Lord of the Flies setting study

Lord of the Flies setting study

By the beach

By the beach is where the boys are first grouped together, and where they loosely base themselves around. This is where the social scale is first introduced, as the leaders (Ralph) face the rest of the group. The littluns "sat on the fallen palm trunks", lower down, having to look up to whoever was speaking. This reflects the usual way a classroom is set up, and shows that the boys can only copy what they know, not create new things. This shows how young they are. This is also supported by the fact that the beach is like paradise during the day, yet at night scares the boys "the darkness of the island". On the beach is where most discussions and decisions are made, and as Ralph becomes aware of the changing standards of the boys and their lack of intelligence, he notices things that should have been changes "Yet now, he saw, no one had the wit-not himself nor Jack, nor Piggy- to bring a stone and wedge the thing". Golding uses the setting to show the boys changing awareness of the island, and their society. The beach is also where the boys are rescued from, showing how Golding takes…