INTRODUCTION TO LORD OF THE FLIES - by William Golding 4/26/2019

Essential Questions: What is the nature of man? What are the qualities of effective leadership? How do you effectively govern? Upon what, primarily, does survival most depend? 4/26/2019

More Essential Questions… How are our human flaws revealed? What do our flaws reveal about us? How does Golding use setting and characters in Lord of the Flies to express his ideas about people?

Philosophical Background: Rousseau Contrary to his earlier work, Rousseau (Jean-Jacques Rousseau, born in Geneva in 1712) claimed that the state of nature is brutish condition without law or morality, and that there are good men only as a result of society's presence. 4/26/2019

“The Social Contract” Because he can be more successful facing threats by joining with other men, he has the impetus to do so. He joins together with his fellow men to form the collective human presence known as "society." "The Social Contract" is the "compact" agreed to among men that sets the conditions for membership in society. 4/26/2019

The Noble Savage In his early writing, Rousseau contended that man is essentially good, a "noble savage" when in the "state of nature" (the state of all the other animals, and the condition man was in before the creation of civilization and society), and that good people are made unhappy and corrupted by their experiences in society. 4/26/2019

“Noble Savage” He viewed society as "artificial" and "corrupt" and that the furthering of society results in the continuing unhappiness of man. 4/26/2019

Spiritual Background: Original Sin Original sin is said to result from the Fall of Man, when Adam and Eve ate the forbidden fruit of a particular tree in the Garden of Eden. 4/26/2019

“Original Sin” This first sin ("the original sin", as distinct from "original sin"), an action of the first humans, is traditionally understood to be the cause of "original sin", the fallen state from which humans can be saved only by God's grace. 4/26/2019

Nature vs. Nurture The nature versus nurture debates concern the relative importance of an individual's innate qualities ("nature“), versus personal experiences ("nurture") in determining or causing individual differences in physical and behavioral traits. 4/26/2019

“Tabula Rasa” The view that humans acquire all or almost all their behavioral traits from "nurture" is known as tabula rasa ("blank slate"). 4/26/2019

What do you know about Beelzebub? It is another name for the devil. Beelzebub comes from a Greek word that means ‘lord of flies’

In Golding’s day a popular boys adventure story was… The Coral Island A story most boys and adults in England would be familiar with.

The Coral Island Written in 1858 A group of boys gets stranded on a deserted, tropical island The major characters are Jack, Ralph, and Peterkin It’s an adventure story with a happy ending

Lord of the Flies continued The novel takes place during a fictional atomic war. A group of British schoolboys are flown out of their country to protect them from the horrors of war.

Lord of the Flies continued However, their plane crashes, killing all the adults on board. The boys remain stranded on the tropical island to fend for themselves…

Lord of the Flies facts Most of the characters, actions and objects in the novel symbolize larger ideas Golding’s novel deals with the conflict between the rational mind and primal instinct

All of Golding’s novel takes place on a remote tropical island.

Literature Circle Schedule Chapters 1-2………….Wed. Oct 1 Chapters 3-5………….Wed. Oct 8 Chapters 6-8………….Wed. Oct 15 Chapters 9-11………..Wed. Oct 22 Chapters 12……………In Class 4/26/2019

What should you come to understand by the end of this unit? People’s baser instincts are often stronger than their nobler ones in creating human societies. The defects in society are related to the defects in human nature. Novelists often use their fiction to make statements about their personal or political beliefs.