essay outline for lord of the flies

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'Rubbish and dull. Pointless': How Lord of the Flies was rescued from the reject pile

William Golding's novel Lord of the Flies was first published on 17 September 1954, and is now recognised as a classic. In History looks at how Golding's story of English schoolboys and their descent into barbarism narrowly escaped being thrown in the bin.

"Write what you know" is advice often given to aspiring authors, and Lord of the Flies is a spectacular example of how clichés can still contain essential truths. A teacher at a boys' school who had witnessed first-hand the inhumanity of World War Two, William Golding condensed this knowledge and experience into his debut novel, a deceptively simple tale of shipwrecked boys reverting to savagery on a desert island. Its subversion of a familiar plot went on to resonate with generations of readers, and serve as a grim warning that the evils of Nazi Germany could be repeated anywhere. 

Golding was about to turn 43 when Lord of the Flies was first published. His big idea was a sinister 20th-Century reimagining of The Coral Island , RM Ballantyne's 1857 tale of derring-do in which a group of shipwrecked British schoolboys civilise a desert island, making it a playground for fun and games. Much of his original manuscript was handwritten on exercise books during school time. He even worked on the novel during lessons, while his pupils were occupied with their textbooks. A few of them were tasked with counting the number of words he'd written per page.

In 1953, Golding sent his novel to nine publishers, all of whom rejected it. Undaunted, he offered the manuscript to Faber and Faber, one of the most prestigious London firms. It was picked up by Charles Monteith, a junior editor who had only worked at the publishing house for a few months. The signs were not promising.

Absurd and uninteresting

He told the BBC's Bookmark in 1984: "Already there was one particular sort of thing I could spot, and that was the tired, weather-beaten old manuscript that had been around a lot of publishers before it reached us, and this was very much that. It was a large yellowing manuscript with the pages beginning to curl, and one or two stains for teacups that were put on them, or wine glasses, and drops of coffee and tea spilled, and was bound in rather depressing, hairy brown cardboard, and there was a short, formal covering letter."

One of the publisher's professional readers had already delivered her written verdict on Golding's manuscript, dismissing it as an "absurd and uninteresting fantasy". Along with a circled R for "reject", she wrote: "Rubbish and dull. Pointless."

Fortunately for Golding, Monteith gave the book another go, and decided to save it from oblivion. He said: "I had a look, and I must say I wasn't at all attracted by the beginning of it, but eventually I went on and got absolutely caught up by it. And from then on, I said 'we must take this seriously'."

He persuaded Faber and Faber to publish the book, but Golding first had to make some significant changes to the text. Also, its original title, Strangers from Within, had to go. According to Golding biographer Professor John Carey, the original manuscript was a religious novel that was "drastically different from the Lord of the Flies most people have read".

Capacity for evil

Speaking on 2012 Arena documentary The Dreams of William Golding, Carey said that the author became deeply religious following World War Two, when he had served on a Royal Navy destroyer, but his editor Monteith's revisions excised these elements. "Golding concedes, concedes, concedes, until what came out is a novel that is secular; it's not assuming any supernatural intervention," he said.  

Golding's experience of war gave him a deep sense of man's capacity for evil and a disillusionment with the idealistic politics of his early life. Lord of the Flies was his warning that the Nazism that engulfed Germany in the 1930s could happen in any civilised country. Speaking on The South Bank Show in 1980, he explained how the war transformed his attitude to human nature.

"It simply changed because, bit by bit, we discovered what the Nazis had been doing. Here was this highly civilised race of people who were doing, one gradually found out, impossible things. I remember, in those days, saying to myself, 'Yes, well, I have a Nazi inside me; given the right circumstances, I could have been a Nazi.'

"Bit by bit, as I discovered more and more what had gone on, that really changed my view of what people were capable of, and therefore what human nature was. So that political nostrums, if you like, seemed to me just to fall flat on their face in front of this capacity man had for a sort of absolute evil."

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Although Lord of the Flies had been a critical success, it wasn't until the publication of the US edition, and particularly the paperback in 1959, that Golding became an international bestselling author and started to earn large amounts in royalties. The success allowed him to quit his teaching job and become a full-time writer. "I didn't like the systematic side of teaching; I'm not a very systematic person," he admitted to Bookmark in 1984.

