We suggest you first read the book through for enjoyment. Then start an in-depth, analytical reading to obtain the full meaning of Golding's text. To remind you of the book's contents here is a summary:

Summary

During wartime, a plane carrying a group of British schoolboys is shot down over the Pacific. The pilot of the plane is killed, but many of the boys survive the crash and find themselves deserted on an uninhabited island, where they are alone without adult supervision. The novel begins with the aftermath of the crash, once the boys have reached the island. The first two boys introduced are the main protagonists of the story: Ralph is among the oldest of the boys, handsome and confident, while Piggy, as he is derisively called, is a podgy asthmatic boy with glasses who nevertheless possesses a keen intelligence. Ralph finds a conch shell, and when he blows it the other boys gather together. Among these boys is Jack Merridew, an aggressive boy who likes to be leader of his gang. Ralph, whom the other boys choose as chief, leads Jack and another boy, Simon, on an expedition to explore the island. On their expedition they determine that they are, in fact, on a deserted island and decide that they need to find food. The three boys find a pig, which Jack prepares to kill but finally balks before he can actually stab it.

When the boys return from their expedition, Ralph calls a meeting and attempts to set rules of order for the island. Jack agrees with Ralph, for the existence of rules means the existence of punishment for those who break them, but Piggy reprimands Jack for his lack of concern over long-term issues of survival. Ralph proposes that they build a fire on the mountain that could signal their presence to any passing ships. The boys start building the fire, but the younger boys lose interest when the task proves too difficult for them. Piggy proves essential to the process: the boys use his glasses to start the fire. After the boys start the fire, Piggy loses his temper and criticizes the other boys for not building shelters first. He worries that they still do not know how many boys there are, and believes that one of them is already missing.

While Jack tries to hunt pigs, Ralph orchestrates the building of shelters for the boys. The littlest boys have not helped at all, while the boys in Jack's gang, whose duty is to hunt for food, have spent the day swimming.

The boys soon become accustomed to the progression of the day on the island. The youngest boys, known generally as the "littluns," spend most of the day searching for fruit to eat. When the boys play they still observe some sense of decency toward one another, despite the lack of parental authority. Jack continues to hunt, while Piggy, who is considered an outsider among the boys, proposes building a sundial.

A ship passes by the island, but does not stop, perhaps because the fire has burned out. Piggy blames Jack for letting the fire die, for he and his hunters have been preoccupied with killing a pig at the expense of their duty. In response Jack punches Piggy, breaking one lens of his glasses. Jack and the hunters chant, "Kill the pig. Cut her throat. Bash her in," in celebration of the kill, while Maurice pretends to be a pig and the others pretend to attack him.

Ralph becomes concerned by the behavior of Jack and the hunters and begins to appreciate Piggy's maturity. He calls an assembly in which he criticizes the boys for not assisting with the fire or the building of the shelters. He insists that the fire is the most important thing on the island, for it is their one chance of rescue, and declares that the only place where they should have a fire is on the mountaintop.

Jack then yells at the littluns for their fear and for not helping with hunting or building shelters. He proclaims that there is no beast on the island, as some of the boys believe, but then a littlun, Phil, tells how he had a nightmare and when he awoke saw something moving among the trees. Simon admits that Phil probably saw him, for he was walking in the jungle that night. The littluns begin to worry about the supposed beast, which they conceive to be perhaps a ghost.

When Ralph attempts to assert the rules of order, Jack asks rhetorically who cares about the rules. Ralph in turn insists that the rules are all that they have. Jack then decides to lead an expedition to hunt the beast, leaving only Ralph, Piggy and Simon. Piggy warns Ralph that if Jack becomes chief then the boys will never be rescued.

That night, during an aerial battle, a pilot parachutes down onto the island. The pilot dies, possibly on impact. The next morning, the twins Sam and Eric ("Samneric") are adding kindling to the fire when they see the pilot and believe him to be the beast. They scramble down the mountain and awake Ralph. Jack calls for a hunt, but Piggy insists that they should stay together, for the beast may not come near them then. Jack claims that the conch is now irrelevant, and takes a swing at Ralph when he claims that Jack does not want to be rescued. Ralph decides to join the hunters on their expedition to find the beast, despite his wish to rekindle the fire on the mountain. When they reach the other side of the island, Jack wishes to build a fort near the sea.

