| What is the significance of “The Sound of the Shell”? (chapter 1) | The conch shell represents democracy and unity |
| What is Ralph’s attitude toward Piggy when he first meets him? (chapter 1) | indifferent but superior |
| What is the significance of Piggy’s plea to join the expedition? (chapter 1) | Piggy was unable to go because of his physical defects; shows the differences in Ralph’s and Jack’s characters |
| Why is Ralph elected chief? (chapter 1) | He is more athletic and better looking than Jack. He had the conch, which made him a symbol of authority |
| What is the “scar” that is repeatedly mentioned? (chapter 1) | It’s the ditch the plane had dug out and the trail of trees. It represents man destroying nature and the boys bringing destruction to the island. |
| Why is Jack unable to kill the pig? (chapter 1) | The enormity of it. It wasn’t in his civilized nature. |
| What do Piggy, Simon, and the littlun with the birthmark have in common? (chapter 1) | They are all “defective”. |
| How is Jack presented to the reader? (chapter 1) | Read-headed: hot tempered, angry; Wearing black: ominous |
| Why did Golding use British schoolboys? (chapter 1) | They are supposed to be proper and from elite families. It emphasizes their transition from civilized to savage. |
| How is Piggy revealed as most closely tied to the world of adults? (chapter 1) | He talks about his “auntie” and tells the boys to “Quit acting like kids”. This indicates he’s around adults more often than kids, possibly because he’s been rejected. |
| How is Piggy indirectly responsible for the blowing of the conch? (chapter 1) | He tells Ralph how to blow the conch shell. This suggests his intelligence |
| What questions does the littlun with the birthmark raise? (chapter 2) | He asks them what they’re going to do about the “beast”. |
| How do Ralph and Jack answer the question about the beast? (chapter 2) | Ralph denies there is a beast (denies evil)/ Jack said if there was a beast, his hunters could kill it. |
| What is the significance of the chapter’s title “Fire on the mountain”? (chapter 2) | The boys’ destruction of the island. |
| How do they start the fire? (chapter 2) | They use Piggy’s specs (last remains of society). |
| What is the significance of “Huts on the Beach”? (chapter 3) | Established society on the island |
| Why does Ralph reproach Jack? (chapter 3) | He’s angry that Jack has been hunting while he has been working on the shelters. |
| What two groups with differing goals are emerging? (chapter 3) | Ralph’s side: shelters, rules, order.Jack’s and the hunters: hunting, having fun. |
| What is the significance of “Painted Faces and Long Hair”? (chapter 4) | Savagery and the passage of time on the island |
| Why does Roger aim just to miss? (chapter 4) | He’s been affected by civilization and still has the rules and consequences at the back of his mind. |
| What definite stand does Ralph make? (chapter 4) | He takes a stand against Jack, who let the fire go out as a ship passed by the island. |
| What is the significance of “Beast from Water”? (chapter 5) | Humans are made mostly of water, meaning the beast could be coming from the boys themselves |
| Why does Ralph call a meeting? (chapter 5) | He wanted to emphasize the necessity of the rules |
| Why does Piggy dissuade Ralph from giving up his position as chief? (chapter 5) | He feels like Ralph is their only hope to get rescued and thinks that if Ralph is out of the way, Jack would hurt him. |
| What is the paradox of the boys’ attitude toward the beast? (chapter 5) | The boys fear the beast, yet they seek it out. |
| What is the irony of the dead parachutist landing on the mountain? (chapter 6) | dramatic: the audience knows that the beast is just the parachutist, but the boys think it’s a monster. |
| Why is Simon the only one to doubt the existence of the beast? (chapter 6) | Simon understands that the beast comes out of the boys’ human nature and fear. |
| Why do Ralph and Jack both insist on going after the beast? (chapter 6) | They both want to prove they are brave and earn the boys’ respect. |
| Why does Jack say that they don’t need the conch any longer? (chapter 6) | He’s rejecting the rules and civilization. |
| Why is the action of the story increasingly taking place in the near darkness? (chapters 7-8) | It symbolizes the boys’ fear and their descent into savagery. |
| How does Ralph’s confidence in himself show in his words and actions? (chapters 7-8) | He doesn’t want to blow the conch and has trouble speaking in front of everyone. |
| How does Jack manage to overthrow Ralph’s authority, although he doesn’t become chief? (chapters 7-8) | The boys were enticed by the chance to live without rules and joined Jack. |
| How does Jack keep the beast happy? (chapters 7-8) | He puts the head of the pig they killed on a stick sharpened at both ends as a gift. |
| Describe Simon’s strange encounter with the Lord of the Flies. (chapters 7-8) | The LOTF told Simon he lived inside of him and would never be able to escape him. |
| Who or what is the LOTF? (chapters 7-8) | Evil and chaos that lives inside humans. (Beelzebub?) |
| What does Simon find when he finally reaches the Beast? (chapters 9-10) | He sees that it is just a dead parachutist. |
| What happens to simon when he returns to the group?(chapters 9-10) | Jack’s tribe mistakes him for the beast, and they kill him. |
| What happens to the bodies of Simon and the parachutist? (chapters 9-10) | They fall into the ocean. Now no one will know what the beast really was. |
| What does Jack plan to steal from Ralph and Piggy? (chapters 9-10) | Piggy’s glasses to make fire. |
| What will he do if anyone interferes with him? (chapters 9-10) | He’ll torture or kill them. |
| What happens to the conch and to Piggy? (chapters 9-10) | Roger killed Piggy with a boulder which smashed the conch into pieces. |
| What are Jack’s plans for Ralph? (chapters 9-10) | He has a stick sharpened at both ends (wants to behead Ralph). |
| What is Ralph’s reaction when he encounters the pig’s skull? (chapter 12) | He’s disgusted, sickened, and he punches it off the stick out of rage. |
| What do Samneric warn Ralph about? (chapter 12) | They warn him about Roger and Jack’s “stick sharpened at both ends”. |
| How does the tribe try to hunt down Ralph? (chapter 12) | They send a boulder into Ralph’s hiding place and set the island on fire to drive him out. |
| Who saves ralph in the end? (chapter 12) | A naval officer. |
| What is the Hebrew derivative of Lord of the Flies? | Beelzebub |
| What’s an allegory? | a symbolic narrative; everything in LOTF represents an aspect of the world |
| What does Golding think will happen to the world without ordered society and civilization? | humans will be affected by their own nature and descend into savagery |
| How is the island a microcosm? | The island represents society as a whole. The boys represent the entire human population. |
| What physical defects does Piggy have? | He wears glasses, is overweight, and has asthma. |
| How does Golding indicate Piggy’s social status? | Piggy speech |
| What does the island paradise being described as ‘edenic’ foreshadow? | Although it’s seemingly perfect, the boys’ existence there means that there is also evil and that this evil will affect them and the island. |
| What does Piggy’s “Quit acting like kids” symbolize? | The adult perspective on the island |
| What is Golding intending to convey by having Piggy know how to blow the conch? | Piggy is more intelligent, intellectual, and mature than the boys believe. |
| What does Ralph denying the existence of a beast reveal? | He rejects any evil. |
| Why does Golding include the scene where the littluns play in the water? | To convey their innocence. |
| the most perceptive character of LOTF, who is described as being a loner | Simon |
| What is the “darker shadow”? | Pure evil |
| What is the mask? | After Jack paints his face, not only his appearance but his personality changes. He became even more savage. |
| What (besides savagery) has changed in the boys since they first arrived on the island? | Loss of innocence |
Lord of the Flies
February 8, 2020