Transcript Lord of the Flies - Cottenham Village College

Lord of the Flies
By William Golding
Starter
What ideas and
impressions do you
get from the title
and front cover of
the novel?
 Reflect on the
possible meanings
of the words and
pictures

Golding’s interest in the existence
of evil
The title is meant to be a reference to the
Devil or Beelzebub (the Hebrew word for
the Devil), which is the God of the Fly
(translated as Lord of the Flies).
 The existence of evil is explored in many
ways including: the idea of the beast, the
boys’ degeneration into savagery and the
background of the war.

‘If you don’t have
laws, then you’re lost’
DO YOU AGREE WITH THIS STATEMENT?
EXPLAIN.
What does the term ‘context’
mean?
The context of the novel means the
circumstances at the time it was written –
social, historical and literary factors
that influenced what the author wrote
 Context is assessed by WJEC
 To achieve a grade A* you have to
identify and comment on the impact of
social, cultural and historical contexts

Points to consider:
The people of Britain had just been
through the Second World War
 Food was still being rationed in Britain
 It was thought that there might be a
nuclear war between Western countries
and the Soviet Union
 Nazi Germany had adopted a system of
rewarding the strong and attacking the
weak

Context
When Lord of the Flies was published in the early 1950s
Britain was living in the shadow of the horrors of World War
Two. Golding was revolted by the evil things people did to
each other in the war; The Nazi concentration camps, the
Japanese treatment of their prisoners, the atomic bombing
against civilians - even his own actions as a naval officer.
Golding began to see all human nature as savage and
unforgiving: he had seen that even the good could be
corrupted.
After the war the United Nations was set up to try to ensure
that such a global conflict never happened again, but by
1954, when Lord of the Flies was published, the threat of a
Third World War was very real. Many countries had built up
arsenals of nuclear weapons with enough atomic energy to
destroy civilisation.
William Golding
William Golding was born in 1911 in Cornwall, England
and died in 1993. He studied English Literature at
Oxford then worked as a writer, actor and teacher
until war broke out.
During World War Two Golding served with the Royal
Navy and witnessed first hand the true horrors of war.
What he saw profoundly affected him. His view of
humanity changed; he no longer believed that humans
were naturally good and innocent. The war had
exposed him to horrific experiences which influenced
his writing in the years to come.
After the war Golding worked as a teacher in a boys’
school in Salisbury and in 1954 he published his first
novel, Lord of the Flies. Golding said that writing the
book was like ‘lamenting the lost childhood of the
world’. Golding was knighted in 1988 and was
awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1993,
shortly before he died.
Chapter 1
Ralph and Piggy call the other boys
together
 Ralph is made leader but Jack keeps the
choir
 Ralph, Jack and Simon learn that they are
on an island

Pause for thought…

‘the creature was a party of boys’ (p.15)

The choir and Jack are compared to a
creature, which makes them seem less
human.

Why is this appropriate?
Text focus

Read the passage from ’The children who
came along the beach’ to ‘eccentric
clothing’ (pp.14-15)
What technique is Golding using here?
 How successful do you think it is? Explain

Foreshadowing
Golding is signposting to the reader what will
happen later in the story
 Twice he presents an animal image to describe
what the boys seem to see, before revealing to
us what is really there
 ‘bat-like creature…The bat was the child’s
shadow” and “The creature stepped from the
mirage…The creature was a party of boys”
 What do these metaphors suggest to the
reader?

Lesson Focus: To explore the
symbolism in Chapter 2

Starter: What are the connotations
(associations) with fire?
Negative
Positive
Lesson Focus: To explore the
symbolism in Chapter 2

Many of the important symbols of the
novel are introduced in this chapter:
The fire
 The conch
 Piggy’s glasses
 The beast

What does the conch represent, or
stand for?
In Chapter One Ralph blows the conch to
bring everyone together.
 In Chapter Two he decides that anyone
who wishes to speak in assembly must
first be holding the conch:
‘“I’ll give the conch to the next person
to speak. He can hold it when he’s
speaking … And he won’t be interrupted.”’

What does the conch represent, or
stand for?
Because of its two important functions
on the island, the conch is more than simply just
a shell. The use of the conch is a child’s version
of order: ‘“We ought to have more rules. Where
the conch is, that’s a meeting.”’
 As the item which is used to call assembly and
determine who can speak, the conch is
powerful. It is symbolic of authority and
democracy on the island.

What do Piggy’s glasses represent, or
stand for?
Jack realises that Piggy’s glasses can be
used to light the fire
 What are they a symbol of?
 How are they an extension of Piggy’s
persona?

What does the ’beastie’ represent, or
stand for?
One of the smaller boys says that he has
seen a giant snake that he calls the
‘beastie’, which came at night and tried to
eat him.
 Read again the passage which begins ‘He
wants to know what you’re going to do
about the snake-thing’ and ends ‘The
assembly was silent.’

Copy the grid and fill it in
Starter:
The beast is described as looking like a
snake. Why has Golding used this image?
 HINT: What do snakes often symbolise in
literature and Christianity?

Pause for thought…
The boys begin to feel an impact, and
even a threat, from the natural world that
surrounds them. They are unsure how to
react. The small boys are scared and even
Jack feels he is being hunted (Chapter 3).
 How would you explain their fears at this
point? Are they simply ‘imagining things’,
or is there something real to be afraid of?

The Beast
The fear of the unknown, and the
savagery it provokes, is a theme of the
novel
 The littluns’ are becoming frightened at
night because they think there is
something in the forest
 Jack feels that he is being hunted, even
though he is doing the hunting

Exploring symbolism further…
“the mask was a thing on its own, behind
which Jack hid, liberated from shame and
self-consciousness” (p.66)
 Read the passage beginning “Jack was
standing under a tree” and ending with
“The mask compelled them” (pp.65-67)
 What do you think makes Jack want to
paint his face and what effect does this
have on his behaviour?

Changing appearances
The title of Chapter Four – ‘Painted Faces and Long Hair’
is a reference to the way the appearances of the boys
have altered since they have been on the island.
In what ways do the boys look different to when
they first arrived on the island?
Jack’s appearance has changed most dramatically.
How does he feel when he
wears his ‘mask’?
How do the changes in Jack’s
physical appearance reflect his
character?
Changing appearances
The boys’ clothes have become scruffy and their
hair long. The changing appearances of the boys
reflects the way they are becoming more
detached from civilization.
 Piggy’s hair remains the same and it is
compared to that of a balding man. This
highlights how he is different to the other boys
and is also a nod towards his adult nature.
 Jack is excited when he paints his face – the
mask encourages the savage nature within him
and makes him feel braver. He can use the mask
to hide his behaviour behind – he is “liberated
from shame and self-consciousness”.
