Characters and context

About William Golding:
-Sir William Golding CBE was born on 19th September 1911 and died on the 19th of June 1993.
-15th September 1954 Lord of the flies is published
-He fought in WWII and thought strongly against war
-He was a teacher before and after the war
-Lord of the flies was greatly influenced by the kids in his class.

Characters:

Jack-He is 12 the same age as Ralph but is skinny and has red hair and described as 'ugly without silliness'. From the beginning, he has harboured strong emotions. At first, he was the leader of the choir group which became hunters. Finally, his savage personality lets him overtake Ralph and become chief.

Ralph-He is 12 with blonde hair and he is the most charismatic of the group. He is described as being 'built like a boxer' and initially chosen to be the leader because of his positive qualities. He remains in conflict with Jack through the entire book. Ralph and Piggy represent the struggle for democracy. He is also middle class seen by his language

Sam and Eric-They are young twins in the biggens group that do everything together. They represent unity

Piggy-He is 12, overweight, wears glasses and represents democracy. He is afflicted with Asmar or 'ass-mar' and doesn't do hard work on the island. He tries to cling to civilisation and keeping the peace, though being smart he lacks social skills. His glasses start fires, he keeps cleaning them to show his want to clear-sightedness. He is also working class and its shown from his language like 'we was attacked' and 'all them other kids'. This is another reason for the rest of the kids to make ridicule him

Roger-He is a small boy with dirty, shaggy black hair. He represents pure evil and immortality, he shows no mercy and is the first to kill another boy (Piggy). He receives sadistic pleasure from torturing pigs and boys, he is Jacks most loyal helper and carries out his orders.

Simon-He is younger than Ralph, Jack and Piggy but older than the littlens. He is good and pure and has a positive outlook. He is killed after being caught up in a savage dance.

Characters meaning:
Jack-savagery, anarchy
Roger-evil, satan
Simon-pure, goodness, 'Christ-like figure'
Ralph, the chonch-democracy, order
The island-a microcosm representing the world, the desert island symbolises being alone and separated from normal life, with Golding showing boys need society to stay civilised and islands aren't as idyllic as they seem
The 'scar'-man's destruction, destructive forces
The conch-democracy, law and order
The beast-evil residing in all of us, the dark side of human nature
Piggy and glasses-clear-sightedness, intelligence. Their state represents the social order.
Lord of the flies-the devil, great danger or evil
The fire-rescue, hope, destruction
Context:
-He believed there is always space for evil and when there is no consequences evil commits more evil and there was not just bad and good
-Peer pressure made the boys do what they did (except Jack)
-Jack represents communism/dictatorship, based on Hitler and his hunter's Nazis
-Ralph represents parliament and Britian
-He hated what Britain did in WWII
-The littlelins represent civilians
-Simon is like Jesus who was killed by the others
-without leadership, society breaks down and violence occurs
-Golding describes lord of the flies as 'Grief, sheer grief, grief, grief'

Clothing is used as a symbol of civilization. At the start everyone is civilized, with structure showing group identity. Over the book though Golding mentions that the clothing had been ripped and wearing away, this mirrors the way the boys are changing as well, the boys losing themselves, becoming disfigured.

This book was written as a opposite of Coral island, written by R. M. Ballantye, it was a novel about three shipwrecked children -Jack, Ralph and Peterkin- who enjoy a happy and civilised life on the island unlike in Lord of the flies. On the island the boys in coral island discover savages, the boys manage to defeat them and save the day. There are references to coral island in the Lord of the flies like when the naval officer says 'Jolly good show. Like Coral Island' Golding uses this in an ironic way to highlight the difference between the boy's and naval officer's expectations of being shipwrecked and the tragic and terrifying reality