Lord of the Flies Literary Analysis :)

General

1.       A plane full of British boys crashes into a deserted island. Leaders quickly arise and attempt to recreate civilization within the group. There’s a clash of interests between leadership; one wants rescue and the other hunting. The boys slowly deteriorate the structure of their old society as they begin to embrace their animalistic instincts. The original group breaks up and they begin to fight with each other to the point of a taken life of two innocent children. At the very brink of savagery the boys are saved by a passing ship. It is unknown to the reader how a reintroduction to civilized society will be handled by those who’ve gone beyond the borders of socially acceptable behavior and thought.

2.       I believe the theme of Lord of the Flies is that within us all is a constant conflict between savagery and civility. Only human will can decide which of those demons we let rule our behavior.

3.       William Golding portrayed the story in an unsettling tone. "'Maybe there is a beast....maybe it's only us.'" This is very disturbing to say the least, that a child would make a connection like that after such a short time period of self-governed existence. It’s also frightening to know that the boys could reach a state of savagery to where they would take another’s life without regret, at least in the physical sense. Golding tells his story in a way that is realistic so as to be unsettling to a people so used to rules and regulations. "Here, invisible yet strong, was the taboo of the old life."

4.       Connotations- The conch shell was used in this story to represent law, order and civility to the boys.

Denouement- This is the very end of the story after the climax. When the ship comes and rescues them.

Dialogue- Helped me get an understanding of the characters and their internal conflicts without having to listen in on their thoughts. "'after all we aren't savages really...'"

:)*Hyperbole- This was used frequently by the boys to help the reader further into the adolescent mind that is left without the guidance and protection of its origins. “’ We're English, and the English are best at everything.'" (Clearly not flying)

Irony- Helped me to enjoy the book by unintentionally making it funny to me. "The rock struck Piggy a glancing blow from chin to knee; the conch exploded into a thousand white fragments and ceased to exist." The symbol of law and order to be destroyed by a ricochet of savagery.

Gothic Details- The authors tone was well created by the at times horrifying settings that dwelled within the story and the imaginations of the children. Simons encounter with The Lord of the Flies (pig head on a stick that talks)

Personification- By giving the dead pig head the ability to speak (at least to Simon) it helped me relate it more deeply to my perceptions of the world and what governs it. It became not just a dead animal, but a symbol of human will and how it controls our minds and our actions.

Characterization

1.       Golding describes Piggy as fat and having glasses but later through his dialogue and actions shows Piggy to be the voice of reason and the last lingering hope for civilized society. As Ralph is introduced to the reader he is beautiful and strong, with the qualities and brains of a true leader. Once indirectly characterized through his decent from rules to instinct, Golding left in my mind a boy far from his roots and lost in his inability to remain the person he had always seen himself to be.

2.       William Golding doesn’t alter his syntax or diction when he focuses on character. His writing style is consistent throughout, helping to make the connection between man and wild because one is not written of any differently from the other.

3.       The protagonist, Ralph, is a very dynamic character. He starts off on the island as a symbol of law and regulation, and through time transitions to an instinctual beast with the lust for all that his former conscious had fought against. Ralph isn’t a round character however because we see only what is done and said on the outside. His flatness gives the reader the freedom to roam within their own wishes and imaginations of what he could be wanting and thinking at any moment. As far as the writings of Golding however, the reader is never to truly understand the thought process behind the boy turned beast.

4.       I feel I met a boy by reading Lord of the Flies. The writing felt to me as though I was there to witness a decent to madness firsthand and lose a rational and respectable friend to his primal instincts. Ralph wasn’t just a character in a story; he was human will destroying itself through its hopeless quest for what is right and true in the world. “Even the sounds of nightmare from the other shelters no longer reached him…” He was in my mind what a real person would, if lost from civilization, become.