Literary Analysis #1

Lord of the Flies by William Golding
1. Lord of the Flies is about a group of young boys are stuck on a deserted island after their evacuation plane crashed. After they all come together, they decide to be a unit with Ralph as their leader and Jack as the alternative. They like their time of freedom from adults for a few days, but when one of their signal fires goes awry and burns a portion of the forest down, they realize that their main objective should be saving. The younger boys in the group start to become scared of the beasts within the island, claiming the most dangerous one lives in the sea during the day. Their fear ensues when the twins on watch find a parachute and believe it to be the beast. When they go on a search to see where this creature lies, Ralph and Jack disagree on what to do with the situation. Jack takes the majority off to his new "tribe", while Ralph is stuck with a smaller group. In spite of Jack's new leadership, his tribe kills a pig and puts its head on top of a stick as a symbol. One of the boys, Simon, has an unusual encounter with it, claiming it as the "lord of the flies". This also makes him realize that there is an evil spirit inside each of them. As Simon comes to tell the others about this epiphany, Ralph and his friend, Piggy, beat Simon to his death. Jack comes to fight them for committing such a horrible crime; during the fight, a boy named Roger rolls a huge boulder that ends up killing Piggy. The hunt to kill Ralph ensues as he hides away from his attackers in the jungle. Jack and his followers burn the forest down to make Ralph evacuate to the beach. Soon as he does, Ralph faints, figuring that he will be killed soon. As he awakes, he finds a naval officer has come due to the sight of fire. The other boys soon arrive to kill Ralph, but instead, find the officer and begin to break down. They all start to cry because they know, now, they can return home.

2. One of the biggest themes in this novel about a civilization of young boys is losing their youth and sense of innocence. At the beginning of the story, they enjoy their time away from their parents by doing careless activities. They play games and have fun because they don't have any parents to tell them what to do or how to live. As the days drag on, they become weary and start developing a savage lifestyle. They begin to plot and kill each other due to the insanity they feel from their distance of reality. The symbol that plainly shows their loss of innocence is when they put the pig head on a stick and use it as an idol. It displays their change in attitude and their significant loss of purity.

3. The tone of Golding's narration worsens as the story goes on. He has a twisted view on the plot and it makes for a dark and savage tone. He is also very deceptive in his voice and violent when it comes to describing the actions between the boys.

- “There isn’t anyone to help you. Only me. And I’m the Beast. . . . Fancy thinking the Beast was something you could hunt and kill!
- "Kill the pig! Cut his throat! Kill the pig! Bash him in!"
- "Kill the beast! Cut his throat! Spill his blood!"

4.
Symbolism
- "The conch glimmered … a white blob against the place where the sun would rise. He pushed back his mop."
- "The fire is the most important thing on the island. How can we ever be rescued except by luck, if we don't keep a fire going?"
- "My specs!...One sides broken"

Foreshadowing
- "There was no light left save that of the stars."
- "Ralph was aware of the heat for the first time that day…an unusual heat."
- "There isn't a tribe for you any more! The conch is gone."

Diction
- "The crowd surged after it, poured down the rock, leapt onto the beast, screamed, struck, bit, tore. There were no words … but the tearing of teeth and claws."
- "The desire to squeeze and hurt was over-mastering."
- "He began to dance and his laughter became a bloodthirsty snarling."

Imagery
- "The water rose farther and dressed Simon's coarse hair with brightness. The line of his cheek silvered and the turn of his shoulder became sculptured marble."
- "Surrounded by a fringe of inquisitive bright creatures, itself a silver shape beneath the steadfast constellations, Simon's dead body moved out toward the open sea."
- "The conch exploded into a thousand white fragments and ceased to exist."

Characterization
- "He was shorter than the fair boy and very fat…looked up through thick spectacles."
- "He was tall, thin, and bony; and his hair was red beneath the black cap. His face was crumpled and freckled, and ugly without silliness."
- "You could see now that he might make a boxer…but there was a mildness about his mouth and eyes that proclaimed no devil."