Lord of the Flies

Although the boys in Lord of the Flies come from privileged, upper-class backgrounds, and although they're supposed to act like little gentlemen at all times, over the course of the novel they...

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...

Chapter Five is significant because we see the first serious cracks emerge in the fragile society that the boys have begun to create on the island. Jack's exuberance for hunting sees the fire...

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...

The first mention of the beast occurs in chapter two during the afternoon meeting. Ralph and Jack both, each in his own way, mention the importance of rules whilst Piggy makes everyone aware that...

The uninhabited tropical island the boys crash-land on symbolizes the Garden of Eden, which according to the Bible was considered paradise before the Fall of Man. The Garden of Eden was a pristine...

Vivid imagery, which is description using any of the five senses of sight, sound, taste, touch, and smell, is used throughout chapter three. Near the end of the chapter, the narrator describes...

Chapter Six of Lord of the Flies brings the isolated boys closer to humanity as a parachutist from an air battle dies in a tree atop a mountain. However, this wafting figure of death and war...

As a character, Piggy represented rational thought and intellect. His death represents the death of these things and the triumph of savagery and mayhem. The conch, which represents civilized...

In chapter 7, Ralph begins daydreaming about a comfortable place for he and his parents to visit. Every aspect of civilized life came into view for Ralph: Once, following his father from Chatham to...

Piggy's glasses symbolize a connection to civilization and to scientific reasoning that generally erodes through the conflict in the novel. In the first chapter, Ralph asks Piggy about his father,...

Initially, Jack is in favor of the rules, and when Ralph elaborates on how they will use the conch to take turns speaking, Jack says, We'll have rules!...Lots of rules! Then when anyone breaks 'em...

In the opening paragraph of William Golding's Lord of the Flies, the author makes it clear that this is a tropical island. It is lush and green and beautiful--and running right through all this...

After the brutal murder of Simon, Jack insists that their gate must be defended and secured so that the other boys and the "beast" doesn't sneak in. The boys are all in agreement after Jack asks...

Ralph’s concerns are about fresh water, using the lavatory, building shelters, and safe use of fire. He also wants the group to stay together. Ralph decides they need an assembly , but not for...

There are several metaphors within Chapter Two of Lord of the Flies: "He was a shrimp of a boy, about six years old, and one side of his face was blotted bout by a mulberry-colored birthmark."...

Ralph is rightly skeptical of the existence of the beast. This shows us his practical, down-to-earth manner. He's not interested in childish fantasies; he just wants to get down to the practical...

One of Piggy's defining characteristics, which sets him apart from most of the other boys, is that he is a logical thinker. After the forest fire in chapter 2, he points out to his gung-ho...

After Ralph throws his spear at a wild boar that runs through the bushes, Jack chases after the creature, wounding his arm in the process. The boys become overexcited by all this action and decide...

After the Roman-like feast in which the boys engaged in animalistic behavior and became so carried away in their beating of the beast ritual that the unsuspecting Simon became caught in, and,...

Roger kills Piggy because he can, and he has realized that no one on the island can or will limit his cruelty. Early on in the novel, Roger tests the boundaries of his bullying in the chapter...

When the boys first venture to Castle Rock, Jack is ecstatic about the potential of the place to be a fort; he looks at the clusters and boulders, viewing it all from the perspective of strategy...

The narrator uses the word "scar" repeatedly early in the novel to describe the damage done when the plane carrying the boys crashes on the island. One quote is as follows: Beyond falls and cliffs...

On the last page of William Golding's Lord of the Flies, having been rescued by the naval officer from death at the hands of Jack and the hunters who have descended to pure savagery, Ralph assesses...

All of the characters in Lord of the Flies, by William Golding, are young boys ranging in age from five or six to about thirteen. They are on an island after a plane crash, and there are no adults...

As the elected leader of the boys, Ralph understands the importance of rules in order to maintain a civil society and eventually be rescued from the uninhabited island. Ralph believes that creating...

