Themes

• themes of lotf


  • civilisation vs savagery
  • power and leadership
  • loss of innocence
  • evil/darkness
  • fear
  • violence and death
  • war
  • human interaction with nature
• civilisation vs savagery


  conflict between two instinctive impulses which exist in all human beings

  • the desire to live by the rules, act morally and peacefully and to value our fellow humans
  • the desire for self-gratification to fulfil one's immediate desires, to act violently, to enforce one's will and to gain supremacy over others
• civilisation at the start of the novel

  desperately cling onto things associated with their former life

  • still wear uniforms
  • Jack still addresses the choir
  • Piggy collects names, like a school register
  • call their meetings "assemblies"
• gradually the ties to the adult world disappear


  • the boys' clothes fall apart
  • the "littluns" start going to the toilet everywhere
  • Jack and the hunters let the fire go out
  • hunters discard most of their clothes
  • primitive rituals begin to replace rules
  • the violence increases
  • "Bollocks to the rules!"
• the novel explores the idea that children behave in a civilised way only because adults make them

  "Roger's arm was conditioned by a civilisation that knew nothing of him and was in ruins"
• "the mask compelled them"

  • change in appearance represent the descent from civilisation to savagery
  • when Jack paints his face, he is able to conceal his real identity
  • the mask enables him to become free from rules of civilisation
  • "he looked in astonishment, no longer at himself but at an awesome stranger"
• destruction of the conch


  • civilisation erodes, the conch loses its power and influence among them
  • once Jack is chief his disregard for the conch becomes absolute
  • Jack's society is one of tyranny and violence
• the lord of the flies

  • an offering to the mythical "beast" on the island
  • symbolises the dominance of savagery on the island and Jack's authority over the other boys
  • represents the unification of the boys under Jack's rule
  • Ralph's demolition of the Lord of the Flies signals his own descent into savagery and violence
• conflict between Ralph and Jack

  • represent the two opposing themes
  • Ralph - order and leadership
  • Jack - savagery and the desire for power
• Ralph vs Jack


  • Ralph shows his schoolboy code of fair play, condemns Jack when he punches Piggy
  • "the fair boy"
  • Jack has been trained to believe he is a natural leader, "golden" badge on his cap to distinguish him
  • "I ought to be chief"
• civilisation vs savagery Golding's message

  • implies that the instinct of savagery is far more primal and fundamental to the human psyche than the instinct of civilisation
  • sees moral behaviour as something civilisation forces upon an individual rather than a natural expression of human individuality
  • implies people naturally revert to cruelty savagery and barbarism
• power and leadership


  Jack and Ralph can be used to illustrate how power can be used and abused

  • Ralph uses his authority to establish rules and protect the group
  • Jack abolishes rules on the island and causes the descent into savagery
• democracy


  Golding points to the weakness in democratic politics

  • electorate can be swayed by promises of material gain
  • will forsake loyalties
• context power


  Hitler's rise to power, National Socialism promised material wellbeing

  • Jack offers the promise of food
• dictatorship of Jack


  • Jack's political success exposes the power of dictatorship
  • Jack shows authoritarian power by threatening and terrifying others
  • "Jack, painted and garlanded, sat there like an idol"
• roger and dictatorship


  Roger illustrates how dictatorship can corrupt

  • he becomes evil, but he is not evil to start with
  • he is a loner at the beginning of the novel he suggest "Let's have a vote" indicating he is on the side of fairness and democracy
• breaking down of power

  Golding implies that the boys are suffering from the terrible disease of being human

  • "Things are breaking up. I don't understand why"
  • "What makes things break up like they do?"
• loss of innocence


  • "Ralph wept for the end of innocence"
  • as the boys progress from well-behaved and orderly to no desire to return to civilisation they naturally lose their sense of innocence
• Simon's forest glade


  • symbolises the loss of innocence
  • at first it a place of natural beauty and peace, Eden-like paradise
  • when Simon returns the bloody sow's head is impaled on a stake in the middle of the clearing
  • powerful symbol of innate human evil disrupting childhood innocence
• evil and darkness


  the coming of an awareness of darkness, the evil of man's heart is present in the children all along

  • "something dark was fumbling along"
• pessimism


  Golding was a pessimist

  • in his novels he investigates the presence of innate evil
  • underlying a veneer of civilisation
  • concluding that man's propensity for evil is far greater than it is for goodness
• original sin


  • Christian doctrine that mankind is inherently sinful as a result of Adam eating the forbidden fruit
  • lotf is governed by the idea that man is a fallen creature
  • Golding insists that evil is inherent in man
• innate human evil


  • expressed in symbols
  • most notably the beast and sow's head on the stake
  • only Simon among all the characters seems to possess anything like a natural, innate goodness
• children


  • Golding implies that children are cruel by nature
  • it is only adult discipline that teaches them to restrain their natural cruelty
  • "perhaps six years old" "innocent" "firing up sand in a shower" "Percival was crying again"
  • Johnny seemingly innocent is harming others
• bullying of Piggy


  • illustrates the cruelty of children
  • "Shut up fatty"
  • boys enjoy making fun of Piggy because he is physically and socially inferior in their human mind
• Golding's message about evil


  • evil is present in everyone
  • not just the enemies in the war
  • "the darkness of man's heart"
• Freudian interpretation


  id, ego and super ego

  • id = driven by pleasure, primal urges, survival and instinct
  • ego = expressed in a manner accepted by the real world, reality principle
  • super-ego = internalised moral standards, sense of right and wrong
• fear


  everywhere in the novel there is fear

  • fear of the beast
  • fear of Jack
• Jack and fear


  • initially believes the beast is something that can be controlled
  • frenzied hunting and the ritual chanting
  • uses the boys' fear to control their behaviour
• violence and death


  • largely associated with Hack
  • use of violent verbs
  • "He snatched his knife out of the sheath"
  • "There were lashings of blood" "Jack laughing"
• violence


  • ritual dance
  • "Kill the pig. Cut her throat. Bash her in"
  • become wild like savage animals
• war


  • the boys are evacuees
  • Ralph's father is a naval officer
  • civilisation they want to return to is being destroyed
• human interaction with nature

  • nature can be idyllic, hostile
  • man disrupts nature
• man's relationship with nature

  • subjugation of nature
  • harmony with nature
  • subservience to nature
• subjugation of nature


  embodied by Jack

  • first impulse is to track, hunt and kill pigs
  • impose his human will on the natural world
  • forest fire reflects his deepening contempt for nature and demonstrate his militaristic, violent character
• harmony with nature


  embodied by Simon

  • finds peace in the natural environment
  • nature is not man's enemy but a part of the human experience
• subservience to nature


  embodied by Ralph

  • opposite position to Jack
  • understands it as an obstacle to human life on the island
  • retreating from the natural world
  • stays on the beach. most humanised part of the island
• Biblical parallels


  • retelling of episodes from the Bible
  • echo certain Christian images and themes
  • subtle motif, adding thematic resonance to the main ideas of the story
• the island/Simon's glade


  • recalls the Garden of Eden in its status as an originally pristine place that is corrupted by the introduction of evil
  • "long scar smashed into the jungle"
  • "gash visible in the trees"
• lord of the flies in the Bible

  • english translation of Beelzebub, occurs in the New and Old Testaments as an alternative name for the Devil
  • "I'm part of you"