Lord of the Flies

There's another quotation which demonstrates Ralph's desire for order and stability on the island: Jack’s in charge of the choir. They can be—what do you want them to be? Ralph makes this...

In chapter 5, Jack cries: “Bollocks to the rules! We’re strong—we hunt! If there’s a beast, we’ll hunt it down! We’ll close in and beat and beat and beat—!” This bold assertion of violence...

In chapter two, the boys are on the top of the mountain when Ralph declares that they should designate people to maintain the signal fire and states that there should be more rules. Ralph is...

Towards the end of chapter 8, Simon is viciously murdered by the group of boys during a severe tropical storm. After Simon climbs the mountain and discovers that the beast is actually the decaying...

Piggy's character, Piggy's glasses, and Piggy's death are all focal points in chapter 11 of Lord of the Flies. At the beginning of the chapter, Golding writes, Piggy sat expressionless behind the...

Piggy serves as the symbol of rationality and logic in Lord of the Flies, and it is partially because of his role as this symbol that the bullying against him seems especially pronounced. Though it...

Jack uses the other boys' fear of the beast to bolster his own importance in the tribe: "'Quiet!' shouted Jack. 'You, listen. The beast is sitting up there, whatever it is--' [...] 'Hunting,'...

In this scene in Chapter 3 of Lord of The Flies, Ralph and Jack are arguing. Their conflict is indicative of the tension that will continue to mount between them, reflecting the widening gap in...

Jack uses white and red clay along with charcoal to camouflage his face when he embarks on a hunting expedition in chapter 4. Initially, Jack hopes that the face paint will disguise his appearance,...

The primary message that Golding is trying to convey throughout Lord of the Flies is that humans are inherently wicked, violent beings and will revert back to their primitive, savage instincts in...

A simile is a comparison between two seemingly unlike things, using the word like or as to make the comparison. In chapter 1, Ralph compares sleep to a mirage: Sleep enveloped him like the...

At the beginning of Chapter 10, Ralph tells Piggy that they murdered Simon. Piggy realizes that they savagely killed Simon, but attempts to repress the memory and not speak about it. Ralph takes...

In Chapter Nine of Lord of the Flies, Simon realizes that the "beast" which has been terrorizing the island is actually just the dead body of the airman who had died attempting to parachute to...

The first time the chant is used is in Chapter 4 after the boys kill the first pig: Kill the pig. Cut her throat. Spill her blood. It is repeated at the end of Chapter 4 during the re-enactment...

In Chapter 8, Jack and his hunters graphically murder a sow that is nursing her babies by stabbing a spear up its backside and slitting its throat. This scene is significant throughout the novel...

Towards the end of chapter eight, Simon comes face-to-face with the severed pig's head impaled on a sharpened stick in the middle of his secluded spot in the forest. Simon proceeds to hallucinate...

Early on, fears rise in the boys, especially the youngest of them, from the trauma of being alone on a deserted island. These fears focalize into fears of the supernatural, primarily the terror of...

For a specific location within chapter eight for textual evidence regarding this question, a reader should look to the final section of the chapter. The chapter jumps back and forth from Simon to...

The significance of Simon’s death in Lord of the Flies relates to the fact that the one truly good, truly rational person on the island is now dead. The person who took care of the younger children...

At first, the boys, under the direction of Ralph, attempt to light a fire as a signal to passing ships. Here is the description of their attempt from Chapter 2: "On one side the air was cool, but...

Simon is the boy who provides Ralph with emotional encouragement, in the same way Piggy provides him with intellectual support. In this scene in chapter 7, Simon senses that Ralph is worried about...

Roger is an interesting study because he is constrained primarily by fear of punishment for breaking the rules. Once that fear goes away, such as happens on the island, Roger has no inward...

In William Golding's popular novel Lord of the Flies, Jack and his hunters succeed in killing the pig in chapter 4. Jack does acknowledge the fact that the hunters helped him, but he also makes...

Shortly after the boys assemble on the platform, Ralph says that they should have a chief and Roger suggests that they put it to a vote. Rather than judge the potential candidates for chief on...

