Lord of the Flies

Grade Levels

Excerpt

Themes Revealed Through Characterization:

This lesson focuses on how characterization develops theme in Lord of the Flies. Students will analyze how Golding develops Ralph and Jack as foils and will identify their similarities and differences in character and leadership. Students will then infer what these comparisons reveal about themes in the novel: the capacity for power to corrupt, the use of violence to maintain social control, and the propensity of humans to prioritize present pleasure over future goals. In studying Jack and Ralph as character foils, students will be better able to explain how authors use characterization to develop themes in written work.

Learning Objectives: 
By the end of this lesson, students will be able to

• situate Lord of the Flies within an accurate socio-historical context;
• identify and describe character traits; 
• compare and contrast Ralph and Jack as character foils;
• analyze and explain how Ralph’s and Jack’s characters are used to develop themes;
• draw thematic conclusions from the text.

Common Core Standards: RL.1, RL.2, RL.3, SL.1

Introductory Lecture:

Between 1939 and 1940, Hitler’s Germany invaded its European neighbors and united with Italy and Japan to instigate the most widespread and deadly geopolitical conflict the world has ever known. Though World War I horrified soldiers with its military innovations—poison gas, automated weapons—World War II saw modern weapons unleashed on civilian populations. Roughly 15 million soldiers died in WWII. Between the Holocaust, the use of atomic weapons, and the devastation of western Russia, estimates of civilian casualties range between 45 and 80 million. For philosophers, thinkers, and writers, World War II set off an existential crisis: What is the point of forming a civilization if that civilization does nothing but amplify the effects of savagery? Why form a government if governments are but another instrument of human cruelty?

This was the world in which British author William Golding came of age. Golding fought in the Royal Navy during World War II, saw action on D-Day, and went on to question the function of society in a post-World War II world. The son of a school master and a suffragette, Golding was inspired by his time in the navy and tales of the Pacific theater, which he used to explore the nature of modern humanity in writing. He set his first novel, Lord of the Flies, on a tropical island to create a seeming paradise where the human spirit could be explored, unfettered by society or tradition.

As the story of the stranded boys unfolds, Golding explores many of the psychological and social elements at play in World War II: the human inclination toward fear; the authoritarian use of fear to manipulate society; the rational inclination to prepare for the future, hampered by the innate desire to indulge in pleasures of the present moment; the urge to be a part of a group, no matter the moral compromises therein. The simplicity of Golding’s allegorical experiment in human nature makes Lord of the Flies an invaluable tool in helping students understand the development of theme in a work of literature.

Students may find, however, that the development of themes in the text is not as simple as the story itself. Golding was awarded the 1983 Nobel Prize in literature “for his novels which, with the perspicuity of realistic narrative art and the diversity and universality of myth, illuminate the human condition in the world of today.” In discussing both the “diversity and universality” of themes in the text, students may realize that their interpretations of theme differ from those of others around them. Golding himself acknowledged that there are as many interpretations of the novel as there are its readers. The novel’s themes contain a distinctly moral dimension. In discussing Lord of the Flies, students may gain a deeper understanding of human nature, equipping them to prevent the very types of cruelty and violence that the novel depicts.

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Our eNotes Lesson Plans have been developed to meet the demanding needs of today’s educational environment. Each lesson incorporates collaborative activities with textual analysis, targeting on discrete learning objectives. We've aligned all of these lessons to particular Common Core standards, and we list the specific standard met by each lesson. The main components of each plan include the following:

Each of these lesson plans focuses on promoting meaningful interaction, analytical skills, and student-centered activities, drawing from the Common Core Standards for English Language Arts and the expertise of classroom teachers. Each lesson includes an instructional guide on how to present the material, engage students in an activity, and conclude the class.