The hunters, while searching for the beast, find a boar that attacks Jack, but Jack stabs it and it runs away. The hunters go into a frenzy, lapsing into their "kill the pig" chant once again. Ralph realizes that Piggy remains with the littluns back on the other side of the island, and Simon offers to go back and tell Piggy that the other boys will not be back that night. Ralph realizes that Jack hates him and confronts him about that fact. Jack mocks Ralph for not wanting to hunt, claiming that it stems from cowardice, but when the boys see what they believe to be the beast they all run away.

Ralph returns to the shelters to find Piggy and tells him that they saw the beast, but Piggy remains skeptical. Ralph dismisses the hunters as boys with sticks, but Jack accuses him of calling his hunters cowards. Jack attempts to assert control over the other boys, calling for Ralph's removal as chief, but when Ralph retains the support of the other boys Jack runs away, crying. Piggy suggests that, if the beast prevents them from getting to the mountaintop, they should build a fire on the beach, and reassures them that they will survive if they behave with common sense.

Jack claims that he will be the chief of the hunters and that they will go to the high rock where they plan to build a fort and have a feast. The hunters kill a pig, and Jack smears the blood over Maurice's face. They then cut off the head and leave it on a stake as an offering for the beast. Jack brings several hunters back to the shelters, where he invites the other boys to join his tribe and offers them meat and the opportunity to hunt and have fun. All of the boys, except for Ralph and Piggy, join Jack. Meanwhile, Simon finds the pig's head that the hunters had left. He dubs it the Lord of the Flies because of the insects that swarm around it He believes that it speaks to him, telling him how foolish he is and how the other boys think that he is insane. The pig's head claims that it is the beast, and mocks the idea that the beast could be hunted and killed.

When Simon sees the dead pilot that the boys perceived to be the beast and realizes what it actually is, Simon rushes down the mountain to alert the other boys of what he has found. Meanwhile Ralph and Jack argue over who will be chief. When Piggy claims that he gets to speak because he has the conch, Jack tells him that the conch does not count on his side of the island. The boys panic when Ralph warns them that a storm is coming. As the storm begins, Simon rushes from the forest, telling about the dead body on the mountain. The boys descend on Simon, thinking that he is the beast, and kill him.

Back on the other side of the island, Ralph and Piggy discuss Simon's death. They both took part in the murder, but attempt to justify their behavior as acting out of fear and instinct. The only four boys who are not part of Jack's tribe are Ralph and Piggy and the twins, Samneric, who help tend to the fire. At the castle rock, Jack rules over the boys like a tyrant. He has kept one boy tied up, and instills fear in the other boys by warning them about the beast and the intruders. When Bill asks Jack how they will start a fire, Jack claims that they will steal the fire from the other boys. Meanwhile, Ralph, Piggy and the twins work on keeping the fire going, but find that it is too difficult to do by themselves. That night, the hunters attack the four boys, who fight them off but still suffer considerable injuries. Piggy learns the purpose of the attack: they came to steal his glasses.

After the attack, the four boys decide to go to the high rock to appeal to Jack as civilized people. They groom themselves to appear presentable and dress themselves in normal clothes. When they reach the rock, Ralph summons the other boys with the conch. Jack arrives from hunting and tells Ralph and Piggy to leave them alone. When Jack refuses to listen to Ralph's appeals to justice, Ralph calls the boys painted fools. Jack takes Samneric as prisoners and orders them to be tied up. Piggy asks Jack and his hunters whether it is better to be a pack of painted Indians or sensible like Ralph. In response, Roger tips a rock over onto Piggy, causing him to fall down the mountain to the beach. The impact kills him. Jack confirms himself chief and hurls his spear at Ralph, who runs away.

Ralph hides near the high rock, where he can see the other boys, whom he no longer recognizes as civilized English boys but rather as savages. He crawls near the place where Samneric are serving as guards. They tell Ralph that Jack is planning a hunt for him tomorrow, and he will surely be killed unless he finds a clever place to hide. Ralph tells them that he'll hide in the thicket near the high rock.

The next morning, Roger sharpens a stick at both ends, signaling the time for another big hunt and showing that now Ralph has become the beast the boys must kill. Soon Samneric tell the others where Ralph is hiding, betraying their loyalty to him. This devastates Ralph, who can't reason any longer. Golding explains his feelings, "There was no Piggy to talk sense. There was no solemn assembly for debate nor dignity of the conch."

The rest of the final chapter is dedicated to the hunt that almost kills Ralph several times. In desperation, Ralph runs out into the ocean, trying to escape Jack and the savages. To Ralph's surprise, he almost runs into a naval officer, who asks what is going on and where the adults are. Ralph tells him that two people have been killed. The puzzled officer takes Ralph and the others aboard, and their deadly battle is over.