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• The life-changing day World War Two began

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On his status as a literary late bloomer, he said that his breakthrough came when he realised he had to stop imitating other writers. "It wasn't until I was 37, I suppose, that I grasped the great truth that you've got to write your own books and nobody else's, then everything followed from that," he told Monitor in 1959.

One young fan of Lord of the Flies was the novelist Stephen King , who borrowed the book from a mobile library after requesting something about "the way that kids really are". He told Arena in 2012: "I was completely riveted by the story from the very beginning because it was like a boys' story, the ones that I was accustomed to. The difference was the boys were real boys – they acted the way that I understood boys acted."

A storyteller through and through

King went on to set several stories in the fictional town of Castle Rock , which he named after Jack's mountain fort in Lord of the Flies. From cult 1990s backpackers story The Beach to teenage cannibalism drama Yellowjackets via the obligatory Simpsons parody, Lord of the Flies has become a pop culture touchstone. The book was twice adapted for film in 1963 and 1990, and a BBC television adaptation by screenwriter Jack Thorne is currently being filmed in Malaysia.

An original and deeply imaginative author, Golding would go on to write books about the final days of Neanderthal people , a sailor marooned on an Atlantic rock , and the building of a spire on a medieval cathedral . In 1983, he was awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature "for his novels which, with the perspicuity of realistic narrative art and the diversity and universality of myth, illuminate the human condition in the world of today".

For Golding, the secret of his success was itself almost a cliché. He told Bookmark in 1984: "I am at bottom and at top, too, a storyteller through and through. What matters to me is that there shall be a story with a beginning, a middle and an end."

For more stories and never-before-published radio scripts to your inbox, sign up to the  In History newsletter , while  The Essential List  delivers a handpicked selection of features and insights twice a week.

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Lord of the Flies

By william golding, lord of the flies essay questions.

In his introduction to William Golding's novel, novelist E.M. Forster suggests that Golding's writing "lays a solid foundation for the horrors to come." Using Forster's quote as a starting point, discuss how the novel foreshadows the murders of Simon and Piggy. Focus on two events or images from the novel's earlier chapters and describe how they anticipate the novel's tragic outcome.

Answer: The weather on the island grows increasingly more hostile and ominous as the novel's plot unfolds, Piggy's name suggests that he will be killed like an animal, and so on.

Many critics have read Lord of the Flies as a political allegory. In particular, they have considered the novel a commentary on the essential opposition between totalitarianism and liberal democracy. Using two or three concrete examples from the novel, show how the two political ideologies are figured in the novel, and then discuss which of the two you think Golding seems to favor.

Answer: The contrast between Ralph's group on the beach and Jack's tribe at Castle Rock represents the opposition between liberal democracy and totalitarianism. Golding presents the former as the superior system, demonstrated by the success of the assembly among Jack's group of boys and the ordered system that prioritizes the ongoing signal fire on the mountain, tactics that ensure the welfare of the entire group. Note, though, what happens in both groups over time.

Names and naming are important in Lord of the Flies. Many characters have names that allude to other works of literature, give insight into their character, or foreshadow key events. Discuss the significance of the names of, for instance, Sam and Eric, Piggy, and Simon. What does the character's name say about him and his significance? Use external sources as necessary.

Answer: Piggy's name, for example, indicates his inferior position within the social hierarchy of the island and foreshadows his eventual death at the hands of Jack's tribe. Simon was the name of Peter in the Bible. Jack might be named after John Marcher in Henry James's story The Beast in the Jungle , and so on.

Two major symbols in the novel are the conch shell and The Lord of the Flies (the pig's head on a stick). Analyze one or both of these symbols in terms of how they are perceived by the boys as well as what they symbolize for the reader.

Answer: The conch shell represents liberal democracy and order, as endorsed by Ralph and Piggy. The Lord of the Flies tends to represent an autocratic or a primitive order. Note the "exchange" of these objects at the novel's conclusion when the conch is smashed in Jack's camp and Ralph uses part of the Lord of the Flies as a weapon.

