Lord of the flies summary by chapter and analysis

 

 

 

Lord of the flies summary by chapter and analysis

 

The following texts are the property of their respective authors and we thank them for giving us the opportunity to share for free to students, teachers and users of the Web their texts will used only for illustrative educational and scientific purposes only.

 

All the information in our site are given for nonprofit educational purposes

The information of medicine and health contained in the site are of a general nature and purpose which is purely informative and for this reason may not replace in any case, the council of a doctor or a qualified entity legally to the profession.

 

 

Lord of the flies summary by chapter and analysis

 

Lord of the Flies
Setting: Tropical island

• It’s boat-shaped à it’s a journey, a coming of age story
• The boys constantly say: the island is ours

*reflects adult civilization and ideas of ownership
*imperialistic language: domination, triumph à it brings them together

• There are 2 sides to the island:   One = chance of escape

One = they are condemned
Situation: A plane was shot down and crashed. They were evacuated by a man with a megaphone. There was a storm that night that washed the plane out to sea.
*The “scar” is where the plane smashed
-it’s defacing nature
-nature was neutral, innocent, untouched before the boys got there
Mood:

• Tensions from the start
• Images of blood and skulls foreshadow future events

Patterns and Structure

• Pig hunt
• Pig Hunt #1:

-Ralph, Simon, and Jack see a piglet but it escapes because Jack hesitates
-Jack couldn’t bring himself to kill something alive and makes excuses
-But now, Jack wants to prove himself as a tough guy: “Next time!”

• Pig Hunt #2:

-pick the most vulnerable pig: a large sleeping sow
-relentlessly chase the pig for hours
-not just killing it for meat à they mutilate it – enjoy destroying it
-gratuitous murder: for pleasure, not food
-They’re killing their food source – not thinking of future
             **In an attempt to satisfy their thirst for savagery they’re destroying themselves
-but the high of killing is short-lived – they will probably do it again

• Assembly = civilization, order, structure
• Assembly #1:

    -together, planned, organized, order, reason
-they’re very fickle: sway from Jack to Ralph
-ends in chaos and disarray caused by fear

• Assembly #2:

-starts in order
-Ralph has matured and wants the boys to take him seriously: starts talking about the water, then shelters, then toilets, then the most important thing, the fire
-But he’s interrupted by fear of the beast
-ends in severance of ALL cooperation

• Fire = panic, fear
• Fire #1

-turmoil, chaos, disarray caused by fear
-unleashing of no control and laws à becoming savage
-unleashing of emotions, of fear and panic
-at this point it just suggests the possibility of savage being unleashed

• Fire #2

-IRONY: The fire of pure destruction is what gets them rescued
-It reveals how savage they truly are
-They’re destroying fruit trees, their food source: destroying themselves

• Dances
• Dance #1:

-Chanting together
-Right after Ralph saw a ship
-At this point they’re acting out what happened in the hunt
-Animals can’t go thru the rituals of reenactment – so at this point they are distinct from animals still, but later the line gets blurred

• Dance #2

-After Ralph hit the boar on the nose, they pretend like Robert is the boar
-“Ralph too was fighting to get near, to get a handful of that brown, vulnerable flesh. The desire to squeeze and hurt was over-mastering”
-The line between hunting and reality is blurred
-Ralph succumbs to savagery and he realizes that killing and harm is temptingly fun
-He tries to minimize it by calling it a game

• Dance #3

-At Jack’s feast
-Jack uses it to distract the boys
-It’s demented and alive
-like a monster or a beast
-This is when they kill Simon

Motifs/Images and Symbols

• Glasses

-They help Piggy see facts and danger
-When Jack and Ralph use his glasses to light the fire, they strip him of his ability to see
-Jack breaks one lens à he loses depth perception

• Dreams = escape and connection to home

-Ralph dreams when he doesn’t want to deal with situations
**Suggests the idea that England and men are civil is all a fantasy- it’s only in his head
-Page 15
-Page 98: dreams of home as an escape; wishful thinking
-P 112: dreams about home again where everything is comforting and civil
*Juxtaposition with the next scene of the boar hunt (which is the reality)
-P 164: dreams about ponies and going home
*Before, wildness was ponies and fun à But now this innocence has been murdered: wildness is savagery, cruelty, murder, chaos

