Plot Overview

About the Author

Lord of the Flies is about a group of British boys

that is in a plane and crashes in a deserted island
in the Pacific Ocean. Piggy and Ralph find a conch
and use it to call everyone else. When all the boys
are together, they take a vote to decide who the
leader will be. After Jack nominates himself, the
boys pick Ralph. They later on learn to hunt pigs
and build fires as a signal for their rescue. Jack and
the boys from the choir hunt pigs all the time and do
not keep the fire going. Because of this, a ship goes
by and does not see them. After a while, Jack gets
annoyed by Ralphs orders and leaves the group,
inviting anyone to join his new tribe. Since Jack was
the person in charge of hunting, the other boys
begin to starve because they have no food. One
day, Jack lets everyone know that he will have a
feast that night, inviting everyone to come to his
tribe. So the boys begin to leave, until Ralph and
Piggy are alone. That same night, Jack comes to
his tribe with the pig he hunted, tied up to a stick.
Before cooking it, he cuts of its head and puts it on
a stick, telling everyone that it is for the beast, so it
wont hurt them. After beginning the feast, Simon
walks up to the Pig's head and can hear it talking to
him. It tells Simon that it is the beast and that it is
part of him (Simon). Simon calls it The Lord of the
Flies. Then, he passes out. While the boys enjoy
the feast, Simon wakes up and falls in the center.
Since he is covered in blood, the boys mistake him
for the beast and start stabbing him with their
spears. Later on when Ralph and Piggy are tired of
being by themselves, they go to Jacks tribe to talk
things out. As Piggy stands beneath a cliff, Roger
pushes a boulder onto Piggys head and kills him.
Days later, Jack makes a plan with his tribe to kill
Ralph too. Luckily, the twins tell Ralph what they
plan to kill him. While Ralph runs away from Jack,
he trips and falls right in front of an officer of the
British Navy.

William Golding was born on September 19, 1911 in

England and died on June 19, 1993. He started
teaching English and philosophy in 1935. In 1940,
he stopped teaching and joined the Royal Navy.
Lord of the Flies was his first novel, it was
published in 1954. Golding grew up in a house next
to a graveyard. His mom was an activist that fought
for womens right to vote, and his dad was a
schoolmaster. Some books written by him are: Lord
of the Flies, Rites of Passage, The Inheritors,
Pincher Martin, The Spire, Darkness Visible, Free
Fall, The Pyramid, The Paper Men, The Double
Tongue, Close Quarters, Fire Down Below, To The
Ends Of The Earth, The Scorpion God: Three Short
Novels, The Hot Gates and Other Occasional
Pieces, An Egyptian Journal, A Moving Target, and
Brass Butterfly.

Historical Context

Novel Notes
Lord of the Flies
William Golding
Areli Agudo
January 11, 2016

Essential Quotes
Which is better-to have rules and agree, or to
hunt and kill (Golding 180)?

Golding wrote the novel in 1954, after World War

I got the conch (180)!
Two ended, but the book takes place during the
war. According to Golding, the book explored the
Work Cited
savage side of human nature as the boys, let loose
from the constraints of society, brutally turned
Bio.com. A&E Networks Television, n.d. Web. 22 Dec. 2015.
against one another in the face of an imagined
<http://www.biography.com/people/william-goldingenemy. This novel set Goldings tone for his future
9314523#early-life>.
works, since he continued to write about peoples
"Books by William Golding." (Author of Lord of the Flies).
struggle between doing good or evil. The fact that
N.p., n.d. Web. 22 Dec. 2015.
he was in the navy made a big impact on his
<https://www.goodreads.com/author/list/306.William_Goldi
writing. Because he experienced cruelty during the
ng>.
time that he was in war, he came to a conclusion
SparkNotes. SparkNotes, n.d. Web. 22 Dec. 2015.
that "man produces evil, as a bee produces honey,"
<http://www.sparknotes.com/lit/flies/themes.html>.
which impacted a few of his fiction writings. Lord of
the Flies was Goldings first novel. But, it had been
"Lord of the Flies." :. N.p., n.d. Web. 24 Dec. 2015.
rejected by twenty publishers before it became a
<http://www.cliffsnotes.com/literature/l/lord-of-theflies/william-golding-biography>.
bestselling book.
SparkNotes. SparkNotes, n.d. Web. 02 Jan. 2016.
<http://www.sparknotes.com/lit/flies/context.html>.

Character Analysis

Themes

Motifs and Symbols

RalphHe is chosen as the leader of the group in the beginning

of the story. Since he and Piggy found a conch, he uses
it all the time when he needs to call the rest of the boys
for an assembly. Throughout the story, Ralph gives
orders so that they survive and possibly get rescued, but
the boys do not obey him although he helps them with
the work. Ralph thinks that they should keep the fire
going at all times so that passing ships see the smoke,
but the rest of the boys only want to hunt. Ralphs effects
on others are neither positive nor negative since
everyone except piggy leaves to join Jacks tribe. In the
beginning of the story he gathers fruit and water for the
boys to have, but in the end he mostly spends his time
hiding from Jack since he plans to kill him.

JackHe mostly hates Ralph throughout the story since Ralph

was chosen as leader and not him. Jack does not obey
Ralphs orders most of the time and tries to kill him in the
end. In the middle when he creates his new tribe and
accomplishes to leave Ralph and Piggy alone, Jack
convinces the rest of the boys to mess around with them
until the point where they kill Piggy. Jacks speech is
aggressive for the most part and mostly towards Piggy.
In the story, it looks like Jacks goal always remains to
accomplish being the leader, and that is why he tries to
kill Ralph too. The effects that he creates on others is
mostly fear. From the moment in which his tribe
accidently killed Simon, while following Jacks orders,
they became fearful of him.

Piggy-

Solitude
there are no grownups on the island
when everyone joins Jacks tribe, Ralph and
Piggy are alone
when Roger kills Piggy, Ralph is all alone

Pigs Head
symbolizes the demon talking to Simon
symbolizes the beast that the boys thought
was watching them
is the lord of the flies

Wilderness
boys land on an island
they begin to hunt pigs
boys begin to kill each other
they think a beast is watching them, they try
to hunt it down
they stay dressed in shorts only

Island
can symbolize the violent way that the boys
treated each other with
symbolizes the solitude of the boys since
there were no grown ups
is the reason why the boys began to act wild

Power

Conch
symbolizes gain of power (only person
Ralph is elected as chief
holding it could speak)
Jack wanted to be the leader
symbolizes loss of power (boulder that killed
conch symbolizes power
Piggy crushed it)
when Roger killed Piggy he also crushed the
appears often throughout the story
conch, symbolizing the end of Ralphs power
boys use it to call assemblies
Fire

boys use it to attract passing ships

symbolizes their rescue
appears throughout the story
is the reason why Jack left (didnt want to
obey Ralphs orders)

In the story, Piggy always tries to convince the boys to

act mature and more like grownups. In the assemblies,
he always gives speeches of how they must learn to get
along because they may spend the rest of their lives
there. Piggy thinks that they must learn to live together,
but the boys do not listen to him because all they do is
make fun of everything he says since he is fat. Piggy
does not have a recognizable effect on others except for
maybe making Jack more aggressive every time that he
responded back in a bad way when he was made fun of,
making Jack even more mad. The actions taken by him
were not helpful because he could not hunt or even walk
long distances, so he stayed with the littluns for the most
part.