Lord of the Flies Example Questions Flashcards
How is Ralph presented and developed in the novel?
P1: Golding presents Ralph as a sensible character by contrasting him to Jack.
Quotes: “we want meat”, “we need shelters”
Explanation: ideas of civilisation vs savagery
Context: Food rationing in 1950s Britain meant that certain foods were a luxury
P2: Golding later uses Ralph to show that even who we think of as ‘sensible’ boys can succumb to savagery by using words in the lexical field of violence.
Quotes: “a handful of that brown, vulnerable flesh. The desire to squeeze and hurt was over mastering”
Explanation: suggests that Golding believes savagery is unavoidable
Context: Nazi Germany, all wars
P3: Golding uses pathetic fallacy to show Ralph as having become more savage.
Quote: “Piggy and Ralph, under the threat of the sky, felt eager to take a part in this demented but partly secure society”
Explanation: fear makes people savage
Context: Nazi Germany, Cold War
How is Jack presented and developed in the novel?
P1: Golding presents Jack as patriotic at the start of the novel by
Quote: “After all, we’re not savages. We’re English, and the English are best at everything”
Explanation: Suggests Golding disagrees with this attitude as they turn out to become savage
Context: British empire
P2: Golding later shows Jack as controlling by using words in the lexical field of dictatorship
Quote: “It’s time some people knew they’ve got to keep quiet and leave deciding things to the rest of us”
Explanation: Shows him as angry, controlling
Context: Hitler, Stalin
P3: Golding creates fear and tension when he presents Jack as having grown more violent by using contrast early in the book and later.
Quote: “Jack grabbed Maurice and rubbed the stuff over his cheeks”, “because of the unbearable blood”
Explanation: shows descent into savagery
Context: Hitler
How is Piggy presented and developed in the novel?
P1: Golding presents Piggy as a link to civilisation by using the symbol of his glasses
Quotes: “his specs- use them as burning glasses!” “From his left hand dangled Piggy’s broken glasses”
Explanation: His glasses are their only way of getting home
Context:
P2: Golding presents Piggy as an outsider
Quote: “Piggy once more was the centre of social derision so that everyone felt cheerful and normal”
Explanation: using him
Context: Nazi Germany
P3: Piggy as vulnerable words in LF of bullying
Quote: “Shut up, you fat slug”
Explanation: By making the others laugh at Piggy Jack makes him an outsider because his intelligence threatens his savagery
Context: Stalin
Do you think Roger is an important character in the novel?
P1: He links to the theme of savagery
Quote: “Some source of power began to pulse in Roger’s body
Context: Nazis
P2: Links to the theme of dictatorship
Quote: “The hangman’s horror clung round him”, “Sharpen a stick at both ends”
Context: SS
P3: Theme of violence
Quote: “Ralph was a shock of hair and Piggy a bag of fat”
Context: Systematic way of killing people in the concentration camps
Do you think Simon is an important character in the novel?
P1: Only one who understands the nature of the beast
Quotes: “Maybe it’s only us”, “there rose before his inner sight a picture of a human, a once heroic and sick”
Context: Jesus
P2: Religious links
Quotes: “passed them down to the endless outstretched hands”
Context: Biblical stories
P3: Only boy to never give in to savage instincts
Quote: “I don’t believe in the beast”
Context: Stalin and Hitler
Name 3 quotes about Piggy’s glasses.
- “His specs-use them as burning glasses”
- “In his left hand dangled Piggy’s broken glasses”
- “Ralph – remember what we came for. The fire. My specs.”
Name 3 quotes about the fire.
- “can’t you see we ought to- ought to die before we let the fire out?”
- “The fire’s the most important thing.”
- “Ralph tried indignantly to remember. There was something good about a fire.”
Name 3 quotes about the conch.
- “yet most powerfully, there was the conch”
- “‘Conch! Conch!’ shouted Jack, ‘we don’t need the conch anymore!”
- “the conch exploded into a thousand white fragments and ceased to exist”
Name 5 quotes about the beast.
- “Maybe it’s only us”
- “Fancy thinking the beast was something you could hunt and kill!”
- “I know there isn’t no beast—not with claws and all that, I mean—but I know there isn’t no fear, either… unless we get frightened of people”
- “However Simon thought of the beast, there rose before his inward sight the picture of a human, at once heroic and sick.”
- “there were no words, and no movements but the tearing of teeth and claws”