The children stranded on the island are all boys, and female characters are rarely discussed. How does this matter for the novel?

Answer: Gender difference is not explicitly discussed or represented in the novel, although femininity is symbolically present in the novel's representations of nature. Some of the male characters are "feminized" by the other boys when they are considered un-masculine or vulnerable. In a boys' choir, many boys have high voices that can sing parts normally reserved for females. It is unclear whether Jack's tribe would have become so violent (and nearly naked) if girls of the same age were on the island.

At the end of Chapter Eleven, Roger pushes Jack aside to descend on the bound twins "as one who wielded a nameless authority." Focusing on this quotation, discuss Roger's actions in Chapter Eleven in relation to Jack's power and political system.

Answer: Roger's actions towards the twins are unauthorized by Jack, indicating that Jack's own authority is under threat. Golding hints at a shift in the power system among Jack's tribe, which highlights the inherent flaws in Jack's system of military dictatorship.

Jack gains power over many of the boys by exploiting their fear of the mythical beast. How does Jack manipulate the myth of the beast to legitimize his authority?

Answer: Jack exploits the boys' fear of the beast to usurp leadership from Ralph, who stresses a rational approach to the presumed evil presence on the island. Within Jack's tribe, the beast continues to have a powerful symbolic and political significance among the boys, uniting them and ensuring their loyalty to Jack's leadership. When Jack first attempts to break away from Ralph's tribe, his authority is not recognized, but as the boys' fear of the beast increases, an increasing number defect from Ralph's group to Jack's, where the existence of the beast is not only acknowledged but is a central fact of day-to-day life.

By Chapter Three, the boys are divided into two groups: the older boys and the younger boys or "littluns." What role do the littluns have to play?

Answer: Consider especially the distinction between savagery and civilization.

What happens with the "littluns" registers the increasing brutality on the island. The earliest examples of violence in the novel are directed against the littluns, acts that foreshadow the violent events of later chapters. Moreover, characters who are kind to the littluns tend to remain most closely associated with civilization throughout the novel.

The novel's narrative action draws an increasingly firm line between savagery and civilization, yet the value of each becomes an issue in the conclusion, when Jack's fire saves the boys. Using these terms, what is the novel suggesting about human nature, evil, and human civilization?

Answer: The naval officer is a military figure, which reminds the reader that "civilized" societies also engage in violence and murder. Evil seems to be a force that threatens human nature and human civilization--from within. Still, evil is associated primarily with savagery and the worse part of our natures.

How does the novel reflect the Cold War and the public's concerns about the conflict between democracy and communism? Does the novel take a side? (Remember to cite all of your research sources in your bibliography.)

Answer: The Cold War was primarily between the democratic U.S. and its allies on the one hand, and the communist U.S.S.R. and its allies on the other hand. The initial events of the novel, following a group of boys in the aftermath of a terrible nuclear war, reflect and capitalize on widespread anxiety about the arms race for destructive atomic weapons. Ralph comes to represent the West and its values, while Jack comes to represent the enemy.

Lord of the Flies Questions and Answers

The Question and Answer section for Lord of the Flies is a great resource to ask questions, find answers, and discuss the novel.

Where had Simon fainted before?

From the text:

“He's always throwing a faint,”said Merridew. “He did in Gib.; and Addis; and at matins over the precentor.”

Quote Analysis. "There was a throb..."

At this point Ralph is once again challenging Jack's authority, Unfortunately all the cards are stacked against Ralph. A storm is brewing and to deflect the boys' fears, Jack orders them to dance around the fire. This communal spectacle of...

How do the boys respond to Jack's call for Ralph's removal as chief? How does Jack react? Respond with evidence from the text.

There is a lot of immaturity here. The other boys refuse to vote Ralph out of power. Enraged, Jack has a tantrum and runs away from the group, saying that he is leaving and that anyone who likes is welcome to join him.The boys don't like the open...

Study Guide for Lord of the Flies

Lord of the Flies study guide contains a biography of William Golding, literature essays, quiz questions, major themes, characters, and a full summary and analysis.