Golding explains, "Ralph wept for the end of innocence, the darkness of man's heart, and the fall through the air of the true, wise friend called Piggy." In this way, though the boys are rescued, the novel has anything but a happy ending.

Next we will ask some searching questions about the book and the subjects touched on by the book. Do your best to answer them and if necessary refer to the book's text as well as to the Character Profiles, description of the book's Themes and Metaphor Analysis that follow the Questions.

Questions

Typical of the classic novel, which generations of readers continue to find inspiring, Lord of the Flies raises many fascinating questions. Are human beings evil? How does evil arise? What is the nature and consequence of isolation? What is the origin of superstition and religion? Why and how do we choose our leaders? What are a leader's responsibilities?

The following questions are posed to help you probe the depths of this book, and to practice the kind of analysis that enables you to obtain the real benefits of quality literature. Answer the questions in writing, in as much detail as you feel fully answers the question. And then give your answer again, speaking out loud and not looking at your written answer. These actions will help to connect your mind and body, so that your understanding is not just intellectual, and it will be retained in long-term memory.

Background to the book

Lord of the Flies is both an adventure story and a book about boys, closely connected with their school life, in particular at the boarding school. Golding was himself a teacher of English and classics at a boarding school in Salisbury, England. He left in 1940 to serve in the Navy during World War II, returned to the school afterward and his first novel, Lord of the Flies, was published just a few years later, in 1954.

The all-boy, insular community on the island, bears a strong resemblance to life in one of Britain's single-sex boarding schools. During the Victorian period, the moral conservatism of the nation trickled into the public schools, which before had been rough and brutal places indeed. The prefect system was introduced to enlist the older boys in maintaining order. Religion became a stronger presence and sports became all-important. The goal was to produce not scholars but administrators, inscrutable and fearsome to their subordinates, well respected, able to lead, decent, honorable, Christian, physically courageous, and emotionally subdued.

The children on the island come from a British schoolboy culture that valued stoicism and often separated boys from their parents at an early age. Boarding-school boys would see pining for parents and home as babyish, and the boys are old enough to want to seem like men. Unable therefore to gaze into the darkness of their own fears, the boys are left with a blank slate of their subconscious and a willingness to imagine a monster pictured upon it.

Golding wrote the book to stimulate contemplation about human nature, to question the system of morality underling the boarding school system, as he knew it, and British society as a whole. It is shaped by Western ideas about civilization and savagery and by the British colonial past. It reacts to the perverse belief in the superiority of British culture and to the belief that to be British was in some sense the direct opposite to being a savage. It evolves from Christian ideas about human nature and sin. It is influenced by debates about biological determinism, by the adventure stories that boys of Golding's time read, and by the events and aftermath of World War II.

The remarkable thing is that, despite being very much a product of its place and time, it remains such an influential and powerful commentary. This is because it explores some of the most intense urges and emotions that are timeless in the human psyche: the desire for power, the fear of the unknown, fear of other people, anger, and jealousy.

Character Profiles

Jack: Jack is described by Golding as "tall, thin, and bony; and his hair was red beneath the black cap. His face was crumpled and freckled, and ugly without silliness. Out of this face stared two light blue eyes, frustrated now, and turning, or ready to turn, to anger."

Jack is the leading advocate of anarchy on the island. He is the leader of the savage tribe that hunts the pigs but his sadism extends as the book progresses to include cruelty toward the other boys. Jack feigns an interest in the rules of order established on the island, but enjoys them only if they imply a possibility for inflicting punishment. Instead, he comes to represent anarchy, overthrowing Ralph's ordered rule for an anarchic state based on pure fulfillment of self-interest. Opposed to Ralph and Piggy on almost all matters, Jack represents the id of one's personality-- he supports the notion that one's desires are most important and should be followed, regardless of reason or morals.

Jack is the kind of person that Golding believed everyone would eventually become if left alone to set their own standards and live the way they naturally wanted. Golding believed that the natural state of humans is chaos and evil practices. When reason is abandoned, only the strong survive. Jack personifies this idea perfectly.

Piggy: Piggy is described by Golding as short and very fat. It's no coincidence that Piggy's nickname is such; the overwhelming emotion Jack and his hunters have to "kill the pig" is a metaphor to suggest the boys are also killing a part of Piggy. In fact, while Jack and his gang continue to kill more pigs, for them the logic and reason that Piggy symbolizes progressively diminishes with the pigs. Piggy's hair never grows, suggesting that he is not vulnerable to the progression of savagery the other boys seem to be drawn towards.