• Conch = order, democracy, civility

-Attempt to set up a government
-Pink, fragile, beautiful
-Calls everyone together and gives everyone a voice – protects Piggy
-It gives Ralph authority
*It shatters = disintegration of civility

• Beastie/Beast = fear

       -creates havoc, stops you from functioning, makes you do crazy stuff
-it spreads
-it splits the group
-it allows Jack to come into power because he manipulates

• Long hair = encroachment of savagery and wildness

       -It’s creeping in
-Ralph resists and is annoyed by it; he constantly pushes it back à constant struggle for him
-Piggy’s hair is the only one who doesn’t seem to grow
-Jack pushes down the hair: accepts and thrives in savagery

• Home and rescue = connection to civility

       -Thinking about being home (like tea time) keeps them connected to civilization
-Tea = symbol of ultimate civilization

• Signal fire and smoke = hope and rescue and connection to civilization

       -keeps them from hunting and chaos
-it starts off strong, but when they realize the beast is on top of the mountain, they can’t keep the fire going.
*symbolically, it shows how this irrational fear is keeping them from being rescued and it is diminishing their feelings of hope

• Masks/ face-paint = unleashing of savagery

       -It compels them to do things
-releases them from shame and self-consciousness
-In chapter 11, Ralph can’t tell who the kids are anymore because of their masks

• Grown-up world = authority

                     -Grownups know what’s going on and can fix everything, so they’ll rescue us.
-Grownups offer answers and certainty. They are civil, peaceful, and can handle conflict.
*naïve, childish, innocent view on adults, which is IRONIC because adults are the same as the kids

• Parachuter = sign from adult world

-Literally: he’s a dead soldier/parachute from a plane bomb
*Symbolically: the grown-ups don’t offer what the kids are expecting
-Adults are just as savage as the kids and aren’t much better than them. There will be no consolation for the boys if they go back.
-The boys think the parachute is the beast later on.
-It blows away during the storm – no proof!

• Killing of the sow = just killing for fun

-gratuitous murder for fun, not for food

• Forgetting about the rescue and fire = succumbing to savagery
• Boar Hunt

-thinking like dance

• Joining in dance

-urge to feel flesh
-but still apprehensive about slipping

• Despair

-giving up: if we can’t have the fire, then we’re screwed
-not taking action = giving up

Characters
Ralph:

• Seems kind, but immature

-He explores, giggles, laughs. He’s happy to have fun and play.
-When Piggy confronts him about telling the boys that his name is Piggy, he dismisses Piggy and chooses popularity
-He believes that adults will rescue them.
-After he’s elected chief, he compromises with Jack
-This brings them together, along with exploring
-But he creates problems because he’s nice
-After Samneric see the “beast”, he consults with Jack
-acknowledges that he’s a good hunter
-Ralph is a good leader

• Attractive à He epitomizes the British

-His dad is in the Royal Navy: he adores him

• He wants to have fun AND be rescued

-He doesn’t want responsibility, but learns that this is impossible
-He gets frustrated because he wants to have fun, but knows he has to work

• Very rational and pragmatic

-He doesn’t know how to handle the rumors about the beastie. He keeps insisting that there isn’t one and tries to rationalize it.
-This reflects his response to the candle bush: “you can’t light them, they just look like candles”

• His priority = shelter and rescue

-conflicts with Jack
-when the ship passes by and the smoke is out, this lost opportunity creates an even more heated and divisive source of conflict.
*They are 2 parallel worlds that can’t connect with each other. They can’t come together and agree.

• He resists savagery and tries to exert control

-When Jack mimics Piggy, he finds it funny and is mad at himself because he knows Piggy is important.
-Jack “apologizes” and wins the assembly’s admiration. Ralph sees this and is frustrated that the assembly is driven by their emotions
-He says that “the rules are the only thing we’ve got”
-He is disgusted with their hygiene
-he is most upset because the boys think it’s normal now
-Yet sometimes the temptation is to great and Ralph yields
-When Jack offers them all meat, Ralph meant to refuse it, but he broke down and ate it. It was too hard to resist what Jack was offering.

• Ralph is ambivalent: conflicted and torn

-Has mixed feelings: envious and resentful – he doesn’t want to want to join the boys, but he still is tempted
-Struggling to hang on
-He despairs and sometimes wants to give up

• In chapter 5, he matures:

-realizes that Piggy is very valuable and appreciates him. He realizes piggy has both weaknesses and advantages.
-He has a new affectionate respect for the conch too.
-As the novel progresses, he begins to look out for Piggy.

