Lord of the Flies

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Lord of the Flies

"Maybe there is a beast. Maybe it's only us." (Original UK book cover)
Written by:	William Golding
Central Theme:
Synopsis:
Genre(s):	Allegory, Robinsonade Deconstruction
First published:	September 17, 1954

"We are going to have fun on this island."

Lord of the Flies is a 1954 novel written by William Golding. It is a Deconstruction of the Kids Wilderness Epic and Robinsonade. A plane full of British schoolboys crashes on a Deserted Island, and the darkness of humanity spills forth as they turn against each other.

It had three film adaptations, the most notable ones being from 1963 and 1990. Referenced and parodied in various media. The book is very popular for English Literature assignments in High School on both sides of the Pond and Down Under, thanks to its themes about morality and authority.

The best-known example (and possibly the Trope Maker) of a Teenage Wasteland, even when all the kids are under the age of fifteen.

Tropes used in Lord of the Flies include:

• After the End: The boys were on a plane fleeing the soon-to-be-nuked UK. Partially averted in that, though the home country is apparently in dire straits, the British Navy is still out doing its job as best as possible. May have verged into Cozy Catastrophe if it wasn't for the fact that mention of the war was a very minor framing device with little direct bearing on the story.
• Ambition Is Evil: Jack. His desire to be leader is evident from the outset.
• Animal Motifs: A sow's head on a pike, slowly decaying, serves as the metaphor for the decay of children's morals, thus making them closer to hoglike greed.
  • The title itself is a reference to Beelzebub.
• Anyone Can Die: And it's far from pretty.
• Artistic License Physics: The divergent lens of Piggy's glasses (required for his short-sightedness) would be useless for lighting a fire. You would need a convergent lens, found in reading glasses.
  • It's easy to assume Piggy is farsighted until, at the beginning of chapter eleven, it says: "Piggy sat expressionless behind the luminous wall of his myopia." The concave lenses needed to fix myopia are incapable of focusing light to a point, thus incapable of starting a fire. Whether Golding was unaware of that distinction or had myopia and hyperopia confused, the net result is a clear-cut case of Did Not Do the Research.
• Big Bad: Jack Merridew.
• Big No: Ralph's reaction to Piggy before he's about to be killed by a rock, dropped by Roger, in the 90's remake.
• Bittersweet Ending: The timely arrival of the British Navy is considered the only thing standing in between this ending and a Downer Ending. The ending is still far too dark when Ralph realized the evil inside him and he wept.

"Ralph wept for the end of innocence, the darkness of man's heart, and the fall through the air of the true, wise friend called Piggy."

• Black and Grey Morality: Essentially. A number of those who side with Ralph are closer to the white side, but they're certainly not saints.
  • The only character who is really above this is Simon. His foil, Roger, is established as someone who's pretty far on the black side.
• Blind Without'Em: Piggy.
• Blonde, Brunette, Redhead: Ralph is described as being 'fair-haired', Piggy and Simon are dark-haired, and Jack is a redhead.
• Break the Cutie: All the kids to some extent. In the case of Piggy and Simon, Kill the Cutie.
• Butt Monkey: Piggy, oh so much. He is the one person who can unite everyone else...because they all enjoy laughing at him and feel connected by excluding Piggy. Even Ralph.
• Children Are Innocent: So freaking averted.
• Coming of Age Story: In a way. Ralph quickly discovers that leading has a whole bunch of responsibilities.
• Crapsack World: Very much so.
• Dare to Be Badass: Piggy, especially considering he's the most Non-Action Guy of the survivors...
• Deserted Island
• Deus Ex Machina: Ralph is rescued by the Royal Navy at the last minute, effectively out of the blue. This was intentional, as the Naval Officer is important in rounding off the themes of the story, and the sudden abruptness with which he appears (with absolutely no foreshadowing) is crucial to highlighting the rapidity with which the appearance of an authority can change everything.
  • Lampshaded in The Simpsons Whole-Plot Reference "Das Bus";

Eventually, the kids were rescued, by... oh, let's say... Moe.

