Lord of the Flies quote analysis

‘’face disappeared under a blush of mortification’’

·         Mort- death, so furious wants to kill someone

·        Forshadow relationship might involve death

·         Innocent, child like actions

·         Yet could symbolise his anger and barbarity is as easy to surface as blushing is to him

·         Blood rushing to face- foreshadow bloody and barbaric side to him

‘going to hunt you tomorrow’

• Lost all sense of good or bad, turned savage

• Uses word hunt rather than murder of kill- relationship of predator and prey

• Jack sees Ralph as a pig hunted before, forgetting human being, why it is wrong

 ‘Sharpened a stick at both ends’

·         Significant as means Jack and other boys use to put one end in ground, one for Ralphs head, Lord of Flies pig

·         Contrast between two types of people, Ralph confused about meaning, or significance for himself, yet roger and jack feel it is an appropriate thing to do to a human being

·         Also significant as the Lord of the Flies ultimate symbol of evil in book, so the idea of Ralphs head on stick symbolise evil winning- Ralphs head now on stick, evil taking over

‘’******** to the rules. We’re strong-we hunt’’-  Chapter 5

• Breaking boys apart
• Jack wanting to hunt, Ralph focus on fire
• Jack refusal shows his hatred for Ralphs authority- underpinning Jack’s dictatorship
• Characteristic
•  Turn of civilisation to barbarity- succumb to animal instinct, things just going to get worse
• Word rules significant- what is holding boys together, tie to life back home. Shows their deterioration- Jack at first wanted rules ‘we will have lots of rules’- shows how letting go of old self’s

‘’I wish’’ repetition in chapter 5, wishing for their aunts and parents, thinking adults make situation better

• Shows the child like characteristics of the boys, still children
•   Reflects their hysteria as well, childlike behaviour
•     Think that adults don’t behave like they are behaving, but Golding might be highlighting how this in itself is wishful thinking. 
• Reality adults far worse

‘kill the pig, cut her throat, spill her blood’

-line repeated through book, foreshadowing murder yet to come

-starts off as just a game, yet the fact they want to ‘split its blood’ significant as see murder as a game

-becomes a reality when they kill piggy during their ‘game’

-just a disguise for savagery

-lord of the flies warns Simon that if he tries to escape from him, he will just meet the boys down there, says ‘we will do you’

-When kill Simon, boys chant changes and ‘do him in’ is added to it- confirmation Simon was right, beast within the boys

 ‘’sat there like an idol’’

• choice of word idol, significant, as boys see his evil like characteristics as admiral, ironic as anything but an idol
• religious connotations, going against 10 commandments, other boys following him into evil
• twist, most consider people for being idols for what they have done, Jack has done nothing but evil things yet boys look up to. Show evil taking over minds
• jack has only gained respect out of fear, like Hitler in a way, he too gained respect and authority of seemingly good people yet turned them to do evil things- microcosm

‘the little’un with the mark on his face, I don’t see him now’

-People who are different die- subjected to unfair treatment

-boys have strong desire to be accepted because innately know key to survival- maybe reason why boys turned to savagery, knew it was way to survive, all like animals in the end, doing whatever it takes to survive

-Ralph tried to be different, was hunted- Goldign foreshadowing fate of those who do things differently (simon, piggy and Ralph)

-Relates to WW2- Jews persecuted

‘true wise friend called piggy’

-only time Piggy has ever been appreciated

-only time he has ever been considered as a friend by someone

-his death was the loss of reason

Brutal death and burial, compared to Simon’s harmonic, tranquil burial at sea: “like a pig’s after it had been killed.”

This suggests how Piggy has been hunted down like the “sow” and killed for applying the values that he stood up for: democracy, free speech and harmony. When Piggy dies, everything he represents dies with him and Golding’s theme of the presence of a beast emerges within the hunters, with their savage and threatening “red” and “black” mask.

Piggy is also dependent on a world where there are clear rules: “I’ve got the conch.”

• thinks adults implement authority, worried boys out of control
• conch is symbol place trust in- ironic, adult world broek two competeing politicians
• conch a delicate thing, Piggy trust in wrong place
• ''arent there any grownups?''
• reliant on a world warped with evil

'the mountain top’, Simon climbs mountain to seek for truth

• -metaphor for the his struggle
• -symbolic of how it was both his victory yet death as well, when reached top found answers, but when he came back down it was literally his down fall and death
• ‘the forest sighed, then roared’ chapter 6
• -personification mirroring boys, its characteristics are that of the boys- they are becoming savage as does the island.
• -becomes like a beast, danger everywhere
• -‘sighed’ , like giving up and letting itself go, like the boys giving up old selves and becoming savage

‘’the clouds opened and let down the rain’’

• -Simons death, heavens tears
• -cleansing the island
• -Simon is at one with nature, goes off by himself a lot and gets away from human company
• -prefers purer, less corrupt company- goodness of Simon

Weather mimics emotions of boys

‘’pile up the static until the air was ready to explode’’ chapter 9

• -metaphor fir tension on the island which is ready to climax
• -static- positive and negatives, mirroring the opposite forces of civilisation and barbarity battling against each other, very tense, not sure which will win
• -foreshadowing what’s going to happening, Simons death

Simon thinks the beast was once ‘ a human, at once heroic and sick’

• -parachutist represent beast within them, heroic as good intentions, sick because nature of man is at fault
• -Simon only one to see this, make him significant as only true good person
• -Jesus representation
• -quest for being heroic often downfall of people, want to have power, become sick
• -Ambiguous word, ill sick or sick minded- evil that all humans are sick with, just different kind