• He doesn’t want to admit the reality of the savagery of human beings

-He doesn’t want to blow the conch
-If nobody comes, then it really is all over and it becomes a reality
-He constantly says hunting is a game:
-If it isn’t, then the kids are actually cruel and savage, not good-natured.

• He has moments where he is consumed:
• Page 108: He is talking about smoke and the curtain flaps in his head, and he momentarily forgets that smoke = rescue.
• Page 113: He enjoys the boar hunt but that scares him

-He is full of “fright, apprehension, and pride”

• Page 163: The curtain flaps in his head again

-He is still fighting to remain civilized: but now he is taking action

• Page 170: Still fighting against the curtain
• Page 173: Keeps forgetting that smoke = rescue. Has to be reminded by Piggy
• He tries to clean up to not look like a savage

*Going through the motions helps you to keep going when your world is falling apart
-If you act civilized then maybe you can remain civilized
-Tries to call an assembly when they go to see Jack to get back Piggy’s glasses

• He follows an instinct – like an animal being chased

-After Piggy’s death, he is all alone

Jack:

• He’s a ginger and is ugly (on the outside AND the inside)
• He’s intimidating, menacing, and takes himself seriously

-Piggy and Ralph are afraid of him from the start
-typical bully: picks on the weak and defenseless (like Piggy)
-He was the natural leader with the natural charisma, but not chosen by the group
*creates a power struggle from the beginning: he wants to be the leader soo bad
-He tries to get more and more control: offers to watch the fire, look for ships, and hunt

• Jack manipulates and exploits situations for dominance and to make himself seem like a hero

-tells them there is no beast, but if there was, he would hunt it and kill it
-he gets them afraid so he can be their hero
-puts words into Ralph’s mouth
-He operates better without laws and rules
-Then he can use intimidation to make people obey him
-He makes up his own rules:
-says the conch doesn’t work on his end of the island
-He’s always struggling for power, attention, and approval
-When Ralph hits the boar, jack shifts the attention back to him by showing off his wound
-He gives his tribe food and protection from the beast – what else could they want?
**If the beast dies, his control over them dies too. He exploits the fear of the beast for his own power**

• His priority = food and hunting

-He’s often compared to animals while hunting à he’s animalistic
-He’s often described as having “mad eyes” when he’s trying to hunt
**He loses memory of what rescue is
-His memory of rescue is being replaced with memories of hunting
-Different value system than Ralph:
-Jack = militaristic (focuses on building forts and throwing rocks on enemy)
-Ralph = rescue (focuses on smoke)
-He replaces civilized methods with hunting
-totally consumed with savagery
-happier this way

• He’s compared to:
•  An idol

-Shows how Jack operates: must be worshipped and served
-He wants to seem god-like

• A snake

-garden of eden: he disrupted the peace and goodness

• He’s a coward

-only picks on the weak: typical bully
-only brave when he has an audience – thrives off the fear of others
-he hangs behind Ralph and Roger when they go to investigate the beast
-taunts Ralph whenever they’re in a vulnerable situation
-he wants Ralph to look weaker
-ex: they’re looking for the beast
-But Ralph usually reasserts himself
-when he tries to break off from Ralph’s group, he attacks Ralph by putting him in a situation where it’s Jack’s word against Ralph’s
-but when he challenges Ralph and loses, he runs away crying, showing that he is still a little kid at heart

• Gets into a physical violent fight with Ralph à descent into savagery

Piggy:

• He’s the adult voice: he’s mature, realistic

-He questions things and tries to put things together in his head
“How does [Ralph’s dad] know we’re here? … they’re all dead an’ this is an island. Nobody don’t know we’re here. Your dad don’t know, nobody don’t know – we may stay here till we die”
“You’re acting like a bunch of kids!”

• He’s the scientific mind

-He thinks analytically: call a meeting, use the conch for a purpose
-He likes order and process
-He can’t recognize sarcasm
-He thinks that they’re can’t be a beast because there is nothing for him to eat

• He’s an outsider

-He has a windbreaker, not a uniform, which means he’s not in the same social class
-He won’t do any physical work
-He’s self-conscious
-Raised by his aunt
-Plump and has asthma
-He’s not fun, he’s whiny

• He represents respect for decorum
• He represents the voiceless and weak, the different

-He needs the conch for protection
-He protects the little ones
-He believes in the beast by chapter 6, and cowardly wants to just stay out of the beast’s way, not getting involved or taking a risk.

