Character plans Lord of the Flies. Flashcards
Ralph.
Ideas about Ralph:
- He is the chief which puts him in charge of looking after the boys.
- He uses the conch.
- He builds a fire.
- Ralph attempts to build shelters.
- He shows courage and is hunted by the savages.
Quotes:
- “There was a mildness about his mouth and eyes that proclaimed no devil: He has no unhealthy character traits.
- “They’ll see our smoke”: He believes that rescue is essential.
- “Don’t you understand Piggy?”: Only Ralph is able to come to terms with the reasons why Simon is killed.
Writing about Ralph:
- When you are writing about Ralph, remember that although he is cruel to Piggy at the beginning, he doesn’t possess Jack’s malice.
Jack.
Ideas about Jack:
- Jack is leader of the choirboys, who become his hunters.
- He is a rival to Ralph and eventually declares himself chief.
- He declares the choir will be his hunters.
- He snatches Piggy’s glasses.
- He kills a pig.
Quotes:
- “This was the voice of one who knew his own mind”: Jack is someone who doesn’t want to obey.
- “Jack had a compulsion to track down and kill that was swallowing him up”: He has primitive urges.
- “The mask was a thing on its own”: Jack feels that he can act as he wishes.
Writing about Jack:
- Golding has intended for us to dislike Jack. He is portrayed as arrogant and aggravating.
- Jack’s hunting instinct is both self-destructive and lacking in foresight.
Piggy.
Ideas about Piggy:
- Piggy is overweight, concerned about his health and doesn’t like manual labour.
- He is working class.
- He is arguably the most intelligent boy on the island.
- He is the first boy to meet Ralph.
- He suggests the idea of using the conch to call the other boys.
- He is killed by a giant rock released by Roger.
Quotes:
- “He was shorter than the fair boy and very fat”: Piggy sets him apart from the other boys and makes him different.
- “Piggy was an outsider”: Piggy appears to have little in his favour.
- “Them that haven’t no common sense”: Piggy is intelligent.
Writing about Piggy:
- It is worth mentioning what Piggy represents. He represents the adult viewpoint.
- He appears to have the foresight of an older person.
- He symbolises attributes of civilisation in that he upholds the supremacy of the conch.
Simon.
Ideas about Simon:
- He enters as one of Jack’s choirboys.
- He faints and is referred to as strange.
- He discovers the truth about the beast.
- He goes off into the jungle.
- He communicates with the ‘Lord of the Flies’ and loses consciousness.
- He is killed when he comes to tell the truth about the beast.
Quotes:
- “Batty, queer, funny, cracked”: He is strange and this sets him apart from the other boys.
- “In Simon’s right temple, a pulse began to beat on the brain”: He is frail and killed because of it”.
Writing about Simon:
- Simon is described by Jack as ‘always about’. He is loyal and is the only boy who helps Ralph with the third shelter. He is regarded as a prophet.
Roger and Maurice.
Ideas about Roger and Maurice:
- Roger is Jack’s lieutenant and has a sadistic streak. Maurice is Jack’s henchman.
- They are part of Jack’s choir.
- They destroy the littluns’ sandcastles.
Quotes:
- “You don’t know Roger, he’s a terror”: Roger is a sadist.
- “Maurice still felt the unease of wrong-doing”: Maurice feels guilty when he kicks sand is Percival’s eye.
- “Only Roger”: Roger will go further than Jack.
Writing about Roger and Maurice:
- Without Roger, Piggy wouldn’t have been killed. Roger showed no remorse for the death. He went about his business of forcing Sam and Eric to join Jack’s tribe.
- Maurice remains the same throughout the novel. He is solid and unimaginative.
Sam and Eric.
Ideas about Sam and Eric:
- Sam and Eric are twins who do everything together. When they first appear, they are described as boys who ‘breathed together’ and ‘grinned together’.
- Sam and Eric look after the fire but they fall asleep.
- They believe the parachutist is the beast.
- They are tortured by Roger.
- They warn Ralph Jack and Roger’s intentions to harm him.
Quotes:
- “The twins shook their heads and pointed at each other and the crowd laughed”: Nobody can set the twins apart.
- “They’re going to hunt you tomorrow”: The twins warn Ralph that he will be hunted and killed.
Key contexts.
The Author:
William Golding was a school master and served in the Royal Navy during WW2.
Background.
Public School:
It is no accident that Jack and his choir come from a particularly rigid school background. Choirboys are by their nature, elitist. The boys would have been familiar with an organisational structure that was hierarchical and ordered. Golding’s teaching experience allows him to portray Jack and his choirboys realistically. Jack is clearly in charge of his choir. Roger, his henchman would have been the school bully. Roger appears to be allowed free reign to unleash his evil desires.
Boys’ behaviour.
Not all the boys in the novel were from a public school culture. They were initially fun-loving with a boyish good humour. They also have a sense of natural decency. All of this changes as the novel progresses.
Setting and place.
The evil is within the boys. However, Golding uses the elements and creatures to foreshadow what will occur later.. As the novel ends, the island’s vegetation is consumed with fire as the boys attempt to smoke out Ralph. Perhaps the island is the world in microcosm .
Good and Evil.
The battle between good and evil is a central theme of Lord of the Flies. It appears in many conflicts - between the conch group and the savages; between the boys and the terrifying ‘beast’; and between attempts at rescue from a passing ship and imprisonment on the increasingly chaotic island. Early in the novel, good is in the ascendency. The conch provides a symbol of the decency and order of the society that the boys have come from. Ralph organises the construction of the shelters - mostly in fact, the selfless work of himself and Simon. The boys spend the majority of their time playing and there are few accidents - although one is serious; the fire that kills the boy with the birthmark.
Order and discipline.
There are no adults on the island. By removing them, the author sets free the impulses and desires of the schoolboys and almost allows them to run their full course. Jack first wrecks Ralph and Piggy’s sensible plans then becomes a dictator and finally a murderer. Piggy on the island, is a permanent victim of Jack’s bullying and is killed. What is needed is a balance between firm discipline and a certain creative freedom and it is the absence of this that Golding is criticising.
Crowd mentality.
At the start of the novel, we find a natural group already formed when Jack appears at the head of the choir. The discipline within this group is of great help in hunting pigs, when good organisation is important. As order on the island breaks down, the boys begin to behave differently when in groups. Pig hunts become ritualised and frenzied marked by chants.
Individual responsibility.
The issue of individual responsibility arises within the novel.
Cold war paranoia.
It was in this context that Golding wrote Lord of the Flies. A great deal of its confrontation - Jack against Ralph, savages against the conch group, evil against good - stems from the Cold War outlook.
