Lord of the Flies

Author: William Golding

Date of Publication: September 17, 1954
 Biographical information about the author:
● William Golding was born September 19, 1911.
● taught English and philosophy
● temporarily left teaching in 1940 to join the Royal Navy.
● In 1954 he published his first novel, Lord of the Flies.
● .
● Writing Style
○ His writing style has a lot of symbolism. is names
many things that mean more of what they seem. For
example the conch, piggy glasses, and etc.
● Historical Information about the time period:
○ Lord of the flies took place at the time period around the 1950s.
○ During that time there is a atomic war going on.
● The setting
○ is at an island because they crash landed. The boys are stranded and have no way of
getting back home.
● Significance of the first chapter
○ two most important characters are first introduced. They find the shell and they
elect a chief. This shows that they are going to try and be a civil group and try to
make a living of what they got.
● Significance of the final chapter
○ hat it shows that there is evil in everyone. YOu can try to be civil but the more you
are on your own, you can end up turning savage like the boys. The boys are no
longer innocent and they see how the world can be to them.
● Theme
○ how people can become savage without rules or boundaries. You can try to stay civil
but after awhile, you realize you gotta do what you gotta do.
 Characters
Ralph Hes the chief and tries to keep everything in order. He was elected chief and he's the one helping they
young ones survive. He plays a big role because
without him, everybody would be

Piggy Hes chubby, wears thick glasses and has asthma He's important because without him, the boys would
be lost and wouldn't know what do. Piggy is smart
and thinks higher than the other boys.

Jack He's one of the older boys. He's important because he hunts and to keep the
fire going. Jack has goes been hunting crazy and
wants to kill

Simon He really quiet He's important because he's one of the only boys
that hasn't gone crazy.

Sam & Eric The Twins They do everything together and will never go apart.
He's important because they are the one of fire duty.
They need to make sure the fire doesn't go out. They
are the first people who actually “see the beast”
 Plot Summary
● Ralph and Piggy find a conch shell on the beach and they used it as a horn to call the other boys.
● they elect Ralph as their chief
● The start the fire by using Piggy’s glasses.
● a ship passes by but the signal fire burned out.
● The smallest boys have been getting nightmares about some monster lurking on the island.
● When all the boys were asleep, there was a war in the air. A guy from a plane jumps off with a parachute and lands on the
signal-fire mountain dead.
● When the boys wake up, they see the shadow of the parachute and believe its the monster
● Jack wants to re-elect their chief but doesn't win so he gets mad and runs away.
● Simon takes off by himself and goes with lord of the flies (the pig head)
● Simon is hearing things from the pig head and it says it is a part of him.
● Simon hears his fate from the pig head
● Simon sees that the beast is just a parachute guy.
● Simon tries to tell the boys there is no beast but they just end up beating him up and killing him.
● Jack's tribe starts to fight with Ralph's tribe.
● someone pushes off a rock and it smashes the conch and kills piggy
● Jack's tribe sets the whole island on fire so that they can kill Ralph
● someone from the navy saw the fire and the boys.
 Memorable Quotes
“Then we’ll have to look after this is important because that says that there is nobody else
ourselves” - page 21 their to look after them. they are all on their own.

“The fire is the most important this is important because that signal fire is how they are going
thing on the island” - page 80 to get found. Without it, they will be standed there forever
without anybody knowing they are their.

“What are we? Humans? Or this is important because now that they are alone on this
animals? Or savages?” - page island unsupervised, they don't know how to act anymore.
91 They have become vicious kids.

“The trouble was, if you were a this is important because ralph not only had to think about
chief you had to think, you had himself, but now he had to think about all the other kids,. he
to be wise.” - page 78 had to make sure they are okay and have to make the best
decision for everybody.
 Major Symbols
● The Conch Shell
○ the shell is used through the book to gather the boys together, choose a chief and
call meeting. The chief or leader always has the shell.
● Piggy’s glasses-
○ piggy can't see without his glasses. Not only are his glasses helpful for him, but
they were helpful for the whole group because that glasses started the signal fire.
● The Signal Fire
○ the signal fire is important because that is what most of the boys are depending
on. Without the fire, they won't be able to be seen and get rescued. Without the fire,
the boys have no home on getting rescued.
● The Beast
○ throughout the book, the kids are scared of “the beast’. They believe it hides in the
water and is going to attack them at night. Half of the boy's focus is how they are
going to hunt and kill it.
● Lord of the Flies
○ it's a pig head that they put on a stick for bait for the beast. Simon goes to it and
it tells him his fait that they are going to beat and kill simon.