‘he came-disguised’

• -highlight on how the boys try to deny what has happened to Simon, trying to get themselves to believe that they thought it was the beast
• -ambiguous of what they actually thought it was, did they really think it was the beast, or could they see that Simon was the bit of good that was getting in the way of their evil and savagery
• -Actually Jesus in disguised, as he too died to save others

•  Name for Satan, ultimate symbol of death on island
• Pig’s head says it is lord of the flies, symbolic as their desire to kill it is what lead them to kill others
• Evil taking over minds, Simon sees evil for what it is the flies ‘left him alone;
• Show he is too pure for flies/evil
• Could be talking about the evil instinctively and naturally inside humans
• Could be religiously, Simon symbol of Jesus so the Devil/ Lord of the Flies can’t infect him but can lure the boys with their lust for blood as a pig
• Devil pig in disguise all along?
• Flies symbol of death and decay

‘im frightened. Of us’

-insight, can see that we only should be afraid of each other as that is where true beast is.

Piggy says ‘im scared of him and that’s why I know him’

-how fear overtakes our mind, drives us do to things don’t usually do

-compares it to asthma and how cant breath, mirrors how old self is struggling to live, turn into something different under pressure of fear

-jack uses fear to control, prolongs idea of beast though are we sure he actually believes it exists, as in beginning says there isn’t one, but as book progresses says there is. Realises it is a way to power

-boys follow same path as Jack, just not as much, let fear take over them and then become something to fear in itself, become monsters so not to feel like a target-

-Evil nature of humans to do whatever possible to survive- animals

‘’The beast is a hunter... we couldn’t kill it’’

-jack trying to save his pride

-word ‘hunter’ significant- doesn’t use the word predator, but word used to refer to themselves

-Golding further emphasising the beast is in them, so of course they can’t kill it

-significant thing for Jack to say, he believes he can do anything as ‘we’re English’, Golding hinting at how the beast inside us can never be killed, it is a part of all of us and we can’t get rid of it

-component of human nature

‘Colours of corruption’

• -parachutist wearing army clothes
• -represents history, how adults have behaved, killing each other
• -truth always hidden, Simon tries to tell, is killed so continue fearing the beast

 ‘’the conch exploded into a thousand white fragments and ceased to exist’’

• metaphor for the destruction of civilisation
• Emphasising that it won’t be coming back, isn’t just broken but no longer exists- technically not possible for physical objects, highlight on the fact that it is a metaphor
• fact that conch was a shell in the first place significant as highlights on fragility of it- reflects on the fragility of the line between civilisation and barbarity, and how easy it is to break and become savage
• peoples personalities easily changed
• also represent how easy it is to turn to evil, humans all have it in them, Golding say a few events can break the person they are and turn into something completely different
• comment of outside society, how we are so easily turn to war and killing each other on mass scale

Boys ‘shredded’ away

• Literally spreading apart from each other
• Metaphorically for them tearing away from civilisation
•  Violent, animalistic image, showing boys aren’t turning against each other in the usual manner, but in a savage way
•  Maybe imply violence is yet to come
• Metaphor for tearing away from their old selves, to their new savage ones. Losing identity

‘’unfriendly side of the mountain’’

• -everything divided into good and evil, civilisation and barbarity
• -mirrors jack and Ralphs relationship, divided, one side Ralphs, the other Jack
• -where bad things happen
• -unfriendly significant word- implies friendships and alliances cannot be formed there- proved right when Ralph and Piggy go to try and get glasses in peace, Piggy is killed
• -when Ralph and piggy join feast, Simon is killed

’shy liking’’.

-The author may have written this to make the reader think that Jack and Ralph will be friends during the rest of the book, and the conflict won’t be between them.

-However, the fact that Goulding describes the liking as ‘shy’, may imply that he is hinting to the reader that it isn’t an attraction that they are comfortable with or will maintain and the fact they were both competing for chief and that there was a clear disagreement over power,

-foreshadows that their relationship will deteriorate.

‘two continents’

• Cold war, Jack Soviet union, Ralph USA
• Jack dictator, abuses power, death
• Ralph democracy
• So far apart in values and characteristics, like separate worlds
• Both have power

‘’the darkness of man’s heart’’ when he thinks of Piggy’s death,

-didn’t let instincts take over, and saw the importance of rules and the fire

-significant because it implies that Goulding is trying to highlight even more the ''beast'' that lives inside of all, as Simon said earlier in the book, and that there is no such thing as a truely good person, as Ralph has realised.

‘’You're a beast and a swine and a bloody, bloody thief!’’

-Finally turning against Jack, no longer putting up with him

-repetition of ‘bloody’ highlight frustration

-Indirectly describing Jack for what he is- a bloody murderer

-unknowingly describing him and boys for what really are- they are the beast

‘’mouth and eyes that proclaimed no devil.’’ ‘’fair’’

-          Right from start, Golding highlighting on Ralphs goodness

-          However, it is a physical description that tells us this. Golding does not describe he character yet.

-          Ralph example of good, yet does succumb to animal, savage instincts sometimes

-          ‘’fighting to get near to that brown, vulnerable flesh. The desire to squeeze and hurt was over-mastering’’

-          Letting savage inside of him take over, forgetting his outside ‘fair’ appearance.

-          Not an act of hunger, just wants to ‘hurt’. Significant.