Lord of the Flies (1954)
Written by William Golding
Who has also written The Inheritors and The Brass Butterfly
Characters
Ralph
Piggy
Jack
Simon
Introduction
“This is an island. At least I think it’s an island. That’s a reef out in the sea. Perhaps there aren’t any grown-ups anywhere”
p8
Stranded on an island, a group of schoolboys must make their own rules. The boys develop their own society, with frightening and powerful consequences
Lord of the Flies, for all its clarity of outline, is a complex novel. Although it is immediately successful simply as a narrative it draws its distinguishing power from its value as a symbolic representation. That is to say it is a parable whose truth must be recognized, not discovered intellectually, a sustained metaphor for human experience, for the end of innocence, the darkness of man’s heart. The idea of placing boys alone on an island, and letting them work out archetypal pattern of human society, is a brilliant technical device.
Awards
Golding was awarded Nobel Prize for literature.
Awarded a Booker Prize for fiction in 1980.
Reviews
Lord of the Flies by Melizanda Karo
October 21, 2006 www.shvoong.com
A classic of world literature by the Nobel Prize winner William Golding 'Lord of the Flies' is one of the most significant study of the human nature, containing important reflections on civilisation and its role in shaping of the human being.
The group of young school boys find themselves shipwrecked on an island, out of control of the grown ups and norms of the civilized world. The puzzlement and fear slowly passes to let them discover mechanisms which, according to Golding, lie deep within them and also deep within everyone of us, regardless of age, nation, background...
The whole plot runs towards the point where the boys see no limits to what they can do and expect no consequences, they just...let go. Especially Jack, who becomes the second leader when the boys divide themselves into 2 groups. The whole story is filled with symbols and so the Lord of the flies - a swine's head on the stick - represents probably the evil element of the human nature. The beast, hiding in the woods that the boys under Jack's leadership want to hunt is never found and supposedly it only exists in themselves.
With every page the kids become more and more violent until a tragedy emerges... the tragedy which causes no awakening, but paradoxically, becomes a justification of their deeds and the savage nature reveals itself with even grater insolence. The myths of human goodness and innocence of a child is brutally destroyed… It is only the matter of circumstances to get the worst out of everyone of us...
Of course it all doesn't mean we shouldn't try to fight it. I strongly recommend this book to everyone, because it is about us, people, whether we like it or not. It scares, it warns and it forces to consider what we often find rather inconvenient. The characters are vivid yet the interpretations can be endless. Apart from the story, the description of nature is very accurate and sophisticated. A must-read
Allusions, References and Noteable Notes
Leviathan is a Biblical sea creature referred to in the Old Testament. The word leviathan has become synonymous with any large sea monster or creature. In the novel Moby-Dick it refers to great whales, and in Modern Hebrew, it means simply "whale"
Beelzebub is a demon in the Philistine city of Ekron.
Side note: In non-historical usage, the word philistine denotes a person deficient in the culture of the liberal arts, or a smug and intolerant opponent of the bohemian, one who exhibits a restrictive moral code.
Ba’al is Hebrew for “owner or lord” and zebûb is a collective noun for “fly” – suggesting
the name could be translated as Lord of the Flies. In Christianity, the name Beelzebub
or Beelzebul may appear as an alternate name for Lucifer, the fallen angel or else may
appear to refer to the name of a lesser devil. As with several religions, the names of any
earlier foreign or pagan deities often became synonymous with the concept of an
adversarial entity.
Character foil is a character that contrasts with another character (usually the protagonist) and so highlights various facets of the main character's personality. A foil usually has some important characteristics in common with the other character, such as, frequently, superficial traits or personal history. The author may use the foil to throw the character of the protagonist into sharper relief. www.wikipedia.org
Allegory a “device whereby the author is able to transcend what he would consider the façade of civilization [or reality] in order to reach man as he truly is.” (J. Egan)
Sigmund Freud established the theory of the id, ego and superego: subconscious drives that guide our personalities.
According to Freud, we are born with our Id. The id is an important part of our personality because as newborns, it allows us to get our basic needs met. Freud believed that the id is based on our pleasure principle. In other words, the id wants whatever feels good at the time, with no consideration for the reality of the situation.The id doesn't care about reality, about the needs of anyone else, only its own satisfaction.
Within the next three years, as the child interacts more and more with the world, the second part of the personality begins to develop. Freud called this part the Ego. The ego is based on the reality principle. The ego understands that other people have needs and desires and that sometimes being impulsive or selfish can hurt us in the long run. It’s the ego's job to meet the needs of the id, while taking into consideration the reality of the situation.
By the age of five, the Superego develops. The Superego is the moral part of us and develops due to the moral and ethical restraints placed on us by our caregivers. Many equate the superego with the conscience as it dictates our belief of right and wrong.
In a healthy person, according to Freud, the ego is the strongest so that it can satisfy the needs of the id, not upset the superego, and still take into consideration the reality of every situation. Not an easy job by any means, but if the id gets too strong, impulses and self gratification take over the person's life. If the superego becomes to strong, the person would be driven by rigid morals, would be judgmental and unbending in his or her interactions with the world. http://allpsych.com/psychology101/ego.html
Dialectics
This is a method of argument with roots in Plato’s teachings (~3rd Century BCE) that pits opposing ideas against each other in order to examine their differences and their similarities. In its’ modern incarnation developed by philosopher Georg Hegel, it is the interplay of contradictory principles (opposing forces) – examining the characteristics that cause these principles to be in conflict and those that may unite them.
The opposing forces, in whatever form they take, are called the Thesis and the Antithesis and that which unites them is called the Synthesis.
Hegel proposed that all process or progress is the result of conflicting opposites: a thesis can be seen as a single idea. The idea contains a form of incompleteness that gives rise to the antithesis, a conflicting idea. A third point of view, a synthesis, arises from this conflict. It overcomes the conflict by reconciling the truths contained in the thesis and antithesis at a higher level. The synthesis is a new thesis. This becomes a progression in which each successive movement emerges as a solution to the contradictions inherent in the preceding movement.
Hegel stresses the paradoxical nature of consciousness; he knows that the mind wants to know the whole truth, but that it cannot think without drawing a distinction. Unfortunately, every distinction has two terms, every argument has a counter-argument, and consciousness can only focus on one of these at a time. We struggle with each conflicting argument in order to find the truth that unites the two arguments together.
Dialectics of Personhood: THESIS: Start here: "I am born; I am a child."
ANTITHESIS: Negation of the thesis. "I have grown; I am an adult; so, I am
NOT the child I used to be."
SYNTHESIS: Negation of the opposition between thesis and antithesis. "I am
NEITHER child NOR adult, but a whole person."
Dialectics of Existence: THESIS: Being
ANTITHESIS: Nothingness.
SYNTHESIS: Becoming.
“The Greek word for butterfly is psyche, the same word used to designate the soul of man, his centre and true moral nature.” R White.
Discussion Questions
Text as Story
à Significance of the boys’ refusal to pick the smartest boy as their leader
à Symbolism of the conch
à Piggy and his glasses
à Humanity’s inability to maintain paradise. Is humanity inherently evil? Role of savagery in humanity
à Symbolism of “the beast” (leviathan)
à Power of fear to destroy
à Does isolation eventually break down the respectable qualities of humanity
à The dialectical struggle between ‘good’ and ‘evil’
à Symbolism of fire
à Butterflies
à Fear of the unknown makes us vulnerable. Is Golding commenting on religion?
Text as Technique
à Foreshadowing and irony
à Island as a microcosm of society (allegory) – what then is the purpose of Golding’s text?
à Motif (recurring symbols/imagery)
Key Quotes/Selections