• He is naive: he thinks that Jack cares about the conch

-When Jack and his hunters attack them, Piggy was afraid that they took the conch. But they don’t care about the rules or order anymore- they do whatever they want.
-Ralph looks to check that the conch is still there: pacifying Piggy but was also wondering himself  
-Piggy is still clinging to the conch

• Responds to crisis (his stolen glasses) = clings to the conch for protection-he needs it

-He wants to play by the rules and get his glasses back from Jack – he doesn’t get that Jack doesn’t play by the rules anymore

• Piggy’s death:

-It’s rough, open, scientific (while Simon’s death was heavenly, sweet, peaceful)
-Conch shatters into a thousand fragments, symbolizing the disintegration of civility
              **With Piggy’s death, respect for democracy and order is gone too

Simon:

• He’s not the typical Anglo-Saxon: small and has coarse black hair, might be Asian

-He has fainting spells, so people don’t take him seriously
-He’s bright and alive
-The boys think he’s batty because they can’t understand him
-They don’t know who he really is
-Around butterflies- are associated with goodness

• He knows that you have to take action

-Fear prevents the discovery of truth
-He sees that they have to face the truth
-Encourages and supports Ralph to not give up
-Keep the passion, the effort going
-3 times: tells Ralph that he thinks he will get back all right

• He has insight into the human condition

-He’s afraid that the beast is “us”
-But the boys can’t comprehend this, and when he tries to translate it to them, they cruelly laugh at him and he backs off.
-He thinks humans are “heroic and sick”
-Human beings are capable of wonderful, great things, but also horrible things
-he’s perceptive

• He is the Christ figure

-The Lord of the Flies = temptation
-It tries to make him give up hope of rescue and helping others; it wants him to join the others
-wants him to give up the fight
-It says that this evil is inside of humans: the beast is the evil and savagery in man’s heart
-It is the reason why things are falling apart, why ideas of rescue are gone, why they are in this terrible state
-Evil is everywhere à it’s even among the group. You can’t escape it.
-It has the voice of a school master = voice of authority
                                         -Tells him to have fun: fun is associated with giving up and lawlessness
-The boys make the Lord of the Flies into a trophy
                                                       -take pride in their savagery
-He doesn’t let the Lord of the Flies stop him
-Calls it “Pig’s head on a stick” à he’s like- this is all you are: I’m not going to give you power over me. My fear isn’t going to consume me.
-Biblical allusion: he’s been to the mountaintop and back, and now he sees the truth (the parachute is on top of the mountain)
                                         **Giving into pleasure causes you to lose salvation**
**Simon plans to tell them the good news. If he delivers the message, then this truth will set them free: free from the fear, from Jack, from savagery.
-But Jack needs this fear to manipulate and control them all.
-It takes him a lot of effort to come down from the mountain
-Pestered by the flies
-Sees the parachuter and realizes it’s the beast
“The beast was harmless and horrible; and the news must reach the others as soon as possible”
-He wants to stop Jack from winning
                           **Simon’s Death:
-the boys reduce him to a “thing” – makes it easier to kill him
-He tries to convey the message, but they ignore him
-The kids are compared to animals with claws and teeth
                           **He is carried out to sea very heavenly
-lots of images of silver and light and gentleness
-it’s like he’s going to heaven- he’s lifted out
-it contrasts the previous horribly violent scene

• THE MESSAGE OF HOPE IS LOST WITH SIMON
• WHAT WOULD HAVE FREED THEM FROM THE CHAINS OF JACK/FEAR/LORD OF THE FLIES IS NOW GONE
• In order to receive Simon’s message and achieve salvation, Ralph must admit the truth, his sings, and his wrongdoings
• You must acknowledge your guilt before redemption.
• Ralph admits he was at the dance by saying that Simon said something about a dead man
• By accepting his faults, his admission of truth gives him impetus to keep the fire going and to keep up the fight. He can keep the hope going and accept Simon’s message.