• About Lord of the Flies
• Lord of the Flies Summary
• Lord of the Flies Video
• Character List

Essays for Lord of the Flies

Lord of the Flies essays are academic essays for citation. These papers were written primarily by students and provide critical analysis of Lord of the Flies by William Golding.

• Two Faces of Man
• The Relationship Between Symbolism and Theme in Lord of the Flies
• A Tainted View of Society
• Death and Social Collapse in Lord of the Flies
• Lumination: The Conquest of Mankind's Darkness

Lesson Plan for Lord of the Flies

• About the Author
• Study Objectives
• Common Core Standards
• Introduction to Lord of the Flies
• Relationship to Other Books
• Bringing in Technology
• Notes to the Teacher
• Related Links
• Lord of the Flies Bibliography

Wikipedia Entries for Lord of the Flies

• Introduction

80 Lord of the Flies Essay Titles & Examples

🔝 top-8 lord of the flies research paper topics, 🔥 thesis for lord of the flies essay: best examples, 📌 creative lord of the flies thesis ideas, ✍️ topic sentences for lord of the flies essays, 👍 good titles for lord of the flies essay, 📚 best title for lord of the flies essay: how to choose, ❓ lord of the flies: important questions, 🎓 lord of the flies argumentative essay topics.

• Evil in “Lord of the Flies” by William Golding
• Lord of the Flies, an Allegorical Novel by William Golding
• Symbolism in “Lord of the Flies” by William Golding
• “Lord of the Flies” by William Golding
• Lord of the Flies: Novel Analysis
• Human Nature in “Lord of the Flies” by Golding
• Writing on the Novel I Love: Lord of the Flies
• Literature Studies: “Lord of the Flies” by W. Golding

Below, you can find a list of Lord of the Flies thesis statements together with corresponding topics:

• Topic: Characters in Lord of the Flies representing civil humans and savages. Thesis: The author uses Piggy, who always knows the correct way to organize the boys, to bring up the theme of civilization, while other characters represent savage ways of living.
• Topic: Interpretation of the symbol of the dead parachutist in Lord of the Flies . Thesis: The most potent interpretations of the parachutist is that he is a sign of evil corrupting the island and people’s souls.
• Topic: Symbols of authority and the war over power in Lord of the Flies . Thesis: Boys argue and fight throughout the novel over the leader’s place, using the sow’s head and the conch as symbols of the different forms of authority.
• Topic: Littluns vs. biguns: the significance of introducing the less important group of boys in Lord of the Flies . Thesis: Apart from introducing the beast, the littluns play an essential role as moral indicators, with the biguns who treat the younger boys nicely being perceived as kind.
• Topic: Are the characters of Lord of the Flies representations of stereotypes? Thesis: The boys in the novel represent many things, but the main one is stereotypes based on appearance.
• A Comprehensive Analysis of the Key Elements of “Lord of the Flies” by William Golding
• The Role of Simon in “Lord of the Flies” by William Golding
• Literary Comparison of Ballantyne’s “Coral Island” and Golding’s Island in “Lord of the Flies”
• Attitude Towards Children in the Story “Lord of the Flies”
• Jack as a Symbol of Savagery and Anarchy in “Lord of the Flies” by William Golding
• A Description of the Potential for Evil in Everyone as One of the Theme in the Novel “Lord of the Flies” by William Golding
• Evil in Humanity in “Lord of the Flies” by William Golding
• Savagery and the Beast Theme in “Lord of the Flies”
• The Fall of Civilization Into Savagery in “Lord of the Flies” by William Golding
• An Allegory of Sigmund Freud’s Psychoanalysis Theory in William Golding’s “Lord of the Flies”
• A Literary Analysis of the Symbolism in “Lord of the Flies” by William Golding
• Symbol Hunting Golding’s “Lord of the Flies”
• A Comparison Between the Movie and Novel “Lord of the Flies”
• Abuse of Power and the Effect of Tyrannical Leadership Between “Lord of the Flies” and “The Chrysalids”
• Fear of the Unknown in “Lord of the Flies” by William Golding
• A Comparison of “Lord of the Flies” by William Golding and “A Separate Peace” by John Knowles on Peer Pressure
• Internal and External Conflicts in “Lord of the Flies” by William Golding
• Importance of the Extract in the Development of the Main Themes in “Lord of the Flies”
• Destructiveness of Jealousy Depicted in “Lord of the Flies” and “Woman Warrior”
• A Demonstration of the Influence and Power of People Over One Another Through the Character of Piggy in “Lord of the Flies” by William Golding
• A Character of Piggy as the Character Who Most Deserved to Be Saved in “Lord of the Flies” by William Golding

