Useful Data
Film adaptations
There have been two film adaptations:
Lord of the Flies (1963), directed by Peter Brook
Lord of the Flies (1990), directed by Harry Hook
Audiobooks
Lord of the Flies (1999), read by Tim Pigott-Smith
Lord of the Flies (Listening Library, 2005), read by the author
References to other works
Lord of the Flies borrows key elements from R. M. Ballantyne's The Coral Island (1857). Ballantyne's book, a simple adventure without any deep social themes, portrays three boys, Ralph, Peterkin and Jack, who land on an island. Golding used two of the names in his book, and replaced Peterkin with Simon. Lord of the Flies has been regarded as Golding's response showing what he believed would happen if children (or generally, people) were left to form a society in isolation.[5]
Golding read 'The Coral Island' as he was growing up, and thought of Ballantyne as racist, since the book teaches that evil is associated with black skin and is external] In Chapter 11 of the original Lord of the Flies, Piggy calls Jack's tribe "a pack of painted niggers."[6] This was changed to "savages" in some editions and "Indians" in the mass media publication.
Influence
Many writers have borrowed plot elements from Lord of the Flies.
Printed works
Robert A. Heinlein's Tunnel in the Sky, published in 1955, can be seen as a rebuttal to Lord of the Flies as it concerns a group of teenagers stranded on an uninhabited planet who manage to create a functional tribal society.[7]
Stephen King has stated that the Castle Rock in Lord of the Flies was the inspiration for the town of the same name that has appeared in a number of his novels. The book itself also appears prominently in his novels Hearts in Atlantis and Cujo.[8] King's fictional town in turn inspired the name of Rob Reiner's production company, Castle Rock Entertainment.
The young adult novel Gone, by Michael Grant, is closely related, with all of the adults and teens above 14 disappearing, leaving the rest to fend for and attempt to govern themselves.
Television
Lord of the Flies inspired Sunrise Animation's classic anime series Infinite Ryvius, which follows the lives of nearly 500 teenagers stranded aboard a space battleship.
Also the "Das Bus" episode of The Simpsons is based on this book. The episode Kamp Krusty also has several elements from Lord of the Flies as well (a pig's head on a spear, kids using primitive weapons and wearing war paint and a burning effigy).
The ABC television show Lost has also shown loose similarities to the book.
The South Park episode The Wacky Molestation Adventure parodies Lord of the Flies, in which Eric Cartman represents Ralph, while Stan Marsh and Kyle Broflovski both represent Jack. In a twist of irony, the civilised tribe in the episode (Cartman's tribe) is more evil than the savage tribe. Kenny McCormick may have represented Simon, because he was seen dead by a couple trying to discover what went wrong.
In the Two and a Half Men episode "The Salmon Under My Sweater" in Two and a Half Men (Season 2), Jake has to read Lord of the Flies for a book report.
Music
The English heavy metal band Iron Maiden composed a song about the novel, with the title "Lord of the Flies".
The American hard rock band Aerosmith composed a song about a pimp and his stable of women, with the title "Lord of the Thighs" which was a take off and play on Lord of the Flies.
The debut studio album, Boy, by Irish rock band U2 was loosely based on the novel's theme of childhood corruption, and the final song on the album, "Shadows and Tall Trees," takes its title from the novel's chapter of the same name. Additionally, some printings of the book's cover are similar to the cover of the album.[9]
American punk rock band Bad Religion referenced the novel in the song "1000 More Fools", from their 1988 album Suffer: "I've seen the rapture in a starving baby's eyes, Inchoate beatitude, the Lord of the Flies".
American punk rock group The Offspring referenced the title of the book on their song "You're Gonna Go Far, Kid" off their latest studio effort, Rise and Fall, Rage and Grace
References
^ "The 100 Most Frequently Challenged Books of 1900–2000". American Library Association. 2007. http://www.ala.org/ala/aboutala/offices/oif/bannedbooksweek/bbwlinks/100mostfrequently.cfm. Retrieved on 2007-03-27.
