The Introduction to Lord Of The Flies

?

Lord of the Flies (William Golding)

These pages look at William Golding's Lord of the Flies and provide revision notes about the key characters, island, symbols and the order versus the savagery.

Introduction

The novel is an allegory, which is a story that works on two or more levels of meaning.

There is the actual story of what happens to the boys on the island and there is the deeper level to the story with the moral message.

In The Lord of the Flies there is the look at different methods of government, the democratic government and the dictatorship, which was relevant at the time the novel was written after the end of the second world war, with Hitler’s dictatorship as well as those of Mussolini and Stalin.

The story is meant to give a lesson to its readers, which is the quality of a fable.

One of the messages could be that there is a dark side to all of us which, given the right circumstances, could come out.

Evil lurks in all of us.

 

Key Characters Ralph

  • Ralph is the original leader of the boys on the island.
  • Golding presents him as a fair leader, allowing votes and he is caring for the other boys as he wants to run the group in a democratic way.
  • He has a loyal group of supporters initially, but gradually his support dwindles until he is alone being hunted by the others at the end.
  • Ralph is presented as a thinker and a sensitive character.
  • He learns a lot from his time on the island and is the one most affected by the change from innocence to knowledge.

Jack

  • Jack is Ralph’s rival and opposite.
  • Along with Ralph he is the oldest boy on the island and he already has a loyal group of followers when they arrive on the island in the form of the choir.
  • He is a strong and violent figure who commands fear from his followers.
  • He rules by force, which can be linked to Hitler’s dictatorship in Germany and he forces his supporters to do as he says.
  • He is a physical character and gradually becomes more violent as the novel progresses.

Piggy

  • The intellectual of the island.
  • Serious, he often objects to the silliness of the other boys’ games.
  • Physically weak (he needs glasses, has asthma and is fat).
  • An adult figure, he comes up with a lot of sensible ideas such as how to use the conch and what to use it for.
  • Clear sighted, he can see what is happening to the boys, but is powerless

Comments

No comments have yet been made