Using topic sentences in every part of your essay can help it be more coherent. The following example can make it easier for you. Here are sample topic sentences for an essay on Lord of the Flies :

Topic: Theme of fear in Lord of the Flies .

• Introduction. In the novel, fear is the power that forces the most significant changes happening with the boys and their society.
• Body paragraph 1. First, William Golding shows how the fear of losing power reveals Jack’s manipulative personality.
• Body paragraph 2. Another example is Ralph’s fear of the unknown that makes it impossible for the boys to progress any further.
• Body paragraph 3. Finally, Piggy gets terrified of becoming a savage and dying, which eventually brings the boys’ society to an end.
• Conclusion. In Lord of the Flies , Golding uses every character’s weakness to show how fear controls people’s lives and alters their perspective.
• The Role of Government in “Lord of the Flies” by William Golding
• Moral Consequences in “Lord of the Flies” by William Golding
• The Symbolism of Power in “Lord of the Flies”
• An Analysis of Human Behavior in “All Quiet on the Western Front” and “Lord of the Flies”
• Changes in the Conception of God in “Lord of the Flies”
• Innate Evil in “To Kill a Mocking Bird” and “Lord of the Flies”
• A Look at Disturbing Events Highlighted in William Golding’s “Lord of the Flies”
• Allegory of Social Dissolution “Lord of the Flies” by William Golding
• Ralph as a Good Leader in “Lord of the Flies”
• An Analysis of Democratic and Authoritarian Power in “Lord of the Flies” by William Golding
• Leaders and Leadership in “Lord of the Flies” by William Golding
• Golding’s Pessimistic View on People and Society in His Book “Lord of the Flies”
• Analyzing the Themes of Innocence and Fear in William Golding’s “Lord of the Flies”
• A Description of the Occurrence of Civilization in “Lord of the Flies” by William Golding
• Importance of the Beast in “Lord of the Flies” by William Golding
• Golding’s “Lord of the Flies”: A Dream of a Deserted Island Into Reality
• Adventures, Conflicts, and Struggles in “Lord of the Flies”
• Good and Evil in Human Nature in “Lord of the Flies” by William Golding
• Failure of Paradise in Margaret Atwood’s “The Handmaid’s Tale” and William Golding’s “Lord of the Flies”
• Immorality of Human Nature Depicted in Golding’s “Lord of the Flies”
• Formation of Rules and Perception of Civilization in “Lord of the Flies”

Still trying to pick the best essay title? Here’s a short guide on how to choose a good title:

• What’s your interest? Choose the topic that you’re interested in. The hours of research you’ll spend on your essay will be very productive as the quality of the results tends to be proportionate to the energy put into the project. Moreover, the result is more likely to be high quality.
• What does your assignment say? If you received assignment instructions, double-check to see if they say what area of research to work on.
• Is your topic narrow enough? After you decide on the area of research, think about the specific issues within it.

To give you some ideas on where to look here’s also a list of research areas on Lord of the Flies :