^ "The Complete List: TIME Magazine – ALL-TIME 100 Novels". TIME. 2005. http://www.time.com/time/2005/100books/the_complete_list.html. Retrieved on 2007-05-12.
^ Fenlon, John Francis. (1907). "Beelzebub" - Catholic Encyclopedia. - Vol. 2. New York: Robert Appleton Company. - Retrieved: May 29, 2008
^ http://www.sparknotes.com/lit/flies/themes.html
^ Johnson, Arnold (1980). Of Earth and Darkness. The Novels of William Golding. Missouri: University of Missouri Press. pp. 132.
^ Green Paint: Mysteries of William Golding’s Lord of the Flies « Great War Fiction
^ Wagner, Thomas M. (2006). "Robert A. Heinlein: Tunnel in the Sky". SF Reviews.net. http://www.sfreviews.net/tunnel_in_the_sky.html. Retrieved on 2007-03-27.
^ "Stephen King (1947-)". Authors' Calendar. 2003. http://www.kirjasto.sci.fi/sking.htm. Retrieved on 2007-03-27.
^ Bailie, Stuart (1992-06-13). "Rock and Roll Should Be This Big!". NME. http://www.atu2.com/news/article.src?ID=1625. Retrieved on 2007-11-28.
External links
The Lord of the Flies: A Study Guide
Criterion Collection essay by Peter Brook
Slashdoc: Lord of the Flies Literary analysis of the novel
Nobelprize.org: Play the Lord of the Flies Game
Lord of the Flies characters and plot
Lord of the Flies Reviews
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lord_of_the_Flies
29 jun 2009
Chapters 2 & 3
Chapter 2
Deadline July 8th
Golding's portrayals of the main characters among the group of boys contributes to the allegorical quality of Lord of the Flies, as several of the boys stand for larger concepts.
Illustrate with at least three examples ( quotations) the descriptions of these three characters.
Ralph, the protagonist of the novel, stands for civilization, morality, and leadership,
Jack, the antagonist, stands for the desire for power, selfishness, and amorality.
Piggy represents the scientific and intellectual aspects of civilization
“Their (the boys´) instinctive drive to play and gratify their immediate desires undermines their ability to act collectively” Describe what consequences this causes.
Chapter 3
In this chapter the different attitudes to life on the island of Ralph, Jack and Simon are clarified much more deeply. How exactly would you describe the nature of the conflict between Jack and Ralph- “two continents of experience and feeling, unable to communicate”? What is the nature of Simon´s experience and feeling?
Reading Schedule - Chapter 1
Lord of the Flies
Ch 1 The Sound of the Shell June 19th
Ch 2 Fire on the Mountain
Ch 3 Huts on the Beach June 26th
Ch 4 Painted Faces and Long Hair July 3rd
Ch 5 Beast from Water July 10th
WRITTEN TEST July 17th
Ch 6 Beast from Air
Ch 7 Shadows and Tall Trees
Ch 8 Gift from the Darkness
Ch 9 A View to a Death
ORAL TEST August 7th
Ch 10 The Shell and the Glasses
Ch 11 Castle Rock August 14th
Ch 12 Cry of the Hunters August 21st
TERM TEST - PORTFOLIO August 28th
The Sound of the Shell
1) In R.M Ballantyne´s Coral Island the marooned boys create a civilization in the wilderness. In this first chapter, how is the Coral Island glamour of this island conveyed?
2) What suggestions are there that the glamour may be an illusion?
3) In the conch and the election lie the beginnings of government. How successful is it likely to be and why?
4) How much do you already know about Ralph, Piggy, Jack, Simon and Roger?
5) *Re-read from “He jumped down from the terrace” to “ Ralph stood up and trotted along to the right”.
How would you say Golding manages to establish the characters of these two boys in this passage and hint at the problems that lie ahead for both of them on this island?
