A Scaffolded Essay Guide to Lord of the Flies
At the beginning of the novel, Ralph stands on his head and celebrates the fact that there are no adult survivors.
This is a dream come true. How does this dream turn into a nightmare?
It is true that at the beginning of the novel that in conversation with Piggy that Ralph celebrates the fact that there are no adults on the island. I think he…
Within hours of celebrating the lack of adult supervision. Ralph assumes the role of…
The dream really turns into a night mare when…
Another key aspect of the nightmare is when…
Some writers celebrate life. Golding seems to…
The author had read Coral Island and he was depressed by what he saw. In this tale… (You might need to google this to see why Golding was unhappy with children’s book)
Golding had been a school teacher, so he knew… (what might a teacher know about how REAL children behave? Just think of behaviour you see on the playground)
Golding had served in the armed forces. This experience taught him that… (what view of humanity might you get by witnessing war at close quarters? Would it disturb you in any way? How?)
The irony is that in the macrocosm or outer world, people are at war. This island is a microcosm. Instead of being a refuge from conflict, it is…
The central protagonists in this graphic tale are…
Piggy may lack charisma, but…
Ralph is…
Jack is…
Simon is…
In Hebrew, “Beelzebub? appears as the name of a god worshipped by the Philistines. Reference to Beelzebub was almost certainly pejorative and grew to be used among other terms for Satan.
Ba‘al Zebûb means ’ ‘Lord of things that fly’ and this gives us the common translation “Lord of the Flies?. We can now see why Golding chose this translation as the name for his novel on the demonic actions of children.
In Christianity, the name Beelzebub may appear as an alternate name for Lucifer or the devil. As with several religions, the names of any earlier foreign or “pagan” deities often became synonymous with pejorative terms.
The boys on the island busy themselves looking for a beast or demon. We are painfully aware of the irony here. There is indeed a devil on the island… or rather several and they are openly on view. Looking closely at the action in Golding’s novel, I consider that ...………………………..could be described as a demon because ………………………..
The potential paradise becomes hell on earth when…
Ralph and Piggy strive to…
The main strands of civilisation are…
Jack is intensely annoyed that he has been rejected in the voting for chief. He expected to be chosen because…
If Jack cannot be chief by fair means, he will…
Roger is eager to follow in Jack’s wake. Roger is a fellow sadist who will…
Several people die on the island as it descends into chaos. The final chapter sees Roger sharpen a stick at both ends for Ralph. I think Roger intends to…
The existence of adults on the island could have…
If we look at the situation in the world in general though, the existence of adults might not have made their time on the island any better because…
To conclude, we can see how this potential dream-like scenario transforms into a nightmare. A number of interrelated factors contribute to this descent into hell. The most important are…