• Historical context. You can discuss the title’s origin or analyze why the novel was banned at first.
• Symbolism. Talk about the novel’s main symbols along with the less obvious ones.
• Characters. Analyze any significant details about the novel’s characters.
• Psychology. You can write about Lord of the Flies from a psychological perspective, for example analyzing it through Freud’s prism.
• How Golding Presents the Decline From Civilization to Savagery in “Lord of the Flies”?
• What Does Piggy Symbolize in “Lord of the Flies”?
• How Does the Second World War Reflect on “Lord of the Flies”?
• What Ideas About Human Nature and Behavior Golding Was Trying to Express in “Lord of the Flies”?
• What Does the Plane Crash Symbolize in “Lord of the Flies”?
• How Does William Golding Present the Character of Jack in “Lord of the Flies”?
• How Does Golding Express His Ideas About Leadership in “Lord of the Flies”?
• How Does Roger Change in “Lord of the Flies” by William Golding?
• How the Society Suppresses Evil in the Novel “Lord of the Flies”?
• How Does Golding Create a Setting in “Lord of the Flies”?
• How Does the Author Present Human Nature in “Lord of the Flies”?
• How Does William Golding Show Evil at Work in “Lord of the Flies”?
• How Anybody Could Regress Into Savagery in Golding’s “Lord of the Flies”?
• How Is the Author’s Characterization and Language Attributed to the Novel of the “Lord of the Flies”?
• Why Did William Golding Name His Novel “Lord of the Flies”?
• How Does Golding Present Death in “Lord of the Flies”?
• How Does the Setting Affect the Story “Lord of the Flies”?
• How Children Are Treated in the Story of “Lord of the Flies”?
• How Does Golding Make the Physical World Seem Important in “Lord of the Flies”?
• What Is Ralph’s Attitude Toward Piggy in the First Chapter of “Lord of the Flies”?
• How Many Boys Are in “Lord of the Flies”?
• How Golding Creates Tension in “Lord of the Flies”?
• How Does the Opening Prepare the Reader for the Rest of the Novel “Lord of the Flies”?
• Why the Boys Were Doomed to Fail in “Lord of the Flies”?
• What Influenced William Golding to Write “Lord of the Flies”?
• Ways That Golding Presents the Island in “Lord of the Flies”?
• How Golding Uses Symbols in “Lord of the Flies”?
• How Does William Golding Use the Setting to Develop the Main Theme of His Novel “Lord of the Flies”?
• How Does Piggy’s Character Develop Through Golding’s “Lord of the Flies”?
• What Ruined Ralph and Jack’s Friendship in “Lord of the Flies”?
• Why is Ralph a better leader than Jack in Lord of the Flies ? A true leader encourages people to change their society for the better. According to Golding’s novel, what makes Ralph a more suitable candidate to be in power than Jack?
• The beast as the representation of the inner evil in Lord of the Flies . The beast pushes the characters of the novel into fear. In turn, this fear causes their inner evil to come to the surface. You can analyze this issue.
• The reason the society-building experiment failed in Lord of the Flies . The boys are trapped on an island and try to copy the adult way of creating the hierarchy. Would it end up differently if they came up with their own social structure? Discuss the main aspects and reasons for their failure.
• Freudian perspective on personality as the way to analyze Lord of the Flies . Freudian theory suggests that personality is divided into three parts: the id, ego, and superego. Explore the novel’s characters and the plot from this perspective.
• World War II as a significant element of influence on Golding’s Lord of the Flies . William Golding experienced WW2 which puts some extra meaning into his novel. In what ways does it manifest?
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Lord of the Flies

William golding.

Ask LitCharts AI: The answer to your questions

A group of English schoolboys are marooned on a jungle island with no adults after their plane is shot down in the middle of a war. Two of the boys, Ralph and Piggy find a conch shell. Ralph blows into it like a horn, and all the boys on the island assemble. At the assembly, a boy named Jack mocks Piggy for being fat and runs against Ralph to become chief of the group. Ralph wins the election, and declares Jack the leader of the group's hunters. Soon after, Ralph, Jack, and another boy named Simon explore the island and discover wild pigs.

At a second assembly, the boys set up rules to govern themselves. The first rule is that whoever wants to speak at an assembly must hold the conch. At the meeting, one young boy claims he saw a " beastie " in the jungle, but Ralph dismisses it as just the product of a nightmare. Ralph then suggests that they build a signal fire at the top of a mountain so any passing ships will see its smoke and rescue them. The boys use Piggy's glasses to light the fire, but they're careless, and accidentally set part of the forest on fire. The boy who saw the beastie vanishes during the fire and is never seen again.

