Lord of the Flies By William Golding

Author: Sir William Golding Born in Cornwall, England Born Sept. 19, 1911 Son of a women’s rights movement activist, Mildred Golding, and Alec Golding, a distinguished schoolmaster Educated at Oxford

Golding, cont. Enlisted in British Royal Navy during World War II Served on cruisers, destroyers, and minesweepers for five years Horrors of war generated a dark view of human nature reflected in his novels His view of nature mirrors political thinker Thomas Hobbes

Golding, cont. Nobel Prize in Literature in 1983 1988 Queen of England knighted him

About the novel Written in 1954 Based on The Coral Island, by R.M. Ballantyne, written in 1857 Main characters are also Ralph and Jack Also stranded on island and hunt pigs Captured by savages but rescued by teacher At end they converted the savages to Christianity

Read The Coral Island to his son and at the end said to his wife, “Oh, I’m so tired of this business. Wouldn’t it be fun to write a book about boys on an island and see what really happens?”

Key Words Civilization: Peoples considered to have reached a high social development Anarchy: The breakdown or absence of socialized behavior; political disorder, confusion, and violence; absence of government Totalitarianism: A government in which a dictator has complete control over peoples’ lives (Hitler, Stalin, Mao)

Macrocosm: means literally “great world”, the universe; (in the novel= the adult world) Microcosm: means literally “little world”; a world in miniature (in the novel= the island)

Island as microcosm The island society in Lord of the Flies is a microcosm of the real world at the time (WWII). The boys revert from democratic, humanistic principles to savages through the rule of illegal thugs (Hitler, Stalin, etc., who also used force and fear tactics, such as nuclear weapons)

Irony The conflict between what seems and what is. Derived from the clash between appearance and reality Dramatic irony: when the audience knows the true reality, but the character doesn’t Example: when we know the beast is really a parachutist, but the characters do not

Irony, cont. Situational irony: events turn out opposite of what is expected Example: Ralph says, “This is a good island”, but on this island terrible things happen. Verbal Irony: when the writer says the opposite of what he means

Literary Terms Symbol: a person, place, event or object that has a meaning in itself but suggests other meanings as well Allegory of ideas: a symbolic story that may be applied to a parallel set of situations; a presentation of an abstract or spiritual meaning under concrete or material forms.

Types of allegorical interpretations Religious Moral Governmental Social Psychological Philosophical

Religious allegory Religious allegory: the story parallels the fall of man from the Garden of Eden Described in The Bible and John Milton’s Paradise Lost

Moral allegory The main characters represent the different forces that affect one’s moral make-up: Lust (passion or emotion) Reason Intelligence Spirituality (soul)

Governmental allegory The story is an analysis of the nature of governments: Democracy Anarchy Dictatorship Totalitarianism

Social allegory The story illustrates through its main characters how lust for power dominates humanity’s spiritual and rational sides

Psychological allegory The main characters represent the different parts of Freud’s psychoanalytical theory Sigmund Freud (1856-1939) was the first psychoanalytical theorist to suggest that the human personality could be divided into three parts.

Psychological allegory, cont. ID (primal, or animal instinct): seeks only pleasure and vents its destructive impulses on the world without restraint or regret empowers unbridled desires and primitive, savage urges Governs children in their early years

Psychological allegory, cont. Superego (conscience): Disapproving adults alter the behavior through outside punishment Rules or adults get internalized in the child and become his or her own controls for behavior Rules of civilization

Psychological allegory, cont. Ego (human power or reason): A balance has to be struck between the unreasoning urges of the id and the rigid, unreasoning controls of the superego.

Philosophical allegory The story is a presentation of the philosophies or opposing political thinkers Thomas Hobbes and Jean-Jacques Rousseau. Are we evil by nature, or are we born innocent but then later get corrupted by the false conventions of society? Is man by nature a brute savage or a noble savage?

Thomas Hobbes Philosopher, 1588-1679 Perhaps most famous for his political philosophy Men in a state of nature, that is, a state without civil government, are in a war of all against all in which life is hardly worth living. The way out of this desperate state is to make a social contract and establish the state to keep peace and order. Because of his view of how nasty life is without the state, Hobbes subscribes to a very authoritarian version of the social contract.

Jean-Jacques Rousseau Philosopher, 1712 - 1778 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) Good people are made unhappy and corrupted by their experiences in society. He viewed society as "artificial" and "corrupt" and that the furthering of society results in the continuing unhappiness of man.

Golding rejects Rousseau’s “noble savage” belief, which pervaded art and literature for generations Golding shows the youngest people, least affected by society, puts them in paradise and shows their savagery, not their nobility Where has goodness gone? What is the source of children corruption? Society or evil natures?

In an interview, Golding describes theme as “an attempt to trace the defects of society back to the defects of human nature” Presence of evil is a destructive influence in man and major cause of social disintegration Man can only have a healthy society after he recognizes the evil within him and tries to control it

Saw modern society as threatened by the same presence of evil that destroys the boys’ society on the island Civilization, according to Golding, is a thin veneer which under the right circumstance is easily broken down Do you agree or disagree?