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Notes on Lord of the Flies
Mr. McBride
Chapter One 11 —the naming of Piggy; note how narration immediately adopts his name after Ralph suggests it 12 —description of platform; reference to parable of sower and seed, foreshadows trajectory of the boys efforts to form a society : Matthew 13:3-8—“And he spake many things unto them in parables, saying, Behold, a sower went forth to sow. And when he sowed, some seeds fell by the way side, and the fowls came and devoured them up. Some fell upon stony places, where they had not much earth: and forthwith they sprung up, because they had no deepness of earth. And when the sun was up, they were scorched; and because they had no root, they withered away. And some fell among thorns; and the thorns sprung up, and choked them. But others fell into good ground, and brought forth fruit, some an hundredfold, some sixty fold, some thirty fold.” 13 —Ralph’s mention of father suggests longing for divine intervention 14 —Piggy’s reference to atom bomb 15 —finding of the conch; “He used to blow it and then his Mum would come” 17 —sounding of the conch; conch acts as an organizing principle, gathering the boys together from their isolation in the jungle and also giving everyone a voice at meetings 18 —note ironic parody of boy sucking thumb after “he received the reassurance that something purposeful was being done” 19 —approach of the choir 21 —“closed circuit of sympathy with Piggy outside”; this and Piggy’s turning pink foreshadows his exclusion and dehumanization from the group 22 —“toy of voting” again suggests a bitter parody of the organizing principles of modern society 24 —dismissal of Piggy’s desire to go on expedition again references theme of the nuance of social power 28 —pushing over of rock prefigures book’s ending; odd insertion of present tense perhaps suggests a kind of hypnotic effect of destructive behavior 31 —piglet caught in creepers; prefigures Jack’s transformation and Ralph’s terror
Chapter Two 33 —“We shall...” 33 —conch gives all voice, even Piggy 34 —“we can have a good time on this island”; Ralph’s words recur in Simon’s pig’s head vision 35 —boy with the mulberry colored birthmark is given the conch, speaks of the beast; faulty logic (“countries like Africa...”) is employed to allay fear 36 —boy makes statement that beastie turns into creepers in trees, associating it with the vines that held the piglet in terror
37 —queen’s map room; suggestion of divine omniscient knowledge 38 —Piggy brings conch 40 —use of Piggy’s glasses to start fire; Piggy’s intellect, as represented by his glasses, is needed by the group for survival 44 —“Piggy glanced nervously into hell and cradled the conch”; suggests a juxtaposition between order, as represented by the conch, and chaos, as represented by the fire 46 —loss of the boy with the birthmark; the association of burning creepers with snakes suggests that in fact the beast did eat him
Chapter Three 49 —Jack touches doodie; beginning of chapter three shows Jack in the forest, in contrast to Simon in the forest at the end of the chapter 52 —Simon makes reference to the growing fear of the beast 54 —conflict between Ralph and Jack allusion to Cain and Able 54 —pig versus rescue prefigures killing of pig with missing of ship in Chapter Four 56 —Simon as Christ passage; “Let the little ones come unto me…” 57 —Contrast the opening of the buds for Simon with Jack’s slashing them with a knife on page 30; in both instances the scent spills out
Chapter Four 59 —introduction of Percival 60 —Roger and Maurice kick sand castles, Maurice feels vestigial remorse 61 —Johnny imitates Roger, kicks sand in Percival’s eyes 62 —Roger’s arm conditioned, compare to Jack’s arm on page 31 63 —Jack masks himself; the threat of anonymous behavior is prefigured by Roger’s throwing of stones in the absence of being watched 63 —Jack ignores the twins’ request, orders them to leave the fire to help with the hunt 66 —Ralph sees the ship 68 —fire out, hunters appear with pig 71 —Jack breaks one of the two lenses in Piggy’s glasses; he needs them to make fire to cook the pig
Chapter Five 77 —why can’t they fix the log? Again Ralph loses the thought 81 —“We’ve got to make smoke up there—or die.” 83 —Jack names the beast 83 —note ominous juxtaposition of what they eat and Piggy’s name 84 —Jack responds to fear with warrior-like mentality, Piggy with rationality, suggesting that fear is at the root of these two archetypal responses 84 —Phil’s nightmare recalls the piglet struggling in the creepers
111 —Simon’s comment to Ralph, “You’ll get back to where you came from,” very untypical, mark of Simon’s character, points to the general lack of compassion between the boys 113 —Note Ralph’s intoxication at having thrown the spear 114 —play becomes serious as Robert is nearly injured 123 —Ralph sees the beast
