s “Not a joke, a game. I can make you guys believe anything. I can make you dance around like puppets” (14). This interaction between Peter and his siblings foreshadows a much larger thematic element of games versus reality that encompasses the novel. Furthermore, the world of Ender’s Game relies on children playing a seemingly harmless game in battle school that we learn is actually the strategy for winning the war against the Buggers. In doing so, the Battle School cadets unknowingly sacrifice countless lives, and are denied the ability to assess the morality of their actions. This game mentality that is born in the early pages of the novel serves to divorce the characters from the reality of their actions and make them pawns in a much larger, much more deadly game.