Time passes. Tensions rise. Ralph becomes frustrated when no one helps him build shelters. Lots of boys goof off, while Jack obsesses about hunting and takes every opportunity to mock Piggy, who is smart but weak. Simon, meanwhile, often wanders off into the forest to meditate. The rivalry between Ralph and Jack erupts when Jack forces the boys who were supposed to watch the signal fire come hunting with him. They kill their first pig, but a ship passes while the signal fire is out, which causes a tremendous argument between Ralph and Jack.

Ralph calls an assembly hoping to set things right. But the meeting soon becomes chaotic as several younger boys talk about the beast. Now even the bigger boys are fearful. That night, after a distant airplane battle, a dead parachutist lands on the mountaintop next to the signal fire. The boys on duty at the fire think it's the beast. Soon Ralph and Jack lead an expedition to search the island for the beast. While searching, they find a rock outcropping that would make a great fort, but no beast. Tempers between the two boys soon flare up, and they climb the mountain in the dark to prove their courage. They spot the shadowy parachutist and think he's the beast.

The next morning, Jack challenges Ralph's authority at an assembly. Ralph wins, but Jack leaves the group, and most of the older boys join him. Jack's tribe paint their faces, hunt, and kill a pig. They then leave its head as an offering to the beast. Simon comes upon the head, and sees that it's the Lord of the Flies —the beast within all men. While Jack invites everyone to come to a feast, Simon climbs the mountain and sees the parachutist. When Simon returns to tell everyone the truth about the "beast," however, the boys at the feast have become a frenzied mob, acting out a ritual killing of a pig. The mob thinks Simon is the beast and kills him.

Jack's tribe moves to the rock fort. They steal Piggy's glasses to make fire. Ralph and his last allies, Piggy and the twins named Samneric , go to get the glasses back. Jack's tribe captures the twins, and a boy named Roger rolls a boulder from the fort that smashes the conch and kills Piggy. The next day the tribe hunts Ralph, setting fire to the forest as they do. He evades them as best he can, and becomes a kind of animal that thinks only of survival and escape. Eventually the boys corner Ralph on the beach where they first set up their society when they crash landed on the island. But the burning jungle has attracted a British Naval ship, and an officer is standing on the shore. The boys stop, stunned, and stare at the man. He jokingly asks if the boys are playing at war, and whether there were any casualties. When Ralph says yes, the officer is shocked and disappointed that English boys would act in such a manner. Ralph starts to cry, and soon the other boys start crying too. The officer, uncomfortable, looks away toward his warship.

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Home — Essay Samples — Literature — Lord of The Flies — Symbolism in “Lord of the Flies” by William Golding

Symbolism in "Lord of The Flies" by William Golding

• Categories: Lord of The Flies Symbolism

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Words: 1210 |

Published: Jul 17, 2018

Words: 1210 | Pages: 2 | 7 min read

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• Bruns, B. (2008). The symbolism of power in William Golding’s Lord of The Flies. (https://www.diva-portal.org/smash/record.jsf?pid=diva2%3A132457&dswid=-4646)
• Li, X., & Wu, W. (2009). On Symbolic Significance of Characters in” Lord of the Flies”. English Language Teaching, 2(1), 119-122. (https://eric.ed.gov/?id=EJ1082261)
• Fitzgerald, J. F., & Kayser, J. R. (1992). Golding’s” Lord of the Flies”: pride as original sin. Studies in the Novel, 24(1), 78-88. (https://www.jstor.org/stable/29532839)
• Faryyad, F., Ajmal, M., & Ali, S. (2020). A Corpus-Based Study of Symbolism in William Golding’s Lord of the Flies. International Journal of Psychosocial Rehabilitation, 24(04). (https://www.academia.edu/39112023/Symbolism_in_William_Goldings_Lord_of_the_Flies)
• Kruger, A. (1999). Golding’s Lord of the Flies. The Explicator, 57(3), 167-169. (https://doi.org/10.1080/00144949909596859)

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Lord of the Flies

Introduction lord of the flies, summary of lord of the flies, major themes in lord of the flies,  major characters in lord of the flies, writing style of lord of the flies ‎, analysis of literary devices in lord of the flies, related posts:, post navigation.