In chapter 5, Ralph holds an assembly and chastises the boys for not completing necessary tasks or following his directives. After criticizing the boys for their negligence and disobedience, Ralph...

Lord of the Flies by William Golding was first adapted into a movie in 1963 and again in 1990. The movie was moderately successful but has not enjoyed the same classic status as the novel. The...

A Christlike character in literature is one who embodies many of the qualities of Jesus Christ, found in the New Testament of the Bible. Jesus Christ was hated by many, though He inflicted harm on...

As chapter 3 opens, Jack is crouched down like a sprinter, carefully observing the environment in hopes of detecting evidence of pig movement. Jack is depicted as an intense, dedicated hunter, who...

The ending of William Golding's Lord of the Flies is dramatic and emotional. The growing suspense of the chapters leading up to this point lead the reader to wonder if Ralph will survive the...

The boys' descent into evil as they follow Jack is sealed when they sadistically and ritualistically slaughter a pig and eat it, enjoying both the pleasure of triumph over the helpless creature and...

As was mentioned in the previous post, Jack initially paints his face as a way to camouflage himself while he is hunting. In Chapter 4, Jack walks out of the forest holding a stick of charcoal and...

Irony is when events unfold in a way opposite of what might be expected. One great irony is that Simon is the one mistaken by the other boys for the beast and killed. This is ironic on multiple...

Tensions reach a high point in chapter 7 when it becomes clear that Jack is challenging Ralph's leadership. Jack is starting to do whatever he wants. From the beginning, Jack has resented that...

(I'm not sure how our page numbers will line up. I am using the Perigree Book published by the Penguin Company, for reference. It has a green fly resting on a boy in a black uniform on the cover.)...

Jack does not respect Piggy, and he shows it through his words and actions. In chapter two, when the boys decide to light a fire to attract ships with the smoke, they have no way of lighting the...

The word "tenuous" is an apt choice to describe the civilization of the island. Even before the complete collapse at the novel's end, there are a few significant challenges to and failures of the...

Masks become an important part of Jack's reinvention of himself as leader of a savage, barbaric group. To begin his transformation, Jack comes back from the jungle with two large leaves and shows...

Toward the end of chapter 8, Simon visits his secluded spot in the forest, where he finds a severed pig's head on a stake in the middle of the clearing. Simon ends up hallucinating and has an...

Ralph first decides that a group of boys needs to watch the fire. This comes immediately after they light the first blaze, in Chapter 2. Ralph says: “We’ve got to have special people for looking...

It just means that Jack and the hunters are going to kill Ralph, cut off his head, and offer it as a sacrifice to the Beast (which is nothing but a dead paratrooper). One sharp end goes into the...

In Chapter 4, the littluns are given a fairly lengthy description. This first quote shows how the littluns obeyed and respected Ralph as an adult authority figure: They obeyed the summons of the...

For yards round the fire the heat was like a blow, and the breeze was a river of sparks. The heat from the initial flames is "like a blow" which is to say it is like a wind current. This is a...

In Chapter 2, Ralph mentions that it is important for the boys to build a signal fire so that passing ships will stop to rescue them. The boys agree and enthusiastically collect dry wood, but have...

Ralph and Jack disagree about the importance of building shelters and maintaining a signal fire compared to spending the majority of their time hunting pigs throughout the island. Ralph champions...

Interestingly, Ralph is recognized as not being the most obvious leader of the group from the beginning: None of the boys could have found good reason for this; what intelligence had been shown...

In chapter 4, Jack allows his hunters to leave the signal fire, and the boys miss out on a chance to be rescued when a ship passes the island. By the end of chapter 4, Ralph realizes the need to...

In selecting passages from chapters of a novel that are significant, the student will want to seek those that reveal much about themes or character. In Chapter Seven of Lord of the Flies there is...

The bizarre conversation between Simon and the Lord of the Flies confirms him in his belief that the Beast isn't a real creature but rather the evil that lurks within each and every one of the...

Here's a simple tip: note that the novel concludes with Ralph mourning the loss of his "wise, true friend" Piggy.

When the choir first appears, they are in formation. Jack is a drill sergeant. He will not allow them to fall out. When one of the choir members actually does seem to almost faint, then, and only...