Roger:

• Very negative, pessimistic, always in the shadows

-maybe we’ll never get rescued…
-looks like a Neanderthal, a caveman, a savage 
-He leads in destruction of littluns’ fun:
-stalks Henry predatorily
-he throws stones around him, but not at him
*He’s associated with darkness à evil inside

• When the guard challenges him, he’s impressed and admires the chief

-Jack tortures Wilfred for power. He can do whatever he wants with no reason.
-culture of terror
-Roger loves this freedom to do whatever
-but Ralph sees that this is nonsense.

• He is a savage force of evil who takes pleasure in cruelty

-Freudian: is motivated by some irrational force
-To him, Ralph was a shock of hair and Piggy a bag of fat à he doesn’t see them as humans, so they’re easier to kill

• He pushes the rock that kills Piggy!

-He has a sense of delirious abandonment because he has abandoned ALL rules and boundaries
The choir:

• Looks like a monster: referred to as “it” and a “creature”
• Looks like the Nazis
• Jack = “the boy who controlled them” (not led them)

Percival

• Symbolic of the littluns

-Always crying, scared

• The littluns were not distinguished: they’re seen as a clump, a mass

-easily manipulated
-obey the conch: listen to authority
-they do mindless, unproductive activities

• Shows how the little ones are isolated and losing their security à makes them more vulnerable to Jack

Responses

• Candle bush = reveals 3 different responses to nature
• Ralph: practical, literal, pragmatic, rational
• Jack: violent, animal-instinct (concerned with food)
• Simon: metaphorical, able to see the intangible beauty, like a poet or artist

• Responses to the Dance and Simon’s death
• Ralph

       -Honest, admits the truth
-Change in Ralph: he realizes that Piggy can never accept this truth and acknowledges that Piggy is limited
-So he doesn’t argue with Piggy

• Piggy: avoids the truth

                                   -Makes excuses to avoid the truth
-He searches for a formula: it needs to be logical for him to understand
-Makes it Simon’s fault
-He won’t take responsibility for the dance
*Isolation = consequence of not accepting the truth
-can’t get rescued, no hope of reconciliation

• Samneric: echo Piggy

Messages from Golding:

• Political (WW2)
• Religious (Simon as the Christ figure, etc.)
• Psychological (Id, Superego, and Ego)
• About humanity and civilization:

       -Civilization protects the weak and the different
-Ex: Piggy, who is the intellectual (he clings to the conch because he needs it to survive)
Simon, who is the artist, the poet
-Only the rules and laws imposed by adults hold us back
-Maurice felt the unease of wrongdoing when he destroyed the littluns’ castles
-Taboo of the “old life”, the life of rules and adults, is still on the boys at the beginning
-Roger can’t throw stones at Henry, only around Henry
-taboo is an invisible protection of civility
-Roger has been trained by a civilization, but that civilization is in ruins (in the literal sense: World War II)
-Every society needs diversity
-Needs all different kinds of people and their contributions

 

Source : http://sarahstudyguides.wikispaces.com/file/view/Lord%20of%20the%20Flies%20Study%20guide.doc/277557604/Lord%20of%20the%20Flies%20Study%20guide.doc

Web site link to visit: http://sarahstudyguides.wikispaces.com

Google key word : Lord of the flies summary by chapter and analysis file type : doc

Author : sarahstudyguides or not clearly indicated on the source document of the above text

If you are the author of the text above and you not agree to share your knowledge for teaching, research, scholarship (for fair use as indicated in the United States copyrigh low) please send us an e-mail and we will remove your text quickly.

 

Lord of the flies summary by chapter and analysis

 
William Golding's classic tale about a group of English schoolboys who are plane-wrecked on a deserted island was first published in 1954. At first, the stranded boys cooperate, attempting to gather food, make shelters, and maintain signal fires. Overseeing their efforts are Ralph, "the boy with fair hair," and Piggy, Ralph's chubby, wisdom-dispensing sidekick whose thick spectacles come in handy for lighting fires. Although Ralph tries to impose order and delegate responsibility, there are many in their number who would rather swim, play, or hunt the island's wild pig population. Soon Ralph's rules are being ignored or challenged outright. His fiercest antagonist is Jack, the redheaded leader of the pig hunters, who manages to lure away many of the boys to join his band of painted savages. The situation deteriorates as the trappings of civilization continue to fall away, until Ralph discovers that instead of being hunters, he and Piggy have become the hunted: "He forgot his words, his hunger and thirst, and became fear; hopeless fear on flying feet." Golding's gripping novel explores the boundary between human reason and animal instinct, all on the brutal playing field of adolescent competition.