Ch 1 The Sound of the Shell June 19th
Ch 2 Fire on the Mountain
Ch 3 Huts on the Beach June 26th
Ch 4 Painted Faces and Long Hair July 3rd
Ch 5 Beast from Water July 10th
WRITTEN TEST July 17th
Ch 6 Beast from Air
Ch 7 Shadows and Tall Trees
Ch 8 Gift from the Darkness
Ch 9 A View to a Death
ORAL TEST August 7th
Ch 10 The Shell and the Glasses
Ch 11 Castle Rock August 14th
Ch 12 Cry of the Hunters August 21st
TERM TEST - PORTFOLIO August 28th
The Sound of the Shell
1) In R.M Ballantyne´s Coral Island the marooned boys create a civilization in the wilderness. In this first chapter, how is the Coral Island glamour of this island conveyed?
2) What suggestions are there that the glamour may be an illusion?
3) In the conch and the election lie the beginnings of government. How successful is it likely to be and why?
4) How much do you already know about Ralph, Piggy, Jack, Simon and Roger?
5) *Re-read from “He jumped down from the terrace” to “ Ralph stood up and trotted along to the right”.
How would you say Golding manages to establish the characters of these two boys in this passage and hint at the problems that lie ahead for both of them on this island?
Introduction -
BIOGRAPHY
William golding was born on September 19, 1911, in Cornwall, England. Although he tried to write a novel as early as age twelve, his parents urged him to study the natural sciences. Golding followed his parents' wishes until his second year at Oxford, when he changed his focus to English literature. After graduating from Oxford, he worked briefly as a theater actor and director, wrote poetry, and then became a schoolteacher. In 1940, a year after England entered World War II, Golding joined the Royal Navy, where he served in command of a rocket-launcher and participated in the invasion of Normandy.
Golding's experience in World War II had a profound effect on his view of humanity and the evils of which it was capable. After the war, Golding resumed teaching and started to write novels. His first and greatest success came with Lord of the Flies (1954), which ultimately became a bestseller in both Britain and the United States after more than twenty publishers rejected it. The novel's sales enabled Golding to retire from teaching and devote himself fully to writing. Golding wrote several more novels, notably Pincher Martin (1956), and a play, The Brass Butterfly (1958). Although he never matched the popular and critical success he enjoyed with Lord of the Flies, he remained a respected and distinguished author for the rest of his life and was awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1983. Golding died in 1993, one of the most acclaimed writers of the second half of the twentieth century.
CONTEXT
Ø Read the following information on the context of this great novel. Underline the most important ideas.
Lord of the Flies tells the story of a group of English schoolboys marooned on a tropical island after their plane is shot down during a war. Though the novel is fictional, its exploration of the idea of human evil is at least partly based on Golding's experience with the real-life violence and brutality of World War II. Free from the rules and structures of civilization and society, the boys on the island in Lord of the Flies descend into savagery. As the boys splinter into factions, some behave peacefully and work together to maintain order and achieve common goals, while others rebel and seek only anarchy and violence. In his portrayal of the small world of the island, Golding paints a broader portrait of the fundamental human struggle between the civilizing instinct—the impulse to obey rules, behave morally, and act lawfully—and the savage instinct—the impulse to seek brute power over others, act selfishly, scorn moral rules, and indulge in violence.
Golding employs a relatively straightforward writing style in Lord of the Flies, one that avoids highly poetic language, lengthy description, and philosophical interludes. Much of the novel is allegorical, meaning that the characters and objects in the novel are infused with symbolic significance that conveys the novel's central themes and ideas. In portraying the various ways in which the boys on the island adapt to their new surroundings and react to their new freedom, Golding explores the broad spectrum of ways in which humans respond to stress, change, and tension.
