Lord Of The Flies Flashcards
“What I mean is… maybe it’s only us.”
Chapter 5. Simon speaks out but is laughed at by the other boys and is dismissed. Highlights Golding’s viewpoint that the beast is not external but a part of the boy’s human nature.
“The taboo of the old life”
Chapter 4. Roger feels an urge to pelt stones at Henry but the power of civilisation still dominates him but the savagery is starting to creep through.
Theme: The Innate Evil
“Ralph wept for the end of innocence, the darkness of man’s heart”
Chapter 12 (After Piggy’s death). Ralph finally realises that although he has left the island alive, he will never be the same again and he is explicitly connected to the novel’s two main themes - Civilisation and Savagery.
“Bollocks to the rules!”
Jack is making his pitch clear that if the beast exists then it will be hunted down, regardless of the rules. In contrast, Ralph’s and Piggy’s debates are laced with indecision which foreshadows Jack becoming chief because of his compelling arguments.
“liberated from shame and self-consciousness”
Shows how Jack is losing his civilised identity and becoming a “furtive thing”. The face paint enables him to silence all good in him and become ruthless and shameless.
“Two continents of experience and feeling, unable to communicate”
Chapter 3. Jack and Ralph have become opposing forces which mirrors the war that is happening in the real world around them - showing how the island is a microcosm of the outside world.
“Roger sharpened a stick at both ends”
Roger’s civilised identity has been overcome by evil as he is now wholly violent - there is no friendly side to his stick and his personality.
“The separate noises of the fire merged into a drumroll that seemed to shake the mountain.”
The fire seems to unearth the evil that is hiding below the surface of the island which is a metaphor for the boy’s descent into savagery in the time that they are on the island.
Freudian psychoanalysis points:
Ralph - Ego
Jack - Id
Piggy - Superego
Golding Context:
Fought in the navy in WW1
Was a school teacher
