Themes Flashcards
Civilisation (voting)
‘The toy of voting was almost as pleasing as the conch’
Civilisation (breaking down)
‘What are we? Humans? Animals? Or savages?’ - Piggy asking Ralph
Civilisation (control)
‘Round the squatting child was the protection of parents and school and policemen and the law’ - Roger throwing the rocks
Civilisation (rules)
‘Because the rules are the only thing we’ve got’
Savagery (affect of mask/anonymity)
‘He began to dance and his laughter became a bloodthirsty snarling’ - Jack wearing the facepaint
Savagery (hunting)
‘Kill the pig. Cut her throat. Spill her blood’
Savagery (also relating to the beast, and the beast just being them)
‘There were no words, and no movements but the tearing of teeth and claws’
Savagery (Inner desire for violence)
‘The desire to squeeze and hurt was overmastering
Savagery (descent into savagery)
Change in address terms to ‘anonymous savages’, ‘anonymous devils’
Colonisation (Jack)
‘We’re not savages. We’re english; and the English are the best at everything. So we’ve got to do the right things’ - Jack
Colonisation (Naval Officer)
‘I should have thought a pack of british boys… would have been able to put on a better show than that’
Leadership (Jack)
‘Power lay in the brown swell of of his forearms; authority sat on his shoulders and chattered in his ear like an ape’ - Jack as chief
Leadership (Ralph)
‘We must make smoke… we must make a fire’ Ralph initially being a good leader
Leadership (cycle of bad leadership)
‘Irresponsible authority’, ‘tribe’ address term of ‘chief’
Power (abuse of power Jack)
Jack, painted and garlanded, sat there like an idol’
Power (rise of roger)
‘Roger edged past the Chief, only just avoiding pushing him with his shoulder’ - the cyclic nature of history
Power (violence)
‘If there’s a beast, we’ll hunt it down! We’ll close in and beat and beat and beat-!’
Violence (sow)
‘Sweat and noise and blood’ - killing of the sow
Violence (Jack)
‘Drew his knife again with a flourish’ - flourish, like a performance
Violence (tribe)
‘Tearing of teeth and claws’
Fear (leader using fear to control)
‘Wearily obedient’ - The choir to Jack
Fear (Piggy clear sightedness, being able to see that the beast isn’t real)
‘There is nothing to be afraid of, unless we start to fear other people’
Fear (making up their own interpretations of beast, due to their fears)
‘There were eyes - Teeth - Claws’
Fear (fear of unknown)
‘Soon the darkness was full of claws, full of the awful unknown and menace’
Fear (perceived threat)
‘And then; the beast might try to come in. You remember how he crawled - ‘ abusing the perceived threat, manipulating their fear.
Innocence (innocent fears, translated onto beast)
‘There were eyes - Teeth - Claws’
Innocence (trust in adults and authority figures as omnipotent)
‘You’re chief Ralph, you remember everything’
Innocense (imagery, natural symbol of innocense)
‘The sounds of the bright fantastic birds, the bee-sounds, even the crying of the gulls’ - aural imagery, natural beauty in Chapter 3, but when he comes back in Chapter 8, the glade is sullied with the ‘sow’s head’