In this scene, we can see the close connection that Simon enjoys with his immediate environment. While the other boys treat the island as nothing more than a giant adventure playground, Simon...

Jack hesitates to kill the pig because of the enormity associated with taking the life of a creature and the massive amount of blood involved in the ordeal. At this point in the story, Jack and the...

It is also worth noting that, by describing nature so violently, Golding is likely implying once again the connection between the violence and madness of the boys and the natural world. In several...

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...

Simon is the only boy who possesses hidden knowledge of the beast and understands that it is not a tangible creature that can be killed. After Ralph, Jack, and Roger confirm its existence, Simon...

Though Ralph and Jack both jockey for the position of leader of the boys on the island, Jack's desire for power is darker and reveals a malignant narcissism. He seeks control through capitalizing...

Lord of the Flies by William Golding reveals the potential for disaster when a group of school boys are left to their own devices and must choose between making good choices and aligning themselves...

As was mentioned in the previous posts, Piggy makes this statement during an assembly meeting in Chapter 5 when the boys begin to discuss the identity of the beast. Ralph initially states that...

The face painting Jack does to prepare for the hunt is at first an attempt to solve a problem. He thinks that the pigs can pick out his face while he is stalking them, so decides to smear some clay...

In chapter 6, a dead paratrooper falls from the sky and Samneric mistake the corpse for the beast. After they run back down the mountain and describe what they saw, Ralph holds an emergency...

In Lord of the Flies, quotes in chapter 3 that demonstrate how the boys have lost their innocence include a comparison to Jack as an ape, which makes him seem savage and animalistic, traits that...

In Chapter 2, Ralph holds an assembly to establish rules and explain to the boys that they are on an uninhabited island. After Ralph mentions that they are on a "good island," a littlun with a...

The entire setting of William Golding's Lord of the Flies is integral to the story. The schoolboys have been left stranded on an island and their trouble begins immediately. Golding uses various...

At the beginning of the novel, Ralph finds Piggy to be annoying and is relatively unsympathetic to his situation. Despite Piggy's obvious affinity for Ralph, Ralph calls Piggy by his unflattering...

At the beginning of chapter 6, the parachutist is shot out of the sky during an aerial battle while the boys are asleep and descends on the island, landing on the top of the mountain near the...

In Lord of the Flies, William Golding presents the relationship between Ralph and Jack as strained, uneasy, and complex before it breaks down into absolute hostility. In chapter 3, a long argument...

In Chapter 7, the boys search the island for the beast, and Jack challenges Ralph to continue hunting the beast when darkness falls. Ralph reluctantly agrees to climb the mountain in the dark with...

Jack is an authoritarian leader while Ralph is more of an egalitarian. Even in the first chapter, Jack is shown as a strict leader who demands obedience as his choir members follow him across the...

Toward the end of chapter 11, Roger purposely dislodges a giant boulder from the top of Castle Rock and rolls it directly towards Piggy. The boulder ends up hitting Piggy and kills him instantly....

In chapter 3 of Lord of the Flies, we see that the tension between Ralph and Jack is getting stronger. Jack is more concerned with hunting the pig, and Ralph wants to build shelter and keep the...

The "beast" has quickly assumed almost mythological proportions in the minds of the young boys stranded on the island in William Golding's Lord of the Flies. Early in Golding's novel, the notion of...

Just think how horrible it would have been had Golding not written this scene the way he did. Imagine if he had left mutilated Simon's body on the beach to rot. The effect would have been almost...

In Chapter 7, Ralph joins Jack and his hunters for the first time and successfully wounds a boar. Ralph gets caught up in the emotion of the hunt and allows his primitive instincts to take over....

The significance of chapter 10’s title, “The Shell and the Glasses,” might lie in its lack of significance. The title arguably carries an ironic meaning. William Golding has made the conch and...