Things to think about and pay attention to while reading Lord of the Flies
Our questions:
Will the boys survive? How?
How will they make decisions? Will they form a government? What causes or prevents disagreements?
What causes violence? What role does fear play? Does violence lurk with in us or is it learned?
Our O’Maley Experiment:
Imagine you are back in the middle school. The teachers leave. You don’t know why. Then you are sealed inside the middle school with your peers and no adults. What would happen?
How motifs (how they are described, how they are used, etc.) are significant literally and symbolically in Lord of the Flies:
The appearance of the island (the scar, the weather, etc.); the appearance of the boys (uniforms, hair, faces, etc.); the shell/conch; rocks; the glasses; the fire; the pig/boar; the “beast”
How characters (what they look like, say, and do; what others say about them and do to them) are significant literally and symbolically in Lord of the Flies:
Ralph, Piggy, Jack, Simon, Roger (other member of the choir), Sam and Eric (other older boys not in the choir), the littluns
How the titles of the chapters are significant literally and symbolically in Lord of the Flies.
(Thoughtful)
1. The Sound of the Shell
Compare and contrast the first chapter of Lord of the Flies with your thoughts about “The O’Maley Experiment”.
2. Fire on the Mountain
Explain the significance of the title of chapter two. Show that you have understood the relationship between the chapter and the title both literally and allegorically.
3. Huts on the Beach
Explain the literal and symbolic significance of the chapter’s title.
Explain the literal and symbolic significance of one of the characters in the chapter.
Explain the literal and symbolic significance of one of the motifs in the chapter.
4. Painted Faces and Long Hair
Write and respond to your own open-response question. Your question could relate to the O’Maley Experiment, the essential questions, the character you were assigned, the motif you were assigned, the chapter titles, or something else of significance. Your response should demonstrate both that you have understood what you have read and that you have thought about its significance to the work as a whole.
5. Beast from Water
Write and respond to your own open-response question. Your question could relate to the O’Maley Experiment, the essential questions, the character you were assigned, the motif you were assigned, the chapter titles, or something else of significance. Your response should demonstrate both that you have understood what you have read and that you have thought about its significance to the work as a whole.
6. “Beast from Air” and “Shadows and Tall Trees”
Write for ten minutes from the point of view of the character you were assigned. What have you seen over the past two chapters? What do you think about what has happened?
7. “Gift for the Darkness,” “A View to a Death,” “The Shell and the Glasses,” “Castle Rock,” “Cry of the Hunters”
Imagine that you are William Golding. From his point of view write a letter to the students of Gloucester High School explaining how a character and a motif (the ones you have been assigned) contribute to the meaning of the the novel, especially in the last five chapters. (You could write two letters one about the motif and one about the character, or you could weave the two together.)
While explaining how you, as the author, have used the character and the motif, cite at least three specific places where you, as Golding, use the character and three specific places where you, as Golding, use the motif. Make sure you explain how the parts -- the particular uses of the character & motif -- contribute to the novel as a whole.
(Tom asked the question, should we focus on the character's/motif's use overall or on specific scenes? I answered by saying you should have some big ideas about the character's & the motif's use overall and you should be able to support the big ideas with specific examples. Likewise you should be able to use the specific appearances of the character & motif to help you generate big ideas about how the character & motif contribute to the overall meaning.)
When thinking about Golding's point of view and Golding’s purpose in constructing the novel, consider some things Golding has written about the novel:
“The theme (of Lord of the Flies) is an attempt to trace the defects of society back to the defects of human nature. The moral is that the shape of society must depend on the ethical mature of the individual and not on any political system however apparently logical or respectable.”
“I believe that man suffers from an appalling ignorance of his own nature.”
Also perhaps consider William Golding's life. The following is an excerpt from the Nobel Prize website. (Golding won the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1983.)
"Taught at Bishop Wordsworth's School, Salisbury. Joined the Royal Navy in 1940 and spent six years afloat, except for seven months in New York and six months helping Lord Cherwell at the Naval Research Establishment. He saw action against battleships (at the sinking of the Bismarck), submarines and aircraft. Finished as Lieutenant in command of a rocket ship. He was present off the French coast for the D-Day invasion, and later at the island of Walcheren. After the war he returned to teaching [until 1962], and began to write again. Lord of the Flies, his first novel, was published in 1954."
And for more of Golding's views you'll find his Nobel Lecture here.
Your letter(s) should be 600 words or so and must be posted in the comment box by pumpkin time Friday, December 18.
