Lord of the Flies - Themes and Symbolism

Question 1

What themes are there in Flies?

Answer 1

1.Civilisation and Barbarism
2.Fear
3.Power and Leadership
4.Nature
5.Games
6.Evil

Question 2

How do the boys try to remain civilised in the beginning?

Civilisation and Barbarism

Answer 2

1.The boys make rules, similar to school, where they call meetings ‘assemblies’, they put their hand up to speak, and use the Conch
2.They use the Conch as a symbol of civilisation and democracy.
3.The old rules of home stop them from being too violent, Roger doesn’t directly throw stones at Henry because of the ‘taboo of the old life’

Question 3

How do the boys react to rules in different ways at first?

Civilisation and Barbarism

Answer 3

1.Ralph wants to have fun, but knows rules are needed
2.Jack says they need rules because they’re not ‘savages’, which is ironic because of how he behaves later.
3.Jack looks forward to punishing anyone who breaks the rules
4.piggy is anxious to protect the rules. He gets upset when other boys break them, caling them a ‘pack of kids’ - like animals

Question 4

How do civilised values begin to fade?

Civilisation and Barbarism

Answer 4

1.The littluns start going to the toilet everywhere
2.Jack’s hunting at first is just for providing food, but the ‘fierce exhilaration’ soon takes over from sensible behaviour.
3.jack and the hunters let the fire go out, and miss the chance of rescue, showing they’ve forgotten the possibility of returning to civilisation
4.Primitive rituals replace rules, the boys chant and make offerings to the beast
5.The ‘unease of wrongdoing’ wears off, and the boys grow more violent, like when Jack hits Piggy, and breaks his glasses

Question 5

How does the new society on the island descend into barbarism?

Civilisation and Barbarism

Answer 5

1.Jack starts a new group to hunt and ‘have fun’ - he’s no longer interested on returning to civilisation
2.They visiously kill a sow - the scene is very sexual, as Roger stick the spear, ‘right up her ass!’, and afterwards they feel, ‘heavy and fulfilled’. This emerging sexuality, helps explain their savagery
3.Their basic and instincs control them, when they killed Simon in a frenzy - ‘tearing of teeth and claws’, as if the boys are animals
4.Jack hands out violent punishments to enforce the rules, boys are tortured for no reason

Question 6

How do the boys begin to appear and behave more savage?

Civilisation and Barbarism

Answer 6

1.The boys’ school uniforms represent civilisation and discipline, as they get dirtier they lose their old values
2.Painting his face frees Jack from civilised rules, providing him a ‘liberation into savagery’
3.The painted faces are like a new uniform and makes them anonymous, so no one takes responsibilty for the violence
4.Ralph’s group try to ‘smarten up a bit’ to confront Jack’s tribe, this represents the fightback of civilisation

Question 7

How is the officer who rescues them a symbol of Civilisation and Barbarism

Civilisation and Barbarism

Answer 7

1.The officer wears a clean white uniform - civilisation
2.But comes from a world at war - barbarism
3.The civilised appearances, and rules of society hide the ‘darkness of Man’s heart’

Question 8

What is Golding trying to say through the theme of Civilisation and Barbarism

Civilisation and Barbarism

Answer 8

Golding is implying that savagery is ‘mankinds essential illness’ and is a basic human instinct, unlike civilisation. Behaving morally is taught, you are not born with it - original sin

Question 9

How does Golding use the beast to represent the boys’ fear?

Fear

Answer 9

1.The idea of a ‘beastie’ is laughed at by the older boys, but they gradually start to believe
2.Simon’s saying the boys scream in their sleep, ‘as if it wasn;t a good island’ foreshadows the horrible things later
3.As the boys become more frightened, they act more savagely.
4.When they kill Simon with ‘teeth and claws’, Golding is showing how feas has turned them into animals

Question 10

What symbols are there in the novel?