Piggy represents the law and order of the adult world. He is the superego, the part of man's personality that attempts to act according to an absolute set of standards. Throughout the novel, Piggy attempts to condition the island society to mirror the society they all enjoyed in England. He tries to pull Ralph towards the reason-oriented side of human nature.

Piggy is obsessed with the signal-fire. This is because he wants to return to England where adults are, and also because the fire is one of the few symbols of order on the island. When the fire goes out, Piggy mentally collapses.

Although pudgy, brusque and averse to physical labor because he suffers from asthma, Piggy, a nickname that he dislikes intensely, is the intellectual on the island. Piggy is an outsider among the other boys, accepted only grudgingly because his glasses are the key to starting fires. However, his clear thinking and ideas soon endear him to Ralph, who comes to admire and respect him for his clear focus on the main objective of securing their rescue from the island. Piggy has a clear concern for remaining civilized and consistently reprimands the other boys for behaving as savages.

Ralph: Ralph is the main protagonist of the novel; he has fair hair and is very tall and thin, and he seems to preside over the other boys by a natural sense of authority. Jack is the only other character who is close in physical stature to Ralph. This is appropriate since these characters represent two competing philosophies of life on the island.

Golding uses Ralph to represent the ideal human-- someone who does good but isn't so out-of-touch that he can't relate to normal human temptations. This is the Ralph of the beginning of the novel. Later, however, Ralph moves somewhat away from Piggy, the good side, and shows some affinity to Jack, the anarchical side of human nature.

In his way, Ralph represents the ego of the human personality. He must find a compromise between the id (the 'if it feels good do it' attitude of Jack) and the superego (the strict adherence to the logic and order of the adult world symbolized through Piggy).

After Piggy's death, Ralph finds it impossible to determine what action to take next. This goes along with Golding's view that if left alone, human nature will naturally be pulled to the id side of one's personality.

Although he lacks Piggy's overt intellect, Ralph is calm and rational, with sound judgment and a strong moral sensibility. He is susceptible to the same instinctual influences that affect the other boys, as demonstrated by Ralph's role in Simon's death, but Ralph at least remains somewhat civilized through the entire novel. With his attention to justice and equality, Ralph represents the liberal democratic view.

Roger: Roger becomes a self-proclaimed torturer and executioner for Jack and the rest of the tribe. Even at the beginning of the book when Roger throws stones at Henry, Golding shows that the seed of anarchy has taken root and is spreading in the hunter's mind. Roger symbolizes man's natural tendency to cause harm to others. Even before the hunters descend into savagery, Roger is boorish and crude, kicking down sand castles and throwing sand at others. When the other boys do lose all sense of civilized behavior, it is Roger who murders Piggy.

Sam & Eric: These twins represent the need humans have for moral support from others. Sam and Eric are so connected that they must do everything together. As soon as one of them takes an action, the other follows. Both twins respect Ralph because he offers them a sense of security. Sam n' Eric's main job throughout the novel is to tend the fire.

Soon, however, when the sense of security Ralph provides is threatened by Jack and his hunters, Samneric decide to join Jack's tribe (after they are threatened). Later, they even betray Ralph, showing his hiding place to the others. In this way, Samneric symbolize the weakness of human nature. When really pressed, these twins decide to join the dark side.

Simon: Simon is described by Golding as one of the in-between boys-- a "skinny, vivid little boy" with straight, coarse black hair. Simon shares the experiences of both the littluns and the older boys. He has the innocent perceptions and feelings of littluns but the knowledge of the biguns.

However, Simon is alienated from the rest of the group. He takes life much more seriously than the others, being plagued with a certain moral consciousness that the other boys don't understand. Simon has a heightened perception, even more so than Piggy. Simon is unique because he can actually hear the voice of the beast. He realizes that the beast is not something one can kill because it's inside the boys.

Most importantly, Simon makes the connection between the dead parachutist and the Lord of the Flies. He understands that with the death of the man in the parachute that symbolizes the death of reason, the chaos of the Lord of the Flies is free to reign supreme.

Lastly, Simon is seen as a Christ figure. He gives up his own life in an attempt to tell the rest of the boys about the beast. Yet when he crawls out of the forest, Jack and his hunters see him as the beast, and murder his body which floats out to sea.

