INTRODUCTION TO

LORD OF THE FLIES

- by William Golding

10/03/20 1
 Essential Questions:
 What is the nature of man?
 What are the qualities of
effective leadership?
 How do you effectively
govern?
 Upon what, primarily, does
survival most depend?

10/03/20 2
More Essential Questions…
 How are our human flaws revealed? What
do our flaws reveal about us?
 How does Golding use setting and
characters in Lord of the Flies to express
his ideas about people?
What should you come to
understand by the end of this
novel study?
 People’s baser instincts are often
stronger than their nobler ones
in creating human societies.
 The defects in society are
related to the defects in human
nature.
 Novelists often use their fiction
to make statements about their
personal or political beliefs.
Draw two columns in your notes.
As you review/discuss the
novel, record the following:
Words Words
associated with associated with
instinct the mind
 ??????  ??????
 ??????
 ??????
 ??????  ??????
 Philosophical Background:
Rousseau
 Contrary to his earlier work,
Rousseau (Jean-Jacques
Rousseau, born in Geneva in
1712) claimed that the state of
nature is brutish condition
without law or morality, and that
there are good men only as a
result of society's presence.

10/03/20 6
 “The Social Contract”
 Because he can be more
successful facing threats by
joining with other men, he has
the impetus to do so. He joins
together with his fellow men
to form the collective human
presence known as
"society." "The Social
Contract" is the "compact"
agreed to among men that
sets the conditions for
membership in society.
10/03/20 7
 The Noble Savage
 In his early writing, Rousseau
contended that man is
essentially good, a "noble
savage" when in the "state of
nature" (the state of all the
other animals, and the
condition man was in before
the creation of civilization and
society), and that good people
are made unhappy and
corrupted by their experiences
in society.
10/03/20 8
 “Noble Savage”
 He viewed society as
"artificial" and "corrupt" and
that the furthering of society
results in the continuing
unhappiness of man.

10/03/20 9
 Spiritual Background:
Original Sin
 Original sin is said to result
from the Fall of Man, when
Adam and Eve ate the
forbidden fruit of a particular
tree in the Garden of Eden.

10/03/20 10
 “Original Sin”
 This first sin ("the original sin",
as distinct from "original sin"),
an action of the first humans,
is traditionally understood to
be the cause of "original sin",
the fallen state from which
humans can be saved only by
God's grace.
10/03/20 11
 Nature vs. Nurture
 The nature versus nurture
debates concern the relative
importance of an individual's
innate qualities ("nature“),
versus personal experiences
("nurture") in determining or
causing individual differences
in physical and behavioral
traits.
10/03/20 12
 “Tabula Rasa”
 The view that humans acquire
all or almost all their
behavioral traits from "nurture"
is known as tabula rasa
("blank slate").

10/03/20 13
Freud’s human psyche: The ID (it)
 Id – biological/inherited components of
personality.
 Impulsive. Responds directly and immediately to
the instinct.
 Demands immediate satisfaction. (pleasure
principle)
 Not affected by reality, logic, or the everyday
world. Chaotic and totally unreasonable.

10/03/20 14
 Freud part 2: the EGO (I)
 Ego: “that part of the Id which has been
modified by direct influence of the external
world.”
 Works by reason (unlike the id).
 Seeks pleasure and avoids pain by devising a
realistic strategy to obtain pleasure.
 Has no concept of right or wrong. Something is
considered “good” if it brings satisfaction
without causing harm to the ego or id.

10/03/20 15
 Freud part 3: Super-ego (above I)
 Incorporates the values and morals of society
which are learned from parents/others.
 Its function is to control the id’s impulses,
especially those which society forbids.
 Consists of two systems: conscience and ideal
self (imaginary picture of how you ought to be).
 Can punish the ego with guilt.

10/03/20 16
What do you know about
Beelzebub?
It is another name for
the devil.

Beelzebub comes from

a Greek word that
means ‘lord of flies’
In Golding’s day a popular
boys adventure story
was…
 The Coral Island

 A story most boys and

adults in England
would be familiar
with.
 The Coral Island
 Written in 1858
 A group of boys gets stranded
on a deserted, tropical island
 The major characters are
Jack, Ralph, and Peterkin
 It’s an adventure story with a
happy ending
What are some stories you know of that
involve people on tropical islands?

What kinds of things happen in

these stories?
 Lord of the Flies continued
 The novel takes place during a
fictional atomic war.
 A group of British schoolboys are
flown out of their country to protect
them from the horrors of war.
Lord of the Flies continued
 However, their plane crashes,
killing all the adults on board.
 The boys remain stranded on the
tropical island to fend for
themselves…
 Lord of the Flies facts
 Most of the characters, actions
and objects in the novel
symbolize larger ideas
 Golding’s novel deals with the
conflict between the rational
mind and primal instinct
All of Golding’s novel takes
place on the remote tropical
island.
 In preparation for reading the
novel, look over your
Anticipation Guide:
Directions: For each of the following statements decide whether you tend to agree or disagree. Place a plus (+) mark in the left
column next to each statement with which you agree. For those with which you tend to disagree, place a minus ( -) mark. Look for
evidence in Lord of the Flies that either supports (+) or doesn’t support (-) each statement. Place the appropriate mark under the third
column. In the far right column record the page numbers to back up your findings.

Me General statement Lord of the Text

Flies Evidence
Being stranded on a tropical island would be paradise.

Children can naturally organize themselves.

Our environment can greatly impact the course of our lives.

Leaders rarely dominate weaker people.

People tend to follow a charismatic leader.

People often misjudge things they don’t understand.

Children act differently from grown-ups.

There is usually a clear-cut winner in most conflicts.

Follow-up: Choose five of the previous statements. Write a paragraph for each statement that explains whether Lord of the Flies
supports or doesn’t support it. Use quotes gathered from the text to back up the argument in each paragraph.
Look at the statements on your Anticipation
Guide. Complete the left-hand column –
putting + for agree and – for disagree.
As you discuss the novel with your
group, decide if the narrative
supports or does not support each
statement.
Include chapters or page numbers
that can serve as text evidence.
 Would You Survive?
 You’re lost in the wilderness,
stranded atop a mountain or
helplessly adrift at sea! (Never
mind how you got there…just
play the game). What should
you do? Your very survival
depends on how much you
know about your present
environment and situation.

10/03/20 27
 Who Should Survive?
 A severe storm has crippled a
small ship, and the only
remaining lifeboat has room for
only seven people. You have
no hope of reaching civilization,
but there’s a fairly good chance
that you can make it to one of
many small, uncharted, and
unpopulated islands in the
area.
10/03/20 28
 Who Should Survive,
continued?
 You may have to remain on
such an island for years. Your
task is to choose which seven
people should be allowed on
the lifeboat, and hence, be
allowed to survive.

10/03/20 29
 Assessments
 Answers to discussion questions
 Anticipation guide
 Drawing of island
 Group participation
 Character poem and symbol
 Essay: Literary Analysis/Argument essay
 Socratic Seminar
10/03/20 30
 Review & Discussion Schedule
 Chapters 1-3………….8/26
 Chapters 4-6………….8/27

 Chapters 7-9………….8/28

 Chapters 10-12……….8/29

 Discussion answers. . .9/04

**Be prepared every day to add your

insights to group discussions.

10/03/20 31