English Exam

Question 1

Simon

Answer 1

Nerdy, dark hair, epileptic, sees talking pig head, nicer than other boys, Christ figure

Question 2

Maurice

Answer 2

Older, Jack’s tribe, second largest, wrecks sandcastle, feels guilt after there’s no parent, likes savagery, funny in beginning

Question 3

Piggy

Answer 3

Anti-hero, represents science and reason, doesn’t believe in the beast, poor eyesight, weight problem, asthma, most vulnerable

Question 4

Boy with mulberry birthmark

Answer 4

Littlun, first to invoke the “beast” name, spreads fear, not seen again after first signal fire isn’t contained and burns across island, assumed he died in fire

Question 5

Ralph

Answer 5

Protagonist, represents will to hold onto civilization and societal rules that keep order, athletic, charismatic, sets to build hits and be rescued, loses power to Jack as savagery takes over

Question 6

Roger

Answer 6

Jack’s brutal sidekick, rolls a boulder onto Piggy, murders Piggy, represents the sadist, just likes to hurt people

Question 7

Percival

Answer 7

Littlun, cries a lot, knows name and address, innocent

Question 8

Officer

Answer 8

White drill epaulettes, order and structure of civilization, thinks the boys did “fun and games”, disappointed the boys didn’t act better while on island

Question 9

Samneric

Answer 9

Twins who do everything together, ally with Ralph most of the novel, eventually side with Jack

Question 10

Jack

Answer 10

Antagonist, represents evil, chaos, and savagery, leader of hunters, former “choirmaster” and “headboy”, red hair, tall, thin, bony

Question 11

The conch

Answer 11

Law, order, power, Piggy

Question 12

The pig’s head

Answer 12

Power of evil, Satan figure, (beast within everybody?)

Question 13

Piggy’s glasses

Answer 13

Science and intellectual endeavor

Question 14

Lord of the flies

Answer 14

Evil within everyone

Question 15

The fire

Answer 15

Connection to civilization, savagery, and then rescue

Question 16

Establishing government

Answer 16

Ralph tries to est civilization, boys become less enthused, join Jack to “have fun”

Question 17

Creating fire

Answer 17

To be rescued, boys stop wanting to, use Piggy’s glasses

Question 18

Hunting (who, what, why, etc)

Answer 18

Jack (leader), Roger, Maurice; to get meat, eventually for savagery (fun), leads to savagery

Question 19

Deaths of Simon and Piggy

Answer 19

Simon: lost hope, climax, brutality and chaos has taken over,

Piggy: Ralph left alone to defeat forces of bloodlust and primal chaos

Question 20

The rescue

Answer 20

Irony, doesn’t understand boys savagery, yet he’s part of a war, rescue causes the boys shock

Question 21

Separation into two tribes

Answer 21

Difference in wanting civilization and wanting chaos

Question 22

Talk of the Beast

Answer 22

Spreads fear, causes savagery and murdering Simon (if they felt safe they wouldn’t take to chaos)

Question 23

Simon’s conversation with Lord of the Flies

Answer 23

Biblical allusion (Jesus’s confrontation with Satan during 40 days in wilderness), Simon’s fainting represents horrific, persuasive power of the instinct of chaos and savagery

Question 24

Jack’s raid on Ralph’s tribe

Answer 24

They raid to get Piggy’s glasses, gives Jack’s camp the ability to make fire, gives them power, demise of boy’s hope of being rescued

Question 25

Roger’s throwing rocks

Answer 25

At first, he throws to not hit Henry, which is proof of abiding by societal rules, he’s experimenting with rules he’s used to obeying, eventually, he he disregards these rules altogether. He even kills Piggy with a boulder

Question 26

Breaking of the conch

Answer 26

Breaks when Piggy is killed by Boulder, loss of important symbol, loss of Ralph’s leadership and order

Question 27

Calling of assemblies

Answer 27

Verbal communication, attempt to remain a civilized society, power dynamic

Question 28

Jack’s inability to kill first pig

Answer 28

He’s too civilized to kill. The consequences of death and blood is too much. He’s not hungry, desperate, or bloodthirsty enough to do it

Question 29

The ritual dances

Answer 29

Fun turns into savagery, boys get carried away, beast inside each boy is coming alive. First, they contemplated killing a littlun, then they hurt Robert

Question 30

Oedipus

Answer 30

Great king, cares about his subjects (anticipates their needs), rash, confident in beginning,

interrogate Creon, call for Tiresias, threaten to banish Tiresias and Creon, call for the servant who escaped the attack on Laius, call for the shepherd who brought him to Corinth, rush into the palace to stab out his own eyes, and then demand to be exiled. He is constantly in motion, seemingly trying to keep pace with his fate, even as it goes well beyond his reach.

Question 31

Tiresias

Answer 31

Sees future, blind, grumpy, often ignored, accused of treason, Jocasta and Oedipus don’t believe his prophesies,

Question 32

Creon

Answer 32

Honest, same status as Oedipus, was king but gave up his crown, Jocasta’s brother, good guy, rational

Question 33

Jocasta

Answer 33

Jocasta is the Queen of Thebes, but it’s just not as glamorous as it sounds. By all accounts, it seems like her first marriage with King Laius was a pretty happy one. That is, until he received the prophecy that he was destined to be murdered by his own son. This, of course, is what caused Jocasta and Laius to pierce and bind their one and only child’s ankles and send him off to a mountainside to die. (In Ancient Greece, it was common to abandon unwanted children rather than kill them. That way the child’s fate was in the hands of the gods, and the parent wasn’t considered directly responsible for its death.)

Sometimes Jocasta is criticized for her distrust of prophecies. It’s an understandable prejudice, though. Jocasta doesn’t know that the prophecy Laius received came true—she believes her son to be dead and her husband to have been murdered by a band of thieves. This seemingly disproves the prophecy that said Laius would die by his son’s hand. As far as Jocasta knows, she abandoned her baby boy to exposure, starvation, and wild beasts for nothing. She has very good reason to be more than a little skeptical of prophets.

Question 34

Laius

Answer 34

Oedipus’s father, killed by Oedipus (prophesy said he would be), was married to Jocasta, previous king of Thebes

Question 35

Polybus

Answer 35

Raised Oedipus as his own son, married to Merope, King of Corinth