• A compelling story about a group of very ordinary small boys marooned on a coral island has become a modern classic. At first it seems as though it is all going to be great fun; but the fun before long becomes furious and life on the island turns into a nightmare of panic and death. As ordinary standards of behavior collapse, the whole world the boys know collapses with them—the world of cricket and homework and adventure stories—and another world is revealed beneath, primitive and terrible.
• Lord of the Flies remains as provocative today as when it was first published in 1954, igniting passionate debate with its startling, brutal portrait of human nature. Though critically acclaimed, it was largely ignored upon its initial publication. Yet soon it became a cult favorite among both students and literary critics who compared it to J.D. Salinger's The Catcher in the Rye in its influence on modern thought and literature.

Ralph - The novel’s protagonist, the twelve-year-old English boy who is elected leader of the group of boys marooned on the island. Ralph attempts to coordinate the boys’ efforts to build a miniature civilization on the island until they can be rescued. Ralph represents human beings’ civilizing instinct, as opposed to the savage instinct that Jack embodies.
Jack - The novel’s antagonist, one of the older boys stranded on the island. Jack becomes the leader of the hunters but longs for total power and becomes increasingly wild, barbaric, and cruel as the novel progresses. Jack, adept at manipulating the other boys, represents the instinct of savagery within human beings, as opposed to the civilizing instinct Ralph represents.
Simon - A shy, sensitive boy in the group. Simon, in some ways the only naturally“good” character on the island, behaves kindly toward the younger boys and is willing to work for the good of their community. Moreover, because his motivation is rooted in his deep feeling of connectedness to nature, Simon is the only character whose sense of morality does not seem to have been imposed by society. Simon represents a kind of natural goodness, as opposed to the unbridled evil of Jack and the imposed morality of civilization represented by Ralph and Piggy.
Piggy - Ralph’s“lieutenant.” A whiny, intellectual boy, Piggy’s inventiveness frequently leads to innovation, such as the makeshift sundial that the boys use to tell time. Piggy represents the scientific, rational side of civilization.
Roger - Jack’s“lieutenant.” A sadistic, cruel older boy who brutalizes the littluns and eventually murders Piggy by rolling a boulder onto him.
Sam and Eric - A pair of twins closely allied with Ralph. Sam and Eric are always together, and the other boys often treat them as a single entity, calling them “Samneric.” The easily excitable Sam and Eric are part of the group known as the “bigguns.” At the end of the novel, they fall victim to Jack’s manipulation and coercion.
The Lord of the Flies - The name given to the sow’s head that Jack’s gang impales on a stake and erects in the forest as an offering to the“beast.” The Lord of the Flies comes to symbolize the primordial instincts of power and cruelty that take control of Jack’s tribe.

Lord of the Flies is an allegorical novel, and many of its characters signify important ideas or themes. Ralph represents order, leadership, and civilization. Piggy represents the scientific and intellectual aspects of civilization. Jack represents unbridled savagery and the desire for power. Simon represents natural human goodness. Roger represents brutality and bloodlust at their most extreme. To the extent that the boys’ society resembles a political state, the littluns might be seen as the common people, while the older boys represent the ruling classes and political leaders. The relationships that develop between the older boys and the younger ones emphasize the older boys’ connection to either the civilized or the savage instinct: civilized boys like Ralph and Simon use their power to protect the younger boys and advance the good of the group; savage boys like Jack and Roger use their power to gratify their own desires, treating the littler boys as objects for their own amusement
Themes
Civilization vs. Savagery
The central concern of Lord of the Flies is the conflict between two competing impulses that exist within all human beings: the instinct to live by rules, act peacefully, follow moral commands, and value the good of the group against the instinct to gratify one’s immediate desires, act violently to obtain supremacy over others, and enforce one’s will. This conflict might be expressed in a number of ways: civilization vs. savagery, order vs. chaos, reason vs. impulse, law vs. anarchy, or the broader heading of good vs. evil. Throughout the novel, Golding associates the instinct of civilization with good and the instinct of savagery with evil.
Loss of Innocence
As the boys on the island progress from well-behaved, orderly children longing for rescue to cruel, bloodthirsty hunters who have no desire to return to civilization, they naturally lose the sense of innocence that they possessed at the beginning of the novel. The painted savages in Chapter 12 who have hunted, tortured, and killed animals and human beings are a far cry from the guileless children swimming in the lagoon in Chapter 3. But Golding does not portray this loss of innocence as something that is done to the children; rather, it results naturally from their increasing openness to the innate evil and savagery that has always existed within them. Golding implies that civilization can mitigate but never wipe out the innate evil that exists within all human beings. The forest glade in which Simon sits in Chapter 3 symbolizes this loss of innocence. At first, it is a place of natural beauty and peace, but when Simon returns later in the novel, he discovers the bloody sow’s head impaled upon a stake in the middle of the clearing. The bloody offering to the beast has disrupted the paradise that existed before—a powerful symbol of innate human evil disrupting childhood innocence.

