island

• Initially, in the beginning of the novel the Island was described as beautiful and lively but as the novel progresses the scenery is destroyed and harmed by the boys particularly Jack who continuously stabbed the a tree trunk. The carelessness of the boys who were supposed to guard "rescue" fire ended up damaging the island.
• Simon is the only person who takes care and respects the island. He embraces the island's beauty while at some points Ralph and Jack are even scared of the Island.
• Topography : Is the arrangement of the natural and artificial physical features of an area.

  In literary terms, it is essentially how the setting is organised in a text. A novel is a journey , with several key stops from beginning to end. The location of these stops, as well as their presentation, are deliberately crafted by writers to complement and reinforce a character’s development.
• "This belongs to us" - Ralph

  This encapsulates the initial ideas of nature as something to be both admired and possessed for human benefit.
• "They had guessed before that this was an island: clambering among the pink rocks, with the sea on either side, and the crystal heights of air, they had known by some instinct that the sea lay on every side. But there seemed something more fitting in leaving the last word till they stood on the top, and could see a circular horizon of water.

  Ralph turned to the others."
• Adjectives such as ‘pink’, ‘crystal’ and ‘circular’, this semantic field of paradise evokes an image of paradise/utopia in the mind of the reader, while the actions and dialogue of the characters sets a contrasting tone of ownership.

  They are encapsulated in nature, but they have captured it in return.
• In the opening sentence of the novel, Ralph emerges from the debris of the plane crash: ‘The boy with fair hair lowered himself down the last few feet of rock and began to pick his way toward the lagoon.’

  It is our introduction to the island. If you re-read the first paragraph, you will pick up on how the boys have disrupted nature with their plane crash; how the natural world is immediately set at odds with the human world.

  This already demonstrates that the "human world" shouldn't be on the island they don't go along
• ‘the long scar smashed into the jungle was a bath of heat. He was clambering heavily among the creepers and broken trunks when a bird, a vision of red and yellow, flashed upwards with a witch-like cry’

  The site of the crash is referred to as the ‘scar’, suggesting it is long, invasive, and perhaps indicating that the natural world has been harmed irrevocably: a scar is the shadow of an injury that you carry with you for life.
• The trees are ‘broken’, the wildlife is reduced to two colours (‘red and yellow’) that is in uproar – the sound of the birds protesting the humans is described as a ‘witch-like cry’.Witches are often associated with malevolence and prophecies. It may only be the very first paragraph of the novel, but there is already a sense of foreboding for the reader caused by the disturbance of nature.- Unnatural
• A beach is a divisive space between land and water, a no-man’s land.

  If we hearken back to our well-travelled war-time context of the novel, we can see the remnants of nature’s civil wars echoed in the natural litter and plant corpses that litter the space. The beach reinforces the idea of nature as a force that shapes the landscape – we are witness to the remains of its power and the lurking presence of the living forest.
• The beach is seen as a divisive space which is ironic because after Simon died he floated into the beach and separated which could be the space between life (on the island) and death or even reality. Beyond the beach is the 'real' world were the ongoing world is going on..
• The first site of topographical interest introduced to us in depth is the lagoon.Before finding and assembling the others, Ralph and Piggy enjoy a rare scene of harmony with the natural world.‘It was clear to the bottom and bright with the efflorescence of tropical weed and coral. A school of tiny, glittering fish flicked hither and thither. Ralph spoke to himself, sounding the bass strings of delight.’
• The river Jordan, where Christ was said to be baptised. The lagoon is a place where the boys cleanse themselves. Lord of the Flies as a religious allegory, with Simon being a Christ figure (one who is sacrificed for our sins).  Concentrating on the theme of nature with the allegorical reading in mind, it is easy to see the lagoon, the place of physical cleansing, as a place of spiritual cleansing. The boys wash off the filth of the island and are truly happy in this paradise-in-miniature.
• The religious reading of the text, and of this natural place within it, is extended when Golding writes ‘some act of God … had banked sand within the lagoon’ creating a secondary, deeper pool. It is the heart of the pool, where Ralph finds true joy swimming.What is most significant for us is that this ‘act of God’ is presumed to be a ‘a typhoon perhaps, or the storm that had accompanied his own arrival’. Golding placed nature at the top of his novel’s hierarchy: the force of nature is being called an ‘act of God’. It’s a metaphor intended to tell us who’s boss on the island!
• If the lagoon is the pure heart of man, the forest is the mind’s darkest impulses. The forest is associated with darkness and savagery from the very beginning. Ralph and Piggy find the littlun’s for the first time by blowing the conch and seeing them emerge from the forest ‘where they had been gorging on fruit’. The youngest boys have therefore already been tempted by the forbidden fruit in the forest, giving into their base desires (Id) by overeating it.
• Simon figures out that the "beastie" is actually a dead parachutist which is the truth on the mountain. Also they climbed mountain initially to get a view of the Island, it is the highest point of the island so it could've given the boys satisfaction or sense of power. The mountains lose the sense of civilisation by abandoning their rescue fire. It could be a sense of hope, spiritual quest and give them perspective of the island and the ocean-It is where they detect the boat and see the "real" worl
• Although man made, fire is an element, a cornerstone of nature. As such, it deserves our attention when considering the theme of the natural world on the island. Fire is a tool of nature that can be harnessed by man, for good or for evil. Some people interpret the fire as symbolic of the children’s connection to civilization.When they are following the rules and procedures established in the beginning, the fire burns brightly. When the boys forget about rescue or become distracted by fear and savagery, it goes out.
• ‘Wave after wave, Ralph followed the rise and fall until something of the remoteness of the sea numbed his brain. Then gradually the almost infinite size of this water forced itself on his attention. This was the divider, the barrier.’
• In it’s most simplistic form, the ocean represents a barrier between the boys and civilization.