Readers and critics have interpreted Lord of the Flies in widely varying ways over the years since its publication. During the 1950s and 1960s, many readings of the novel claimed that Lord of the Flies dramatizes the history of civilization. Some believed that the novel explores fundamental religious issues, such as original sin and the nature of good and evil. Others approached Lord of the Flies through the theories of the psychoanalyst Sigmund Freud, who taught that the human mind was the site of a constant battle among different impulses—the id (instinctual needs and desires), the ego (the conscious, rational mind), and the superego (the sense of conscience and morality). Still others maintained that Golding wrote the novel as a criticism of the political and social institutions of the West. Ultimately, there is some validity to each of these different readings and interpretations of Lord of the Flies. Although Golding's story is confined to the microcosm of a group of boys, it resounds with implications far beyond the bounds of the small island and explores problems and questions universal to the human experience.
http://www.sparknotes.com/lit/flies/context.html
William golding was born on September 19, 1911, in Cornwall, England. Although he tried to write a novel as early as age twelve, his parents urged him to study the natural sciences. Golding followed his parents' wishes until his second year at Oxford, when he changed his focus to English literature. After graduating from Oxford, he worked briefly as a theater actor and director, wrote poetry, and then became a schoolteacher. In 1940, a year after England entered World War II, Golding joined the Royal Navy, where he served in command of a rocket-launcher and participated in the invasion of Normandy.
Golding's experience in World War II had a profound effect on his view of humanity and the evils of which it was capable. After the war, Golding resumed teaching and started to write novels. His first and greatest success came with Lord of the Flies (1954), which ultimately became a bestseller in both Britain and the United States after more than twenty publishers rejected it. The novel's sales enabled Golding to retire from teaching and devote himself fully to writing. Golding wrote several more novels, notably Pincher Martin (1956), and a play, The Brass Butterfly (1958). Although he never matched the popular and critical success he enjoyed with Lord of the Flies, he remained a respected and distinguished author for the rest of his life and was awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1983. Golding died in 1993, one of the most acclaimed writers of the second half of the twentieth century.
CONTEXT
Ø Read the following information on the context of this great novel. Underline the most important ideas.
Lord of the Flies tells the story of a group of English schoolboys marooned on a tropical island after their plane is shot down during a war. Though the novel is fictional, its exploration of the idea of human evil is at least partly based on Golding's experience with the real-life violence and brutality of World War II. Free from the rules and structures of civilization and society, the boys on the island in Lord of the Flies descend into savagery. As the boys splinter into factions, some behave peacefully and work together to maintain order and achieve common goals, while others rebel and seek only anarchy and violence. In his portrayal of the small world of the island, Golding paints a broader portrait of the fundamental human struggle between the civilizing instinct—the impulse to obey rules, behave morally, and act lawfully—and the savage instinct—the impulse to seek brute power over others, act selfishly, scorn moral rules, and indulge in violence.
Golding employs a relatively straightforward writing style in Lord of the Flies, one that avoids highly poetic language, lengthy description, and philosophical interludes. Much of the novel is allegorical, meaning that the characters and objects in the novel are infused with symbolic significance that conveys the novel's central themes and ideas. In portraying the various ways in which the boys on the island adapt to their new surroundings and react to their new freedom, Golding explores the broad spectrum of ways in which humans respond to stress, change, and tension.
Readers and critics have interpreted Lord of the Flies in widely varying ways over the years since its publication. During the 1950s and 1960s, many readings of the novel claimed that Lord of the Flies dramatizes the history of civilization. Some believed that the novel explores fundamental religious issues, such as original sin and the nature of good and evil. Others approached Lord of the Flies through the theories of the psychoanalyst Sigmund Freud, who taught that the human mind was the site of a constant battle among different impulses—the id (instinctual needs and desires), the ego (the conscious, rational mind), and the superego (the sense of conscience and morality). Still others maintained that Golding wrote the novel as a criticism of the political and social institutions of the West. Ultimately, there is some validity to each of these different readings and interpretations of Lord of the Flies. Although Golding's story is confined to the microcosm of a group of boys, it resounds with implications far beyond the bounds of the small island and explores problems and questions universal to the human experience.
http://www.sparknotes.com/lit/flies/context.html
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