Lord of the Flies 1954

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Lord of the Flies1954

• Introduction and Background

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Title Translation

• Beelzebub a Hebrew word for LUCIFER. However,
  the literal translation of Beelzebub into
  English is LORD OF THE FLIES.

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About the Author

• William Golding
• Born in Britain
• 1911-1993

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In the decade before LOTF was published,
Britain had been involved in two wars

• WWII

• Korean War

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• As a child, Golding had witnessed WWI, which was
  referred to as the war to end all wars
• HOWEVER,22 years later Britain was again involved
  in ANOTHER WAR to end all wars, which caused more
  devastation than was imaginable

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On War
When I was young, before the war, I did have
some airy-fairy views about man. . . . But I went
through the war and that changed me. The war
taught me different and a lot of others like me"
Golding told Douglas A. Davis in the New
Republic.
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Setting

• In the setting for Lord of the Flies, Golding has
  created his own "Coral Island"an allusion, or
  literary reference, to a book of that name by R.
  M. Ballantyne.
• Using the same scenario of boys being abandoned
  on a tropical island, The Coral Island (1857) is
  a classic boys' romantic adventure story, in
  which everyone has a great time and nobody dies
  or ends up unhappy.
• Golding, however, has quite different ideas, and
  he has used the setting in his story to reinforce
  his themes and symbols.
• Yes, the island can be a wonderful place, as the
  littluns discover by day when they are bathing in
  the lagoon pool or eating fruit from the trees.
  But at night the same beach can be the setting
  for nightmares, as some boys fancy that they see
  "snake-things" in the trees.

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Through Lord of the Flies, Golding is making the
statement that we cannot escape our savage,
violent tendencies
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and without social order,we devolve into a
state of chaos
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Lord of the Flies

• It was simply what seemed sensible for me to
  write after the war when everyone was thanking
  God they werent Nazis. Id seen enough to
  realize that every single one of us could be
  Nazis. Golding on Lord of the Flies

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Goldings Fiction

• Allegorical
• Yes, theres a basic story but theres much more
  to it than what meets the eye
• Pay attention as you read what life lessons
  could this novel be teaching?
• Allusions to
• Classical literature
• Mythology
• Christian Symbolism

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About the Novel

• Set in mid 1940s when Europe engulfed in war.
• A plane carrying British school boys is mistaken
  for a military craft and shot down.
• Only the boys survive the crash, and try to form
  a society and govern themselves.

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Themes in the Novel

• Civilization vs. Savagery
• Loss of Innocence
• Original Sin
• Fear that separates one from God
• Nature of Good and Evil
• Goodness is rare and fleeting

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Theme

• The main theme (according to Golding)
• A desire to trace the defects of society back to
  the defects of human nature.
• Thoughts about this? What does it mean?

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Goldings LOTF Introduction

• http//www.youtube.com/watch?vvYnfSV27vLY