Chapter Eight 124 —Ralph has lost faith, believes in beast, seems to have even convinced Piggy 125 —“that thing squats by the fire as though it didn’t want us to be rescued,” reinforces idea that by succumbing to a belief in the beast the boys have abandoned their efforts to form a civilization 127 —Jack makes a stand to be leader, his saying he doesn’t “want to play” reminds reader of the boys’ age 129 —note how Ralph cannot say “beast” sense of word becoming unspeakable, taboo, like mention of the boy with the mark on his face 133 —Simon is in his hiding place by the spot where the pig will be killed, transition suggests that he was a witness to the killing of the sow 133 —narrator’s mention of the ragged black caps of the hunters and their once angelic voices suggests the proximity of good and evil 134 —killing of the sow suggests matricide, the irrationality of killing a nursing sow also underscores the idea that the boys are not hunting for food 135 —Roger’s sodomizing the sow with his spear gives the killing a clear sexual overtone; this is a thinly veiled rape/murder scene, demonstrative of the state of degradation to which the society has fallen 136 —sharpening of a stick at both ends prefigures ending of book; what to make of “a stick sharpened at both ends”? 137 —Simon sees the pig’s head as “dim with the infinite cynicism of adult life” 138 —narration gives name to the pig’s head; “Lord of the Flies,” a translation of a Hebrew word meaning “god of the insects,” often mistranslated as “fly god” 139 —Piggy says he sometimes doesn’t care about the fire after saying it was the only thing that could save his life; make analogy to smoking, seatbelts, etc. 140 —Is Piggy correct when he blames the breakup of society on Jack? 140 —Piggy grasps conch to protect himself from the threat of the hunters, an ironically vain gesture 142 —note how Ralph forgets purpose of fire, is reminded by Piggy 143 —Simon’s dialogue with the beast 143 —Simon’s repetition of “pig’s head on a stick” suggests his struggle to see things for their actuality, not their malignant symbolism, prefigures his recognition of the parachutist on the mountain 143 —Lord of the Flies’ statements all contain truth; “I’m part of you”; “I’m the reason why its no-go”; “You know perfectly well you’ll only meet me down there”
144 —“we’re going to have fun on this island” a demonic echo of Ralph’s sunny statement at the book’s opening 144 —Simon’s falling into the mouth of the beast suggestive of the archetypal hero’s journey in which he passes through death, often in the form of a cave; as the Christ story is an example of this, this passage further reinforces symbolic connection between Simon and Jesus
Chapter Nine 145 —threatening of a storm breaking foreshadows what’s to come 146 —as he ascends the mountain, Simon sees the “beast” raise his head, but continues to push through this moment of fear 146 —flies around parachutist’s head clearly connect him back to the pig’s head on a stick; the flies’ forming a cloud around the head and resettling allude to the beast/parachutist’s dual nature, between fact and illusion 146-7—Simon sees the nature of the beast; “pig’s head on a stick/dead parachutist on the mountaintop”; frees the parachutist from the entanglement of lines, frees the island from the illusion 149 —entire group coalesces around a common target of derision, Piggy 149 —Piggy and Ralph succumb to the temptation of the pig; pig is considered an unclean animal unfit for consumption by both Muslims and Jews 150 —thunder booms at Jack’s denunciation of the conch 151 —Jack’s “We shan’t hear it” ironically contrasts the propriety of his speech with the degradation of society; note that Piggy, whose grammar is the worst, is the most civilized of the group; calls to mind Nazis listening to Beethoven and Wagner 152 —note allure of the ritual that seems to contain rampant fear, even for Piggy and Ralph 152 —change in gender of possessive pronoun in chant; “... slit his throat ”; the mother has been violated and killed, the father is next? 152 —Simon crawls into the circle crying something about a dead man on a hill, Golgatha? 153 —at moment of Simon’s death, the parachutist blows out to sea; the ritual in which Simon has been killed has a cleansing effect 154 —Simon anointed by phosphorescent creatures, washed out to sea with the beast and the plane
Chapter Ten 155 —contrast between Piggy and Ralph’s degeneration and the conch and assembly place, which still seem undiminished 157 —Piggy, the rational man, rationalizes Simon’s death, even as it foreshadows his own 158 —new social code requires denial of Simon’s murder
190 —Ralph, still believing in the value of friendship, reveals his plans for hiding to Sam and Eric; could they represent the victims of fascist governments who became the perpetrators of fascist horrors? 192 —Ralph is betrayed by the twins 196 —Ralph is now the piglet from the first chapter 197 —hunters are willing to destroy the island to kill Ralph 199 —“You’ll get back” echoes the words of Simon to Ralph 200 —perspective change shown by reference to “little boys, their bodies streaked with colored clay...” 201 —the officer’s comment, “I saw your smoke,” is wickedly ironic 201 —Percival has forgotten his name 201 —Jack starts forward when officer asks who is boss 201 —they still don’t know how many of them are there 202 —how to interpret the last line? Why do the eyes of the officer “rest on the cruiser in the distance”?
Notes On Lord of the Flies 204 —Why does Golding say, “And who will rescue the adult and his cruiser”?