  It is something insurmountable that surrounds them.

  The word ocean only occurs 6 times in the novel, a lot fewer than the other natural features.

  Let’s look at a key quote regarding the ocean’s significance:
• Although the ocean is a beautiful place, It also separates the boys from the "their" natural world. It also prevents them from being rescued. They can't leave the Island because the ocean acts as a barrier but soldiers for eg can enter the island through the ocean . The dead parachutists enters through the sky
• Human conflict often results in the destruction of the natural world.If we turn to the wartime context of the novel, we could think of places such as the trenches in the first world war.The trenches were a series of gouges dug into the earth to allow soldiers to press forward and conquer enemy lines.We see the trenches replicated in the landscape of the novel in miniature in the form of ‘the scar’ that the plane crash leaves on its surface.It is a permanent disfigurement of the natural world due to human violence.
• The atomic bomb is a human technology that destroyed landscapes during WWII, with devastating long-term consequences for the future growth and development of ecosystems.If we return to thinking of the island as a microcosm of the wider world, we could see fire take the place of the atomic bomb as a destructive technology. In the novel, fire ravages the landscape, permanently altering it, leaving it ugly and barren.This mimics the effect of an atomic bomb on a far smaller scale.
• On a lighter note, we know from our first lesson that Golding studied Natural Sciences at Oxford for two years, prior to switching to the English Literature degree course. This accounts for Golding’s fascination with nature and the unusual style of his writing in the novel The novel is composed of lengthy passages describing nature, punctuated by the dialogue of the humans. It could be said that this stylistic blend encapsulates Golding’s dual academic interests: science and literature.
• Golding’s dual academic pursuits is significant when considering the presentation of nature in the novel. Initially, Ralph, Piggy, and the others delight in nature (even if only for reasons related to survival and conquering).This quickly peters out, with the characters becoming oblivious to the beauty of nature. This could be another broader point Golding is suggesting with his narrative.
• The glittering sea rose up, moved apart in planes of blatant impossibility; the coral reef and the few stunted palms that clung to the more elevated parts would float up into the sky, would quiver, be plucked apart, run like raindrops on a wire or be repeated as in an odd succession of mirrors. Sometimes land loomed where there was no land and flicked out like a bubble as the children watched. Piggy discounted all this learnedly as a “mirage”; and . . . they grew accustomed to these mysteries and ignored them, just as they ignored the miraculous, throbbing stars.
• Initially, nature is presented as beautiful as it untouched, however as the novel progresses and the boys become more comfortable within the island, they soon damaged and harm the island in multiple ways, showing disrespect and exploiting the nature except for Simon. At the end of the novel, the island has completely changed and turned from a utopia/paradise into a something more sinister.
• The ways in which nature is portrayed as a violent force; the oppressive heat of the island. The unscalable cliffs, the violence of the pigs, the beach littered with plant corpses and the after-effects of intense dehydration. You could think of the ocean claiming the body of Simon, of the gully boiling and shooting water at the boys when they try to cross it.

  natural elements that escape human control, such as fire.