There are 11

Answer 10

1.Conch - civilisation democracy
2.Ralph - civilisation and democracy
3.Jack - savagery and fascism
4.Piggy’s glasses - logic and reason
5.Boys appearances - civilisation –> barbarism
6.The beast - fear
7.Jack’s sharpened stick - self-destructive
8.Island - garden of Eden
9.destruction of island - destruction of nature
10.darkness - evil
11.The pig’s head on a stick

Question 11

What does the breaking of Piggy’s glasses symbolise?

Answer 11

The break down of rational thinking

Question 12

How is the fear of the beast shown to be irrational?

Fear

Answer 12

1.Descriptions of the beast keep changing
2.The 3 most rational characters - Ralph, Piggy and Simon try to convince the others the beast isn’t real.
3.They don’t realise how strong the boys fear is, as it overpowers logic

Question 13

How does Jack use his fear to control others’ behaviour?

Fear

Answer 13

1.Jack encourages people to join his tribe by saying that his hunters will protect them from the beast.
2.He tells them that the beast can disguise itself, and that they can never kill it.
3.Golding doesn’t make it clear if Jack believes in the beast, or is using it to gain power and control. He says it’s a ‘hunter’, showing deep down, he knows it represents his darker side.

Question 14

How does Power change hands throughout the novel?

Power and Leadership

Answer 14

1.When the boys first land, they want society that’s similar to what they’re used to - so Ralph appeals to them
2.As they become more savage, Jack’s dictatorial leadership appeals more. He gives them orders like ‘Eat!’ or ‘Take it!’, so they don’t have to think for themselves.

Question 15

What is Ralph like as a leader?

Power and Leadership

Answer 15

1. Ralph uses his power to protect people, he stands up for Piggy and looks after the littluns - he is responsible
2. Ralph wants them to live by the rules as it’s the ‘only thing we’ve got’
3. He doubts his ability to lead the group - he wishes he could think like Piggy
4. He becomes disillusioned at how difficult it is to keep people focused on unpopular tasks. The boys don’t see shelters or the signal fire as important to them.
5. He represents democracy

Question 16

What is Jack like as a leader?

Power and Leadership

Answer 16

1.Jack craves power, but doesn’t want the responsibility that comes with it
2.Jack is not democratically elected - instead he steals power from Ralph through fear
3.As Jack becomes more powerful, he becomes more vicious, he enforces obedience violently and becomes a dictator - Hitler
4.Jack’s power is maintained through fear and violence.

Question 17

How does Jack’s sharpened stick a symbol of his society?

Power and Leadership

Answer 17

1.It could hurt the hunter and the prey
2.It symbolises the fact that Jack’s society is self-destructive

Question 18

How is the island described to the a paradise?

Nature

Answer 18

1.There’s a sandy beach ‘fledged with palm trees’, and a pool to swim in
2.The lagoon is calm, beautiful and safe - almost magical
3.There;s fresh water and plenty of fruit - It should be easy to survive
4.The island is like the Garden of Eden - and like there, the boys learn about the evil within them, and there innocence is lost too

Question 19

How is the island descibed as unfriendly?

Nature

Answer 19

1.At the beginning, Ralph and Piggy were scratched by thorns, and Piggy gets tangled in Creepers
2.The boys eat fruit, which was too ripe, or unripe, and it gave htme ‘chronic diarrhoea’
3.The weather reflects the mood - on the night Simon dies, the weather is wild and thundery
4.’Shark awaited’ in the ocean - this introduced a feeling of danger

Question 20

How do the boys damage the nature of island?

Answer 20

1.The crashing plane left a ‘long scar’ in the forest.
2.Nature can heal, the plane is dragged out by a storm, and undergrowth begins the cover the scar - Nature is healing, but the boys will never be the same.
3.The boys’ first fire destroys a large part of the forest, destroying their firewood and fruit trees.
4.They use fire as a weapon to get Ralph, which makes the island a ‘burning wreckage’

Question 21

How do the boys play innocent games at first?