 

Motifs
Biblical Parallels
Many critics have characterized Lord of the Flies as a retelling of episodes from the Bible. While that description may be an oversimplification, the novel does echo certain Christian images and themes. Golding does not make any explicit or direct connections to Christian symbolism in Lord of the Flies; instead, these biblical parallels function as a kind of subtle motif in the novel, adding thematic resonance to the main ideas of the story. The island itself, particularly Simon’s glade in the forest, recalls the Garden of Eden in its status as an originally pristine place that is corrupted by the introduction of evil. Similarly, we may see the Lord of the Flies as a representation of the devil, for it works to promote evil among humankind. Furthermore, many critics have drawn strong parallels between Simon and Jesus. Among the boys, Simon is the one who arrives at the moral truth of the novel, and the other boys kill him sacrificially as a consequence of having discovered this truth. Simon’s conversation with the Lord of the Flies also parallels the confrontation between Jesus and the devil during Jesus’ forty days in the wilderness, as told in the Christian Gospels.
The Conch Shell
Ralph and Piggy discover the conch shell on the beach at the start of the novel and use it to summon the boys together after the crash separates them. Used in this capacity, the conch shell becomes a powerful symbol of civilization and order in the novel. The shell effectively governs the boys’ meetings, for the boy who holds the shell holds the right to speak. In this regard, the shell is more than a symbol—it is an actual vessel of political legitimacy and democratic power
Piggy’s Glasses
Piggy is the most intelligent, rational boy in the group, and his glasses represent the power of science and intellectual endeavor in society. This symbolic significance is clear from the start of the novel, when the boys use the lenses from Piggy’s glasses to focus the sunlight and start a fire. When Jack’s hunters raid Ralph’s camp and steal the glasses, the savages effectively take the power to make fire, leaving Ralph’s group helpless.
The Signal Fire
The signal fire burns on the mountain, and later on the beach, to attract the notice of passing ships that might be able to rescue the boys. As a result, the signal fire becomes a barometer of the boys’ connection to civilization. In the early parts of the novel, the fact that the boys maintain the fire is a sign that they want to be rescued and return to society. When the fire burns low or goes out, we realize that the boys have lost sight of their desire to be rescued and have accepted their savage lives on the island.
The Lord of the Flies
The Lord of the Flies is the bloody, severed sow’s head that Jack impales on a stake in the forest glade as an offering to the beast. This complicated symbol becomes the most important image in the novel when Simon confronts the sow’s head in the glade and it seems to speak to him, telling him that evil lies within every human heart and promising to have some “fun” with him. (This“fun” foreshadows Simon’s death in the following chapter.) In this way, the Lord of the Flies becomes both a physical manifestation of the beast, a symbol of the power of evil, and a kind of Satan figure who evokes the beast within each human being. Looking at the novel in the context of biblical parallels, the Lord of the Flies recalls the devil, just as Simon recalls Jesus. In fact, the name “Lord of the Flies” is a literal translation of the name of the biblical name Beelzebub, a powerful demon in hell sometimes thought to be the devil himself.
Ralph, Piggy, Jack, Simon, and Roger
Lord of the Flies is an allegorical novel, and many of its characters signify important ideas or themes. Ralph represents order, leadership, and civilization. Piggy represents the scientific and intellectual aspects of civilization. Jack represents unbridled savagery and the desire for power. Simon represents natural human goodness. Roger represents brutality and bloodlust at their most extreme. To the extent that the boys’ society resembles a political state, the littluns might be seen as the common people, while the older boys represent the ruling classes and political leaders. The relationships that develop between the older boys and the younger ones emphasize the older boys’ connection to either the civilized or the savage instinct: civilized boys like Ralph and Simon use their power to protect the younger boys and advance the good of the group; savage boys like Jack and Roger use their power to gratify their own desires, treating the littler boys as objects for their own amusement

