Lord of the Flies

1. Lord of the Flies REVIEW

2. SYMBOLS • Conch = civilized authority, power and democracy in their new world • Glasses = ability to see clearly, to perceive what is best, knowledge/intelligence • Fire = civilization, warmth, hope, community and security • Beast = the devil, the evil residing within everyone, the dark side of humans

3. SYMBOLS • Ralph = democracy and order • Simon = pure goodness, “Christ figure” • Roger = evil, Satan • Jack = savagery, anarchy • The island = a microcosm, mini-version, of the world • The scar = man’s destruction, the start of destructive forces on a pristine island

4. THEMES • The most obvious of the themes is man's need for civilization. Contrary to the belief that man is innocent and society evil, the story shows that laws and rules, policemen and schools are necessary to keep the darker side of human nature in line. When these institutions and concepts slip away or are ignored, human beings revert to a more primitive part of their nature.

5. THEMES • LOSS OF INNOCENCE • Golding implies that the loss of innocence has little to do with age but is related to a person's understanding of human nature. It can happen at any age or not at all. Painful though it may be, this loss of innocence by coming to terms with reality is necessary if humanity is to survive.

6. THEMES • THE LOSS OF IDENTITY • When civilization slips away and man reverts to his more primitive nature, his identity disintegrates. The boys use masks to cover their identity, and this allows them to kill and later to murder. The loss of a personal name personifies the loss of selfhood and identity.

7. THEMES • POWER • Different types of power, with their uses and abuses, are central to the story. Each kind of power is used by one of the characters. Democratic power is shown when choices and decisions are shared among many. Authoritarian power allows one person to rule by threatening and terrifying others. Spiritual power recognizes internal and external realities and attempts to integrate them. Brute force, the most primitive use of power, is indiscriminate.

8. THEMES • FEAR OF THE UNKNOWN • BLINDNESS AND SIGHT • THE INDIFFERENCE OF NATURE - Throughout much of literature the natural world has been portrayed as "mother nature," the protector of man. In Lord of the Flies nature is shown to be indifferent to humanity's existence. When nature creates a situation which helps or hinders mankind, it is an arbitrary happening. Man may be aware of nature, but nature is unconscious and unaware of mankind.

9. Theme according to Golding* • In a publicity release prepared for American publishers of The Lord of the Flies, William Golding explained the theme of his book as follows:The theme is an attempt to trace the defects of society back to the defects of human nature. *on test

10. IRONY • The survivors of the plane crash are boys evacuated from a battle zone in a world war; however, the society they form eventually breaks down, and the children go to war with one another.  • Piggy's eyesight is weak, but his insight is strong.  • The British naval officer who arrives to rescue the boys at the end of the novel appears to represent civilization and sanity, but he, and the society he represents, are actually a mirror image, on a larger scale, of the boys and their corrupt island society.     • When Jack sets a fire to roust Ralph from the forest, he unintentionally saves the lives of all the remaining boys. It was this fire that attracted the attention of the British ship.

11. The novel as an ALLEGORY. • Writers use allegory to illustrate abstract meanings by using concrete images.  Often characters in allegories personify some abstract quality.  While it is possible to read Lord of the Flies as allegory, the work is so complex that it can be read on many levels.  • It is an allegory of the political state of the world in the post war period; • as a Freudian psychological understanding of human kind; • or as the Christian understanding of the fall of humankind, among others.

12. As a political allegory … • We need only to look at the state of the world at the end of World War II. The world was divided into two camps: the free world and the Soviet Union, much like the camps of Ralph and Jack.   • In addition, the postwar Cold War Era suffered from fears of atomic destruction.  Lord of the Flies shows the world at the brink of atomic destruction.  • The novel serves as a warning to the leaders of the world.

13. As a Freudian psychological allegory… • The characters in the novel personify the different aspects of the human psyche: the id, the super ego, and the ego.   • Jack represents the id.  This is the part of the unconscious mind that works always to gratify its own impulse.   • Piggy is the superego.  This is the part of the mind that seeks to control the impulsive behavior of the id. Piggy always reminds Ralph and the others of their responsibilities.  • Ralph is the ego. He is the conscious mind that mediates between the id's demand for pleasure and the social pressures brought to bear by the superego.  

14. Finally, Lord of the Flies is a religious allegory… • …of the Garden of Eden.  • It was a perfect island with good food, good weather, and good water.  • The beastie is the snake in the Garden that lures (tricks) the others to not hold up to their duty.  • The parachutist and Piggy represent the fall of mankind.  • Jack and Ralph are very much like Cain and Abel. • Simon is a Christ figure who sacrifices himself to save them.