LORD OF THE FLIES INTRODUCTION WILLIAM GOLDING Born

LORD OF THE FLIES INTRODUCTION

WILLIAM GOLDING • Born in England • Became a school teacher • Entered the Navy during WWII; participated in the invasion of Normandy on D-Day • Won the Nobel Prize for Literature

HISTORICAL PERSPECTIVE • WWI was the “war to end all wars” or “The Great War” • WWII brought the atomic bomb and the power to destroy the world • Britain feared an invasion and evacuated children to other countries • 1940 - A German U-Boat torpedoed a British ship carrying children, killing the boys, thus suspending the oversees evacuation program

ON WRITING LOTF “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 realize that every single one of us could be Nazis. ” --William Golding “The theme [of Lord of the Flies] is an attempt to trace the defects of society back to the defects of human nature. The moral is that the shape of a society must depend on the ethical nature of the individual and not on any political system however apparently logical or respectable. ” – William Golding

LORD OF THE FLIES • Published in 1954 • Written partially in response to The Coral Island, a story of how people supposedly ascend in their goodness on an island. • Human nature • Duality of man • Nature Vs. Nurture • Good Vs. Evil • Setting A tiny coral island in the South Pacific during a war when the atomic bomb may have (and most likely has) been used. This world becomes their ‘microcosm’, which is definitely one of your symbols! • Plot A group of young boys is stranded on an island they must negotiate the social issues of cooperation and self-government The outside world is consumed with war • Main characters Ralph, Jack, Piggy, Simon, Sam ‘n Eric

TITLE • “Beelzebub” a Hebrew word for LUCIFER • However, the literal translation of “Beelzebub” into English is LORD OF THE FLIES

INSPIRATION FOR NOVEL • The novel, loosely based on the novel Coral Island by Ballantyne in 1858, tells the story of a group of British School boys who are stranded on a South Sea island. Their struggles to form a society which will survive until their rescue forms the basis of the plot. • At the time of the writing of Coral Island, many believed in the “Romantic Concept of Man”: that man is born in innocence but it corrupted by an evil environment. • At this time (the 19 th century), it was commonly believed that British boys, like British men, would always behave well, no matter what crisis they were facing. The boys in Coral Island (Ralph, Jack, and Peter) stranded on the island, triumphed over the adversity facing them and even converted some of the natives to Christianity.

SYMBOLS Piggy’s Glasses = The last surviving evidence of the lawful, structured world Conch Shell = New democracy on the island Snake = Evil…reference to the serpent in the garden of Eden • The Beast = evil that is projected onto the island by the boys’ paranoia • Lord of the Flies = A pig’s head on a stick that becomes the physical acceptance of evil on the island

TERMS TO KNOW • Microcosm = A small world that represents the world at large • Edenic = Eden like, paradise like, a setting that has not yet been spoiled by man • Utopia – an imaginary world in Sir Thomas More’s Utopia (1516) where people enjoy the utmost perfection in law, politics etc. This is a perfect, peaceful society. • Dystopia – the opposite of an idyllic world • Innate – inherent in the essential character of someone

BASIC PHILOSOPHIES TO CONSIDER • Humans are inherently evil; society establishes government to curb evil instincts • Humans are inherently good; humans are born good and are corrupted by society • Humans are inherently neutral; our experiences determine the balance between good and evil • Which do you agree/disagree with now? Choose the one with the closet alignment to your own ideas.