English Exam Flashcards
Simon
Nerdy, dark hair, epileptic, sees talking pig head, nicer than other boys, Christ figure
Maurice
Older, Jack’s tribe, second largest, wrecks sandcastle, feels guilt after there’s no parent, likes savagery, funny in beginning
Piggy
Anti-hero, represents science and reason, doesn’t believe in the beast, poor eyesight, weight problem, asthma, most vulnerable
Boy with mulberry birthmark
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
Ralph
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
Roger
Jack’s brutal sidekick, rolls a boulder onto Piggy, murders Piggy, represents the sadist, just likes to hurt people
Percival
Littlun, cries a lot, knows name and address, innocent
Officer
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
Samneric
Twins who do everything together, ally with Ralph most of the novel, eventually side with Jack
Jack
Antagonist, represents evil, chaos, and savagery, leader of hunters, former “choirmaster” and “headboy”, red hair, tall, thin, bony
The conch
Law, order, power, Piggy
The pig’s head
Power of evil, Satan figure, (beast within everybody?)
Piggy’s glasses
Science and intellectual endeavor
Lord of the flies
Evil within everyone
The fire
Connection to civilization, savagery, and then rescue
Establishing government
Ralph tries to est civilization, boys become less enthused, join Jack to “have fun”
Creating fire
To be rescued, boys stop wanting to, use Piggy’s glasses
Hunting (who, what, why, etc)
Jack (leader), Roger, Maurice; to get meat, eventually for savagery (fun), leads to savagery
Deaths of Simon and Piggy
Simon: lost hope, climax, brutality and chaos has taken over,
Piggy: Ralph left alone to defeat forces of bloodlust and primal chaos
The rescue
Irony, doesn’t understand boys savagery, yet he’s part of a war, rescue causes the boys shock
Separation into two tribes
Difference in wanting civilization and wanting chaos
Talk of the Beast
Spreads fear, causes savagery and murdering Simon (if they felt safe they wouldn’t take to chaos)
Simon’s conversation with Lord of the Flies
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
Jack’s raid on Ralph’s tribe
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
Roger’s throwing rocks
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
Breaking of the conch
Breaks when Piggy is killed by Boulder, loss of important symbol, loss of Ralph’s leadership and order
Calling of assemblies
Verbal communication, attempt to remain a civilized society, power dynamic
Jack’s inability to kill first pig
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
The ritual dances
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
Oedipus
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.
Tiresias
Sees future, blind, grumpy, often ignored, accused of treason, Jocasta and Oedipus don’t believe his prophesies,
Creon
Honest, same status as Oedipus, was king but gave up his crown, Jocasta’s brother, good guy, rational
Jocasta
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.
Laius
Oedipus’s father, killed by Oedipus (prophesy said he would be), was married to Jocasta, previous king of Thebes
Polybus
Raised Oedipus as his own son, married to Merope, King of Corinth
