1 INTRODUCTION TO LORD OF THE FLIES - by William Golding

2 Essential Questions: What is the nature of man? What are the qualities of effective leadership? How does one effectively govern? Upon what, primarily, does survival most depend? How quickly can civilization erode into savagery?

More Essential Questions… What events allow our human flaws to be 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 human nature?

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.

Lord of the Flies 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. 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 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, representing a move from civiliazation to savagery. Golding’s novel deals with the conflict between the rational mind and primal instinct, representing a move from civiliazation to savagery.

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

Draw two columns in your notes Words associated with instinct Words associated with the mind ?????? ??????

9/9/20159 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.

9/9/ “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.

9/9/ 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.

9/9/ The Noble Savage He viewed society as "artificial" and "corrupt" and that the furthering of society results in the continuing unhappiness of man.

13 Nature vs. Nurture The nature versus nurture debate concerns the relative importance of an individual's innate qualities (nature), versus personal experiences and environmental influence on how one acts (nurture) in determining or causing individual differences in physical and behavioral traits.

14 “Tabula Rasa” The view that humans acquire all or almost all their behavioral traits from "nurture" is known as tabula rasa or blank slate. In Locke's philosophy, tabula rasa was the theory that at birth the (human) mind is a "blank slate" without rules for processing data, and that data is added and rules for processing are formed solely by one's sensory experiences. This implies one can change drastically by experience.

What is the influence of Beelzebub? Beelzebub comes from a Greek word that means ‘lord of flies’ Beelzebul also means Lucifer. Beelzebul claims to cause destruction through tyrants, to cause demons to be worshipped among men, to excite priests to lust, to cause jealousies in cities and murders, and to bring on war.Lucifer