Research; Lord of the Flies: Themes

http://www.bbc.co.uk/schools/gcsebitesize/english_literature/proselordflies/3prose_lord_flies_themerev1.shtml

The main themes that run through Lord of the Flies are: Things breaking down, War, Violence, Relationships, The Island and Language.

Things breaking down

Golding himself wrote of his novel:

The boys try to construct a civilisation on the island; but it breaks down in blood and terror because the boys are suffering from the terrible disease of being  human.

Wiliam Golding

The central theme in Lord of the Flies is that of things breaking down. This is shown in a number of ways. Violence replaces peace, friends turn into enemies, life ends in savage death. Everything degenerates.

War

War is a running theme in the novel, starting from plane the boys were travelling in.

• The boys are on the island because the plane that was evacuating them from Britain during a fictional nuclear war was attacked. Piggy reminds Ralph: "Didn't you hear what the pilot said? About the atom bomb? They're all dead."
• Ralph is proud of his father - a commander in the Navy. So, the character who tries hardest to keep peace comes from a home that revolved around war.
• We know that the civilisation from which they were trying to escape is being destroyed. When Roger stops himself throwing stones at the littluns, we're told:"Roger's arm was conditioned by a civilisation that knew nothing of him and was in ruins."
• The dead parachutist who lands on the island was gunned down during an overhead battle.
• Ironically, the naval officer who comes to their rescue is himself involved in the war. The boys may have been saved from life on the island, but what sort of life are they going back to?

Violence

Violence is always present. It starts as a game, but grows more horrific throughout the novel. For example:

• When he first finds out Piggy's name,"Ralph danced out into the hot air of the beach and then returned as a fighter-plane, with wings swept back, and machine-gunned Piggy."
• When the first pig is killed, Jack boasts,"You should have seen the blood!"
• The ritual 'dance' revolves around violence: "Kill the pig. Cut her throat. Bash her in."
• The boys become like wild and savage animals: when Jack hunts a pig he is"ape-like"; Simon is killed by the "tearing of teeth and claws"; Ralph becomes like a hunted animal, not a boy, at the end: "He raised his spear, snarled a little, and waited."
• The murder of Simon is particularly horrific because it involves all the other boys - they get caught up in the frenzied chant: "The crowd ... leapt onto the beast, screamed, struck, bit, tore."

Relationships

All the friendships and good relationships on the island break down, either through bullying and violence or death.

• Ralph and Jack seem to be friends at the start, yet Ralph knows Jack is hurt when he is not elected chief. This rivalry for power is at the root of some of the violence.
• Ralph finds it hard even at an early stage to get things done. He and Simon are left to build the third shelter by themselves, because everyone else is too busy having fun. The community spirit of the assemblies is hard to maintain.
• Even the littluns' games involve violence and broken friendships. Once Roger watches them playing: "Percival had gone off, crying, and Johnny was left in triumphant possession of the castles."
• As pressure builds, the boys find that they have to take sides. When Jack defies Ralph and goes off alone, he challenges,"Anyone who wants to hunt when I do can come too." He ignores Ralph's effort to make peace.
• Jack's tribe becomes ruled by fear. Most boys don't want to be involved, but have no option. He keeps control by intimidating them and bullying them, such as when he ties up and beats Wilfred.
• Roger rules by terror too. When Samneric are captured, "Roger advanced upon them as one wielding a nameless authority."

The Island

The island slowly degrades as the story goes on, reflecting the break down of the boys' relationships.

• The island is first seen as like paradise, too good to be true. Ralph thinks: "Here at last was the imagined but never fully realised place leaping into real life".
• However, the island is soon found to contain many dangers. For example, coconuts fall from the trees and just miss injuring Roger, the sun burns them, and the isolation is a curse.
• Ralph reflects at the end that the island once had a "strange glamour", but becomes "scorched up like dead wood".
• All this echoes the Bible story of the Fall of Man, when Adam and Eve were cast out of Paradise as a punishment for disobeying God. The island becomes a burnt wasteland, as if as a punishment for all the violence committed by the boys.

Language

The language used by the boys progressively degenerates.

• At the start of the novel the youngest boys are called small boys. They become little'uns, littl'uns and finally littluns.
• Percival Wemys Madison gradually forgets his name and address. When the naval officer finds them, he has forgotten it completely.
• Jack starts off as Merridew - the name he would have been called at school - but soon becomes Jack, then Chief. His followers - originally the school choir - become his tribe and are eventually seen as savages, having lost their individual identity.
• Sam and Eric become Sam'n Eric and then Samneric

The Lord of the Flies

The title of the novel comes from the Arabic for one of the manifestations of the Devil. Baal-Zebub - or Beelzebub - means 'lord of the flies'.

In the novel, the pig's head on a stick, covered in flies, is a horrific symbol of how far the violence has come. The pig was killed by Jack and his hunters and the head is put on a stick as an offering to the 'beast'. Only Simon really appreciates that the 'beast' is actually the evil inside the boys themselves and it is that which is breaking things up.

So, the title of the novel reinforces the idea that we all have something of the 'devil' within us - and that the 'devil' can be released all too easily.