Author Information:
William Golding was Born in Cornwall, England, in 1911 and educated at Oxford University, William Gerald Golding's first book, Poems, was published in 1935. Following a stint in the Royal Navy and other diversions during and after World War II, Golding wrote Lord of the Flies while teaching school. This was the first of several novels including Pincher Martin, Free Fall, and The Inheritors and a play, The Brass Butterfly, which led to his being awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1983.

genre · Allegory; adventure story; castaway fiction; loss-of-innocence fiction
language · English
time and place written · Early 1950s; Salisbury, England
date of first publication · 1954
narrator · The story is told by an anonymous third-person narrator who conveys the events of the novel without commenting on the action or intruding into the story.
point of view · The narrator speaks in the third person, primarily focusing on Ralph’s point of view but following Jack and Simon in certain episodes. The narrator is omniscient and gives us access to the characters’ inner thoughts.
tone · Dark; violent; pessimistic; tragic; unsparing
tense · Immediate past
setting (time) · Near future
setting (place) · A deserted tropical island
protagonist · Ralph
major conflict · Free from the rules that adult society formerly imposed on them, the boys marooned on the island struggle with the conflicting human instincts that exist within each of them—the instinct to work toward civilization and order and the instinct to descend into savagery, violence, and chaos.
rising action · The boys assemble on the beach. In the election for leader, Ralph defeats Jack, who is furious when he loses. As the boys explore the island, tension grows between Jack, who is interested only in hunting, and Ralph, who believes most of the boys’ efforts should go toward building shelters and maintaining a signal fire. When rumors surface that there is some sort of beast living on the island, the boys grow fearful, and the group begins to divide into two camps supporting Ralph and Jack, respectively. Ultimately, Jack forms a new tribe altogether, fully immersing himself in the savagery of the hunt.
climax · Simon encounters the Lord of the Flies in the forest glade and realizes that the beast is not a physical entity but rather something that exists within each boy on the island. When Simon tries to approach the other boys and convey this message to them, they fall on him and kill him savagely.
falling action · Virtually all the boys on the island abandon Ralph and Piggy and descend further into savagery and chaos. When the other boys kill Piggy and destroy the conch shell, Ralph flees from Jack’s tribe and encounters the naval officer on the beach.
themes · Civilization vs. savagery; the loss of innocence; innate human evil
motifs · Biblical parallels; natural beauty; the bullying of the weak by the strong; the outward trappings of savagery (face paint, spears, totems, chants)
symbols · The conch shell; Piggy’s glasses; the signal fire; the beast; the Lord of the Flies; Ralph, Piggy, Jack, Simon, and Roger
foreshadowing · The rolling of the boulders off the Castle Rock in Chapter 6 foreshadows Piggy’s death; the Lord of the Flies’s promise to have some “fun” with Simon foreshadows Simon’s death

 

• His mind was crowded with memories; memories of the knowledge that had come to them when they closed in on the struggling pig, knowledge that they had outwitted a living thing, imposed their will upon it, taken away its life like a long satisfying drink.

• Ralph wept for the end of innocence, the darkness of man’s heart, and the fall through the air of a true, wise friend called Piggy.

 

http://www.sparknotes.com/lit/flies/summary.html
http://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/lord-of-the-flies-william-golding/1100154846?ean=9780399501487&itm=1&usri=lord+of+the+flies
http://www.amazon.com/Flies-Centenary-Edition-William-Golding/dp/0399537422/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1334162794&sr=8-1

 

Source : http://impactnovels.wikispaces.com/file/view/Lord+of+the+Flies.docx

Web site link to visit: http://impactnovels.wikispaces.com

Google key word : Lord of the flies summary by chapter and analysis file type : doc

Author : C.Piano or not clearly indicated on the source document of the above text

If you are the author of the text above and you not agree to share your knowledge for teaching, research, scholarship (for fair use as indicated in the United States copyrigh low) please send us an e-mail and we will remove your text quickly.

 

Lord of the flies summary by chapter and analysis

 

 

If you want to quickly find the pages about a particular topic as Lord of the flies summary by chapter and analysis use the following search engine:

 

 

 

Lord of the flies summary by chapter and analysis

 

Please visit our home page

 

Larapedia.com Terms of service and privacy page