1. Introductory Notes: Lord of the Flies by William Golding

2. 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.

3. 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

4. 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

5. 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.”

6. 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.