The most obviously introspective character in the novel, Simon has a deep affinity with nature and often walks alone in the jungle. While Piggy represents the intellectual and Ralph the moral aspects of humanity, Simon represents the spiritual side of human nature. Like Piggy, he is an outcast, for the other boys think of him as odd and perhaps insane.

The Themes

The theme of Lord of the Flies has been questioned and speculated about for decades. To answer the critics, Golding said that the theme was to trace the problems of society back to the sinful nature of man. He wrote the book to show how political systems cannot govern society effectively without first taking into consideration the defects of human nature.

These defects are exemplified in Golding's novel through the characters of Jack and his hunters. Here, Golding shows that men are inherently evil; if left alone to fend for themselves, they will revert back to the savage roots of their ancestors. This is seen in the novel near the end, when the tribe is hunting Ralph. Matters have become quite out of hand by this time. Even the naval officer who saves the boys recognizes that their society has become savage.

Yet Golding's last comment in his press release criticizes not only the boys on the island but also the society of adults in which the officer lives. Golding asks: while the ship saves the boys from killing each other, who will save the ship from killing other ships or being killed? In this way the society of the outside world mirrors the island society on a larger level. Remember that the novel takes place during World War II. Golding got the idea for the book because of his experiences in the war, where he served in the Navy and experienced the sinfulness of man.

Piggy and Jack symbolize two opposite extremes of human behavior while Ralph is pulled between these philosophies. Piggy demands adherence to the rules of his auntie while Jack subscribes to the philosophy, "If it's fun, do it." Ralph empathizes with parts of both sides; that is why he walks the tight rope. Eventually he seems to side with Piggy, but actually Ralph never changes his philosophy - it is Jack and the rest of the boys who become more extreme in theirs (forming their own tribe, hunting humans, etc.). In this way Ralph portrays the role of government in any modern society. While he wants to satisfy the wishes of the public, he must also realize that certain rules of behavior must be followed in order to prevent anarchy.

Unfortunately in this novel anarchy largely defeats order. This is the outcome because Golding believed that government is an ineffective way to keep people civilized.

Metaphors Used in the Novel

Beast: The beast, the Lord of the Flies, is seen as a real object on the island that frightens the boys. Actually the beast is something internal; the Lord of the Flies is in soul and mind of the boys, leading them to the natural chaos of a society with no reasoning adults. Only Simon understands what the real beast is, but is killed when he tries to tell the boys about the Lord of the Flies.

Conch: The conch shell symbolizes the law and order of the old adult world that Piggy tries so desperately to protect. The conch represents all the authority that the boys are so used to obeying. When Jack destroys the conch, anarchy quickly ensues because any hope of strong, central leadership has been abandoned. The island society collapses into chaos.

Face paint: This is the mask many of the boys use to escape responsibility for living as hunting savages, instead of civilized English citizens. The paint symbolizes the smoke-screen the beast uses to infiltrate the boys' souls.

Fire/Smoke: The smoke of the signal fire symbolizes the last best hope of the boys being rescued. To Piggy and Ralph, the fire represents the moral influence of their old life in England. When the fire goes out, Ralph loses his bearings, unsure of his next move. The fire is the opposite meaning to hunting, the activity of anarchy on the island.

Island: Golding purposefully picked an island to be the landing place of the crashed plane because an island is isolated from the rest of society. The boys have no contact with the outside world and must look to themselves to solve the problems of their own micro-society. In this way, the island, which symbolizes isolation, serves as a perfect backdrop for the frailties of human nature that eventually surface.

Glasses: The glasses symbolize the voice of reason and logic among the boys. Piggy defends his glasses even more than the conch. Piggy, who represents the superego of the boys' (and society's) collective personality, uses his glasses to find solutions to the boys' problems. The most important solution the glasses provide is the lighting of the fire, the boys' best chance of being rescued.

The Parachute Man: The dead body arriving in the parachute symbolizes the end of adult supervision of the boys on the island. While the parachute man is flapping back and forth on the island, conjuring up a powerful image of its prolonged death, the Beast, or Lord of the Flies, is prospering with its newly found control over Jack and most of the other boys on the island. So while the law and order of the adult world is waning, childish chaos is growing exponentially. Simon has a special connection with the parachute man. He climbs the mountain, subconsciously, to determine whether the parachute man is still alive. When he finds out that the man is dead and that the Beast is alive, Simon has a nervous breakdown. The moral confrontation that occurs when Simon has the interview with the Lord of the Flies symbolizes man's inability to conquer the evil of unrestrained anarchy.

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