Introductory Notes: Lord of the Flies by William Golding

Purpose of the text: trace the defects of society back to defects of each individual. Each boy, or group of boys, represents a segment of society. Setting: late 1940’s, during WWII Boys are all upper/middle class English students stranded on an island – the two adults are killed.

At the time, the English were considered to have the highest level of society. English had a heroic reputation for refusing to surrender to Germany, despite death toll in their country. No girls or women: Were educated separately No distractions

Island setting Focus on “ideal” society absent of outside constraints SYMBOLISM occurs throughout text. What is a symbol? Word or object which stands for another word or object. Example: dove = peace

About the Author: William Golding Born & raised in England At Oxford, studied Natural Sciences then switched to English literature Joined the British Navy & fought in the D-Day invasion Resumed writing in 1945 with a dark view of humanity. “Man produces evil, and a bee produces honey.”

LOTF is an ALLEGORY a story in which the characters and events are symbols that stand for ideas about human life or for a political or historical situation This means the story has 2 levels of meaning: First, there's the surface of the story…the characters and plot and all that obvious stuff. Then there's the symbolic level, or the deeper meaning that all the jazz on the surface represents.