Lord of the Flies by Sir William Golding

 Author: William Golding  Year: 1954  Famous for: The Beast, a talking pig’s head on a stake, a horrific descent into chaos and savagery  Main character: Ralph

The scoop: Every kid dreams of what life would be like without adults. No rules, no curfews, and as much of your favorite food as you could ever want to eat. Sounds like paradise right? Not for the cast of William Golding’s novel. Of course, the complicating factor for these boys is that they’re marooned on a desert island. Which means they have to worry about survival – and a lurking Beast – and can’t just enjoy life without adults.

Photo Analysis The best way to understand the time period is to see what was going on.

Early Life  Born September 19, 1911 in Cornwall, England  Raised next door to a graveyard  Mother was a suffragette  Father was a schoolmaster  Tried his first novel at age 12; failed  Turned to bullying  Studied English literature at Brasenose College at Oxford University

Teaching  Took a position teaching English and philosophy in 1935  This experience would later serve as inspiration for his novel

Royal Navy  Took a break from teaching to join the Navy from  Fought battleships at the sinking of the Bismarck, he ended as a Lieutenant in command of a rocket-launching craft

Golding on the war  “I began to see what people were capable of doing. Anyone who moved through those years without understanding that man produces evil as a bee produces honey, must have been blind or wrong in the head.”

Lord of the Flies  Golding said that his experiences in World War II inspired a view of humanity’s capacity for evil that led him to write Lord of the Flies.  Turned down by 21 publishers  A junior editor, Charles Monteith, rescued the manuscript from the reject pile at one of those publishers  Sold 3000 copies before going out of print in 1955  Helped cement Golding’s nomination for Nobel Prize

Golding on Lord of the Flies “It was simply what seemed sensible for me to write after the war when everyone was thanking God they weren’t Nazis. I’d seen enough to know that every single one of us could be Nazis.

Nobel Prize  Won the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1983  “for his novels which, with the perspicuity of realistic narrative art and the diversity and universality of myth, illuminate the human condition in the world today”

Themes of the Book  Civilization  democracy - dictator  Religion  established - created  Identity  society/school - island  Power  absolute - limited  Fear  unknown - known  Loss of innocence  Child - adult

Golding’s Literary Technique  Heavy use of symbolism  Irony  Abundant imagery and sensory detail  Figurative Language  Simile  Metaphor  Personification

Some Terms You Need to Know You might want to open your study guides and take a few notes. HINT HINT!!!!

Allegory  a story with a symbolic level of meaning, where the characters and setting represent other things like political systems, religious figures, or philosophical viewpoints

Irony – 3 types  Situational Irony  Verbal Irony  Dramatic Irony

Situational Irony When the expected outcome does not happen. - A fire station burns down.

Verbal Irony Using words to convey a meaning that is the opposite of the literal meaning; sarcasm

Dramatic Irony When the audience knows something that the characters don’t.

Simile A direct comparison between two different things using “like” or “as”

Metaphor An implicit (hidden) comparison between two unlike things that actually have something in common; no “like” or “as”

Personification