The Lord of the Flies by William Golding

Genre: Realistic Fiction
Theme: Aggression, Bullying,
Grade Level: Young Adult
Curricular Connections: Social Studies (Democracy vs. Dictatorship, Civilization vs. Savagery), Literature (Symbolism, Irony, Microcosm), Religion (Garden of Eden, Man’s fall into sin, Life of Christ)

Set during WWII a plane with a group of British school boys crashes onto an uninhabited island paradise. No adults survive, only boys described as “littluns” and older boys. The main character Ralph calls everyone together on the island, only through the knowledge of Piggy, by blowing into a conch smell. The antagonist Jack is the only one to question Ralph’s authority as chief. He loses in a democratic vote, but Ralph assigns him to be leader of the hunters. Two groups eventually emerge. Ralph, with Piggy and his intelligence and Simon with his goodness, who focuses on building huts and keeping a signal fire lit. Jack is the leader of the other group primarily made up of his hunters who display a more savage behavior and a thirst for the kill of a wild pig. There is also the question of there being a beast on the island. Eventually they all believe one exists except for Simon who has seen that what they think is the beast is actually a dead parachutist fallen from a plane as a result of WWII. As he rushes to tell the others, he burst out of the forest at night and the others mistake him as a beast, at least at first, and kill him. Later, Jack raids Ralph’s camp to steal Piggy’s glasses, the object they have used to start a fire, so they can start a fire to cook their meat. Ralph and Piggy go to try to rationalize with Jack and get back Piggy’s glasses. While they are there, Roger, one of Jack’s main hunters, pushes a bolder onto Piggy. Piggy and the conch shell he is holding, which symbolizes order, falls upon the rocky shore below. Now Ralph is on his own. He hides in some thicket nearby Jack’s camp. Two previous friends of Ralph betray his hideout, and Jack attempts to smoke him out. Ralph flees across the island with the others chasing behind with spears with intent to kill him. As Ralph bursts out onto the beach with the others close behind, a Navy ship with an officer are present as a result of seeing the smoke meant to kill Ralph.

Classroom Suggestions:

1. Before reading discuss with students the means of literary terms such as symbolism, irony, allegory, microcosm, etc. and discuss examples as they come upon them in the reading.

2. Have students trace some of the events and characters in the book that parallel 1) the Garden of Eden; 2) a Christ-Like figure; 3)the fall of man into sin.

3. The main characters in The Lord of the Flies are described in great detail. Have students in groups or individually pour through the text to find as many specific descriptions of their assigned character. Have them draw the characters in their setting on a small scale or on large poster board. They can then present their drawings to their classmates explaining how the characteristics of each character help personify what the character symbolizes.