Games

Answer 21

1.The boys act like at home, playing happily and exploring - this shows they’re still kids
2.Ralph and others swim in the lagoon, the Littluns build sand castles
3.They hold an election for chief, but it still feels like a game - the voting is a ‘toy’
4.Exploring the island is exciting for them, Ralph says they can get food and ‘have fun’ , ‘until the grown-ups come fetch us’

Question 22

How does violence creep into their games?

Games

Answer 22

1.The littluins replace civilisation with the sand castles surrounded by ‘tracks, walls, railway lines’, but Roger and Marucie destroy them, showing their rejection of civilisation
2.The hunting dances change from games into something more violent. After Robert is jabbed by them, Jack jokingly suggests they usea littlun next time as they want to kill their prey. This foreshadows Simon’s death in the next dance
3.Roger makes a game of throwing stones at littluns, without hurting them. Later in the book, he throws them to hurt Ralph and Piggy, and kills Piggy wiht a boulder

Question 23

How do the games become serious at the end of the book?

Games

Answer 23

1.In chapter 11, Ralph and Piggy assume thay Jack’s games are still bound by morals, and that he’ll give Piggy’s glasses back
2.When the tribe hunts Ralph, he wishes he could say ‘i’ve got pax’ like schoolboys would do to pause a game. It wouldn’t work though, because their childhood innocence is lost.
3.The naval officer describes the hunt as ‘fun and games’, not realising they are plahying a deadly game.

Question 24

How does Golding use darkness to represent evil?

Evil

Answer 24

1.The choir is described as ‘something dark… fumbling along’. The choir then becomes Jack’s tribe, and the evil in human nature take physical form when they hunt and kill
2.In the dark the younger boys have terrible nightmares, which exacerbates their fear of the beast
3.Simon is murdered on a dark, stormy night
4.Ralph weeps at the end due to the ‘darkness of Man’s heart’. THe naval officer’s smart white uniform hids the truth that Ralph now understands - evil is in everyone

Question 25

How do the character’s evil instincts vary?

Evil

Answer 25

1.Jack’s obsessed with hunting and killing. He leads most of the violent events
2.Roger likes destroying things, at first its just sand castles as he’s still ‘conditioned by civilisation’, but by the end, he’s an executioner and kills Piggy in cold blood, because Piggy points out how savage the boys are
3.Piggy and Ralph show the better side of human nature, and that evil can be suppressed, however they still partake in the murder of Simon, and even Piggy says calls the boys a ‘pack of painted n….’
4.Simon’s is purely good, but his good is overpowered by the others’ evil

Question 26

What does the Pig’s head on a stick mean?

Evil

Answer 26

1.An offering to the beast from the boys - representing their fear
2.It tells Simon ‘i’m part of you’, this shows there is no beast, but it’s their own fear which causes the evil to emerge
3.The Pig’s head is called the ‘Lord of the Flies’, which is what the demon name ‘Beelzebub’ means. When it speaks, it is the voice of evil
4.it speaks with ‘the voice of a schoolmaster’, this shows that the adult world is corrupt too.

Question 27

What does losing track of time symbolise?

Answer 27

It symbolises their abandonment of the civilised world and Piggy’s usggestion to build a sundialshowd him clinging onto civilization

Question 28

What does the Conch symbolise?

Answer 28

1.authority and democracy
2.Initially all the boys respect it, but it is destroyed in chapter 11
3.This represents the end of democracy, and full descent into barbarism

Question 29

What does the signal fire symbolise?

Answer 29

1. It symbolises the boys hope of rescue.
2. Ralph and Piggy recognise the importance of the fire throughout, whereas Jack loses interest
3. However, it is Jack’s fire that was lit when trying to kill Ralph which brings help
4. This symbolises savagery’s victory over civilization

Question 30

What does the name of the group symbolise?

Answer 30

1.At the start, they are ‘children’, and their meetings are ‘assemblies’
2.At the end, they are ‘the tribe’ and each chlide is a ‘savage’.
3.This symbolises the fact that they’ve lost their identities and are no longer innocent
4.When the naval officer finds them, they are ‘little boys’ again, showing that they never changed, just what was being shown changed