Gymnasium English

Bäumlihof 1st year

Chapter comprehension questions

Task: Answer the questions per chapter from the list below. A complete answer should be at least a
paragraph and contain evidence from the text (direct quotes and page number).

Chapter 9: “A View to a Death”

1. Why does Simon travel to the mountaintop? What does he do there? What does he discover there?
What is the symbolic meaning of his journey and discovery?
2. What is the meaning behind Simon’s death? How and why is he killed? What is he doing when he is
killed? Why do Ralph and Piggy have a part in his death? What part do they play?

Chapter 10: “The Shell and the Glasses”

1. How do Ralph, Piggy, and Samneric react to their roles in Simon’s death? What does this tell you
about them? What does it tell you about the boys in general? How is this experience related to
Golding’s theme that the flaws of mankind are inherent in man’s nature?
2. Examine and compare the two groups’ relationship to fire. What is significant about fire keepers
versus fire takers or fire makers versus those who only want to use it to cook meat?

Chapter 11: “Castle Rock”

1. Trace Roger’s evolution from “dark boy” to sadist. What behavior has he expressed that has
gradually led him to evolve into a frightening and dangerous figure? How is he a natural extension of
Jack’s authority? What place does the future hold for Roger on the island?
2. Examine Piggy’s last day of life on the island. What does it say about his character and his role on
the island? What does he do? Why does he do it? How does his death contribute to the symbolism of
the boys’ descent toward savagery?

Chapter 12: “Cry of the Hunters”

1. Choose any of the main characters whose personalities are described in detail (Ralph, Jack, Simon,
Piggy, Roger) and trace their development in the story as it pertains to Golding’s theory that the basic
flaw of mankind is inherent in man. Support your thesis with character details highlighting their flaws
or descent into savagery.
2. Throughout the story, trace the symbolic role of fire. Begin with the raging fire that kills the small
boy, consider the changing role of fire between Jack’s tribe and Ralph’s, and finish with the fire that
destroys the island and brings rescue.

KR/ 2023
Gymnasium English
Bäumlihof 1st year

Lord of the Flies: Socratic Seminar

After the holidays, we shall have a discussion about Lord of the Flies. This will happen in the form
of a Socratic1 seminar on The Lord of the Flies. The aim of a Socratic dialogue was to stimulate
critical thinking through asking and answering questions. Thus you will ask and answer questions in a
discussion led by other students.

William Golding (b. 1911) was born shortly before WWI. This war and more so WWII,
changed people’s attitudes about mankind. They no longer believed that people were
essentially good-hearted, but rather evil. The atrocities of war made it difficult to believe
in human innocence. This shift in thinking, together with Golding’s own opinions after
serving in WWII, is reflected in Lord of the Flies.

In its simplest form, a Socratic Seminar is a structured conversation that students
facilitate through open-ended questioning, listening carefully to one another, sharing
their thoughts, and making meaning together. Traditionally, the seminar focuses on a
text or set of texts, but there are many variations.

A “Socratic Seminar” involves analyzing questions and discussing them in detail. In

order to participate fully in our class discussion you must be able to answer some
(optionally all) of the following questions and provide some insight and analysis. We
definitely won’t cover all of the questions, however, we will try to get through as many
as possible. Opening questions are those that are italicized, and they deal with questions
whose answers can be found directly in the text. Core questions are those that are
bolded, and they are questions whose answers require in-depth analysis and thought
about what occurs in the text. Closing questions are those that are underlined, and are
those questions that apply to the world around us, and to ourselves.

Task 1: Choose at least 2 questions from each type of question and prepare an answer using
evidence from the text (direct quotes and page numbers).

Task 2: Create a list of 5 discussion questions that could be used during the seminar. These
may not be questions I have provided for you below.

1
Socrates (c. 470–399 BC) was a Greek philosopher from Athens who is credited as the founder of Western
philosophy and among the first moral philosophers of the ethical tradition of thought. An enigmatic figure,
Socrates authored no texts and is known mainly through the posthumous accounts of classical writers,
particularly his students Plato and Xenophon. These accounts are written as dialogues, in which Socrates and
his interlocutors examine a subject in the style of question and answer; they gave rise to the Socratic
dialogue literary genre.

KR/ 2023
Gymnasium English
Bäumlihof 1st year

 At the beginning of the novel, why does the conch shell take and retain such a powerful symbolic
value? Look back/think back to its description in chapter 1. Also consider the sound it makes.
 How is the fire significant?
 What events foreshadow Piggy’s fate?
 Describe what is happening to the boys’ appearance as the novel progresses and how is that
symbolic.
 What evidence do we have that Ralph was losing his mind toward the end?

 How would the book have been different if Simon had lived?
 How would the book have been different if Jack never caught a pig?
 Describe the significance of the title.
 Why do the boys have to paint their faces to do evil deeds?
 When there were only four of them, Ralph still blew the conch to start the final assembly.
Why did he do this?
 What weapons did Ralph and Jack use in their fight at the end and how is the choice of
weapon symbolic?
 Why did Golding choose a choir as Jack’s group?
 Describe the ironic nature of the rescue.
 If you had to state this theme in a sentence of at least ten words, how would you do so?
 How is fear used in the novel?
 Why did Golding write the book with the main characters as children?
 Explore the meaning of Golding's frequent repetition of the colors red/pink or blue/white
in Lord of the Flies. What does he accomplish through such emphasis by repetition?
 Of all the characters, it is Piggy who most often has useful ideas and sees the correct way
for the boys to organize themselves. Yet the other boys rarely listen to him and frequently
abuse him. Why do you think this is the case? In what ways does Golding use Piggy to
advance the novel’s themes?
 What, if anything, might the dead parachutist symbolize? Does he symbolize something
other than what the beast and the Lord of the Flies symbolize?
 The sow’s head and the conch shell each wield a certain kind of power over the boys. In
what ways do these objects’ powers differ? In what way is Lord of the Flies a novel about
power? About the power of symbols? About the power of a person to use symbols to
control a group?
 Why do you think Golding chose to set Lord of the Flies on an island, and how does he use
the island in the novel?
 Who is to blame for what happened on the island? Why?
 Why does Ralph cry at the end of the novel? Why had he never cried before?

 Is Lord of the Flies a good book for students your age to read? Why?
 What makes Jack a powerful leader? How do you think Golding wants you to respond to Jack?
 What role do the littluns play in the novel? In one respect, they serve as gauges of the older boys’
moral positions, for we see whether an older boy is kind or cruel based on how he treats the
littluns. But are the littluns important in and of themselves? What might they represent in our
world? Why?
 Who is the beast in our society?
 How would you have acted if you had been on the island?
 Are people innately savage, civil, both, or neither?
 "Fear is the enemy for civilization; fear prevents construction and progress." Do you agree?
Discuss the fragility of civilization against the destructive powers of fear.

KR/ 2023
Gymnasium English
Bäumlihof 1st year

Rules for the Socratic seminar.

1. You MUST speak. Each turn you speak must involve original thought.
2. You are arranged in two circles. When you are in the inner circle, you may talk.
When you are in the outer circle, you are taking notes on what is said, and you are
marking on a small half-sheet of paper how many times your partner speaks, and
briefly what they say.
3. Use the text, or your knowledge about the text, whenever possible.
4. Active listening is required.
5. You must be taking notes and not looking at other homework/other classwork or,
most especially, your phone.
6. Have fun!

KR/ 2023