• • See also the Word of God in Inferred Holocaust
• Dewey Defeats Truman: Lord of the Flies is actually set in the near future (of 1956), after a nuclear war between the USSR and Britain. This is mentioned by some of the boys in the book (along with the existence of nuclear bombs and their use), although usually in passing.
• Disaster Democracy

• Double Entendre: The scene where the screaming sow is killed with sharpened sticks is written as a gang-rape...
  • The scene where the kids reinact this, using Robert as a replacement pig, is even worse, what with lines like "Ralph too was fighting to get near, to get a handful of that brown, vulnerable flesh."
• The Dragon: Roger becomes this to Jack as his tribe's executioner.
• Dying for Symbolism: The makeshift society gradually goes into chaos, and when Simon dies, it represents the death of the innocence of the kids on the island.
• Enemy Within: "Maybe there is no monster on the island. Maybe... it's just us..."
• Enfant Terrible: Jack and Roger.
• Even Evil Has Standards: Even though he hated Piggy even Jack is terrified when Roger murders him.
  • Although he recovers quickly and threatens Ralph with the same fate, crossing the Moral Event Horizon.
• Evil Redhead: Jack.
• Expository Hairstyle Change: As the months pass, all the boys' hair becomes long and shaggy (except for the wise Piggy's), and, especially for our hero, Ralph, starts obscuring their vision.
• Five-Man Band: Initially with the few named boys, but it becomes subverted in the end with Jack and Roger pulling a Face Heel Turn.
  • The Hero: Ralph.
  • The Lancer: Jack, but eventually pulls a Face Heel Turn and becomes the main antagonist.
  • The Smart Guy: Piggy.
  • The Big Guy: Roger, but eventually pulls a Face Heel Turn and becomes The Dragon to Jack.
  • The Chick: Simon.
• Four-Temperament Ensemble: Ralph is Sanguine, Piggy is Melancholic, Jack is Choleric, and Simon is Phlegmatic.
• Genre Savvy: Ralph describes being on an island "Like a book." Which causes many of the littluns to name out titles such as "Treasure Island" and similar stories.
• Hannibal Lecture: Given by the Lord of the Flies to Simon.
• He Who Fights Monsters: Jack and his choir and eventually almost every boy on the island turn into savage beasts in their obsession with killing the beast.
• Hobbes Was Right
• Humans Are the Real Monsters: The book is the epitome of this trope.
• Incorruptible Pure Pureness: Simon, who is usually described by literary critics as a Christ-like figure. He still gets broken, though.
• Inferred Holocaust: The navy shows up at the end to rescue the boys. It seems like a happy ending... until you remember that a nuclear war had been going on at the start of the book, which means that Britain (and the rest of the world) is most likely in a sorry state. Not exactly the best thing to come home to after struggling for survival on a remote island.
  • As Word of God put it:

"The officer, having interrupted a manhunt, prepares to take the children off the island in a cruiser which will presently be hunting its enemy in the same implacable way. And who will save the adult and his cruiser?"

