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William Golding
1911- 1993
 Born in England 1911 to an average middle-class
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family
Went to school at Oxford University
Started teaching English at an all boys prep school
in 1939
Joined the British Navy and entered WWII in 1940
Fought in Royal Navy during WWII
Participated in invasion of Normandy on D-Day
After war, went back to teaching until 1963 and
wrote LOTF in 1954, winning Nobel Prize for
Literature in 1983
Died in 1993.
Which events may have had the largest impact on his
life? Which may have influenced LOTF the most?
 WWII and teaching young men.
 How did they have such influence?
While serving in WWII…
 He saw the atrocities of war first hand, including torture,
death, bloodshed, etc.
 He was shocked by the horrors of Hitler’s Holocaust,
torturing of p.o.w.’s by the Japanese, and by the U.S. dropping
the atom bomb.
While teaching at an all boys school…
He observed how boys and young men acted toward each other and
learned some of the psychological tendencies of boys:
 Boys have a need for competition
 Boys have a desire for games and play as opposed to work
 Boys have a tendency to “act up” when adults are not around
 Boys tend to be cruel and physically aggressive toward others
 Allegorical
 Allusions to
 Classical literature
 Mythology
 Christian Symbolism
Allegory
A narrative in which the characters and their actions, and
sometimes the setting, are put together by the author to
make literal meaning, but also to have a second, often
symbolic, meaning.
Two types of allegories:
fable- a short narrative that explains human behavior or
morals (Aesop)
parable- a narrative about human beings used by the
author to teach his or her audience a lesson (Bible tales)
symbols – anything that stands for or represents
something else. Symbols point to meaning
beyond what they are.
Writers often use conventional symbols for
meanings. Others create their own symbols by
emphasis or repetition. Each method intends to
make a point, create a mood, or reinforce a theme.
What are the meaning of these conventional symbols?
The color green
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“It was simply what seemed sensible for me to
write after the war when everyone was thanking
God they weren’t Nazi’s. I’d seen enough to realize
that every single one of us could be Nazi’s.”
 William Golding on his novel Lord of the Flies
 Set in mid 1940’s when Europe engulfed in war.
 A plane carrying British school boys is mistaken for a
military craft and shot down.
 Only the boys survive the crash, and try to form a
society and govern themselves.
 Civilization vs. Savagery
 Loss of Innocence
 Original Sin
 Fear that separates one from God
 Nature of Good and Evil
 Goodness is rare and fleeting
 Biblical parallels (book criticized for re-telling
episodes in the Bible)
 Pristine places corrupted by evil
 Beel’zebub- Hebrew translation for Lord of the flies
 The Conch- Civilization and order
The Beast- The fear that separates man from God
 Piggy’s Glasses- Reason, science and insight
 Lord of the Flies- Evil
 Fire Signal- Hope, salvation
 John Hobbes
 English Philosopher: 1588- 1679
 Man is by nature selfishly individualistic
 Man constantly at war with other men
 Fear of violent death is sole motivation to create
civilizations
 Men need to be controlled by absolute sovereignty to
avoid brutish behavior
 WWII 1939- 1945
 The fall of France to Nazi Germany in1940
 Britain feared an invasion and evacuated
children to other countries
 1940- A German U-Boat torpedoed British ship
carrying children killing the boys, thus
suspending the oversees evacuation program
 1939- Britain joined France in war against Nazi Germany
 1940- Fall of France
 1940- Fascist Italy joins the Axis with Germany
 1941- Japan attacks Pearl Harbor causing USA to declare war on Japan and
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enter the world war
1944- D-Day Normandy Landings
1945- Bombing of Dresden
1945- European victory celebrated
1945- Atomic Bomb dropped in Hiroshima immediately killing 60-80,000
people (final death toll 135,000 people)
 Death and destruction abound!!!
 Allusion- (n.) an indirect reference to something
There are many, many modern day allusions to Lord of
the Flies in popular culture.
For example….
 The Simpson’s
episode titled Das
Bus is a parody of
Lord of the Flies.
 MarK Burnett’s CBS
island show is said to
have been inspired by
LOTF.
 The episode Club
Spongebob is a
spoof of LOTF.
 Bands such as Taking
Back Sunday, Nine
Inch Nails, AFI, Iron
Maiden, and Pink
Floyd have written
songs about or have
alluded to LOTF in
their music.