• Irony: Ralph wants to keep the fire lit to attract rescue. Jack wants the fire snuffed out so their fun won't end. Jack manages to draw the attention of the Royal Navy by setting fire to the entire island in an attempt to kill Ralph. It is implied that they wouldn't have noticed the island at all otherwise.
• It Gets Easier: Roger escalates from hitting "littluns" with rocks to leading the boys in killing Simon in mass hysteria to outright murdering Piggy.
• It Got Worse: Mainly in the last 5 chapters.
• Kids Are Cruel / Teens Are Monsters: Big time, especially with Roger. The islanders are particularly mean to Piggy.
• Lampshade Hanging: The officer who rescues them just as Ralph is about to be killed remarks, "Just like Coral Island, eh?", with said book being one of the cheerier Rousseau Was Right novels.
• Madness Mantra: Percival Wemys Madison, The Vicarage, Harcourt Street, Anthony, Hants, telephone, telephone, tele–
  • "Kill the beast! Cut his throat! Spill his blood!"
• Meaningful Name: Three of the main characters are named directly after Coral Island characters. The fourth? Simon from Peterkin.
• The Messiah: Simon, who understands a lot more than the other boys. The description of his death makes it sound like an atonement sacrifice, which only makes it worse when it doesn't actually help save anyone.
• Murder by Mistake: Simon's death at the hands of the other boys.
• Naming Conventions: At that time and place, the pupils should be on a Last-Name Basis and Jack insists on "Merridew", but everyone quickly accepts First-Name Basis, except for Piggy, whose nickname started out as an insult. Due to this, none of the important characters has his full name revealed except for Jack.
• Nice Job Fixing It, Villain: Jack has the entire island on fire to kill Ralph - the massive amounts of smoke actually summon a Naval ship, which Ralph and Piggy had been awaiting the whole book long.
• No Good Deed Goes Unpunished: In order to soften the blow of losing his leadership to him, Ralph declares Jack leader of the hunters. This earnest gesture can largely be seen as the beginning of the end, as it inadvertently sows the seeds of a rival faction with Jack at its head.
• Nothing Is Scarier:
  • None of the characters ever actually see the Beast (because it doesn't exist), but that's part of what makes it so scary to them. There's one point where they do believe they've finally seen it, but it's actually Simon coming to warn them of what they actually saw a couple of nights ago. This leads to the belief that the beast is a shapeshifter in the aftermath of one of the book's most tragic moments, so in a sense, Simon was right: the Beast was in them all along.
  • The world beyond the island is treated this way, since it’s implied that the world is in the middle of a nuclear war, and the boys have never left home under these circumstances before. Because they're appropriately on an island far away from the action, we never know what is going on in the vast configuration of things. William Golding originally wrote an extended version of the first chapter which mentioned the war and the plane crash in great detail. Had Lord of the Flies been published with said details intact, the exact knowledge of the novel's backstory would not have been left as an exercise for the reader.
• Oh Crap: Ralph, upon seeing Sam and Eric fighting each other, realizes how screwed his order is.

• Freudian Trio: Again, a deconstruction.
  • Id: Jack.
  • Ego: Ralph.
  • Superego: Piggy (or Simon, if you think that makes more sense).
• One-Scene Wonder: The titular Lord of the Flies only appears at the end of chapter eight.
• Only Known by Their Nickname: Piggy, whose nickname started out as an insult. Ralph never bothers to learn his real name.
• Only Sane Man: Piggy and Simon. Possibly Ralph as well.
• Parachute in a Tree: The 'monster' is actually a dead parachuter.
• Primal Fear / Paranoia Fuel / Your Mind Makes It Real : What gradually leads the boys into becoming superstitious and violent savages.
• Psychic Nosebleed: Simon and his feverish confrontation/hallucination with the pig's head.
• Psycho for Hire: Roger
• Putting on the Reich: Jack's attitude, rhetoric and eventual reign over the other boys have strong shades of Nazi Germany. His mud mask is a striking design in red, white and black...
• Red Oni, Blue Oni: Jack and Ralph, respectively.
• River of Insanity
• Robinsonade
• Rule of Symbolism: Most of the book. Jack insists on being called "Merridew" and leads a choir. Eventually, after he discovers how to kill, his group degenerates into savagery. Sound similar to the story of anyone we know? Oh, and the spectral corpse on the mountain that terrifies everyone is the Shadow of War, harmless in fact (the pilot is dead), but terrifying to look at.
  • The, ah, 'spearing' of a mother pig.
• Satan: "Lord of the Flies" is a literal translation of the Hebrew "Baalzevuv", root of the modern "Beelzebub". (The ancient Philistines worshiped the lightning god Ba'al, referring to him as "Ba'al Zebûb", or "Lord of Zebûb". "Ba'al Zebûb" sounds very close to "Lord of the Flies" in Hebrew. The ancient Israelites used this fact to mock their enemies.)
• Single-Minded Twins: Sort of. Sam and Eric are separate people, but separately, they can't do anything. They are treated as one person: Samneric.
• Small Secluded World
• The Sociopath: Roger.
• Solar-Powered Magnifying Glass: Piggy's glasses are used to set fires.
• Spell My Name with a "The": Averted. It's 'Lord of the Flies,' not 'The Lord Of The Flies.'
• Take That: To The Coral Island.
• Teenage Wasteland: The children have to figure out how to govern themselves on the island. It doesn't go well. Possibly the Trope Maker.
• Those Two Guys: Samneric.
• Title Drop
• Too Good for This Sinful Earth: Simon.
• Tribal Face Paint: Featured with Jack and the hunters. One of the chapters is, after all, named "Painted Faces and Long Hair".

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And whatever you do, we mustn't let the fire go out. Because... because...oh God, I can't remember.