Lord of the flies contextual questions. Flashcards
CP2. How do Ralph, Piggy and Jack respond to the idea of rules?
Ralph seems to think that the rules will promote order and allow the boys to
live fairly with one another. Jack delights in the idea of using the rules as a
means for control and punishment. This emphasises his tendency toward
violence. Piggy, as the brainiest of the three central characters, views the
rules as useful tools for survival.
CP2.What do you think about Ralph’s leadership style in this chapter? What are his
strengths and weaknesses as a leader?
Ralph is a calming, authoritative presence among the boys. When fear sets in
among some of the younger boys, only Ralph has the presence to restore
order and hope.
CP2.Think about Piggy’s value to the group of boys. What does he bring? How is
his input also negative?
Piggy can think clearly and assess things accurately. He brings logic and
order to the group, but he can also be pessimistic, and his fatalism can cause
the other boys to lose hope.
CP5. List the things that Ralph addresses at the assembly.
He addresses the fact that the boys did not do what they said they would with regard
to the drinking water and that everyone did not help to build shelters, resulting
in the last one being “tottery”. He addresses some hygiene issues - that the boys
should use the rocks for lavatories. He stresses the supreme importance of
keeping the signal fire going. He also forbids any boy from making his own
separate fire and said that if anyone wanted to cook something, he should go to the
signal fire. Addressing the spreading fear among the littluns.
CP5.Piggy does not believe in the beast, but he does concede that there may be
reason to fear something. According to him, what could the boys be afraid of? Who
is Piggy afraid of and why?
He believes the only reasonable thing to fear on the island is “people”, that is, each
other. is afraid of Jack.He believes that Jack hates Ralph passionately
but he can’t hurt Ralph so he lashes out at Piggy instead: “He can’t hurt you: but if
you stand out of the way he’d hurt the next thing. And that’s me.
CP5.Who goes off alone in the dark at night? What does this tell us about him?
Simon goes off alone. This tells us that he is not afraid of the beast.
Cp5.“What are we? Humans? Or animals? Or savages? What’s the grown-ups going
to think? Going off – hunting pigs – letting fires out – and now!”
Who says this?
Piggy.
Cp5.Contrast the way Ralph feels at the start of the novel, about there being no adults
on the island, with the way he feels at the end of chapter five. Please quote to
support your answer.
He is exhilarated at the thought of there being no adults in the beginning: “the
delight of a realised ambition overcame him… he stood on his head and grinned…”
Now, as he thinks about when they first arrived on the island, he considers it
“part of a brighter childhood” implying that he was innocent then but has had to
mature and face some harsh realities in the meantime.
Cp6. What do the boys find on the island in this chapter?
the body of a dead parachutist
Cp6. What is Ralph’s priority as he ventures into the jungle with Jack?
to spark the signal fire.
Cp8.Consider this quote from chapter eight:
“There isn’t anyone to help you. Only me. And I’m the Beast. . . . Fancy thinking the
Beast was something you could hunt and kill! . . . You knew, didn’t you? I’m part of
you? Close, close, close! I’m the reason why it’s no go? Why things are the way they
are?”
Put this quote in context. In other words, what has just happened? Who is speaking
to whom? Where are they?
This quote is from Chapter 8, soon after Jack and his followers kill a sow and
skewer her head onto a wooden spear. They do this in a clearing, a place
where Simon goes to find peace in nature. At the same time the boys kill the
sow, Simon seeks refuge in his hideaway, and after the boys have left, Simon
leaves his hideaway to enter the clearing and hallucinates that the Lord of the
Flies - the sow’s head - talks to him.
Cp8.How does the “Lord of the Flies” literally get its name? What is the Biblical
significance of the title “Lord of the Flies”?
The ‘Lord of the Flies’ gets its name from the literal translation of the Hebrew
word, Ba’alzevuv. This word first appeared in the Old Testament and again in
the New Testament as the Greek word, Beelzebub. In the New Testament, it
is used to refer to the devil and thus, it is symbolic of Satan. In the book, it is
more specifically symbolic of the evil within all human beings - the thing that is
innately “part of you”.
Cp9.Read the following extract:
Simon felt his knees smack the rock. He crawled forward and soon he understood.
The tangle of lines showed him the mechanics of this parody; he examined the white
nasal bones, the teeth, the colors of corruption. He saw how pitilessly the layers of
rubber and canvas held together the poor body that should be rotting away. Then the
wind blew again and the figure lifted, bowed, and breathed foully at him. Simon knelt on all fours and was sick till his stomach was empty. Then he took the lines in his
hands; he freed them from the rocks and the figure from the wind’s indignity.
What is it that Simon sees here?
Simon sees what the other boys think is the ‘beast’. However, it is the body of
a decaying parachutist who landed dead on the island; his parachute caught
up in tangled mess which gives him a life-like appearance.
Cp9.Compare and contrast Ralph and Simon. Both seem to be “good” characters. Is
there a difference in their goodness? Quote to support your answer.
For Ralph, his goodness
appears based on what society has taught him is good - he is not innately
good but simply has a strong moral foundation. Ralph does what is best for
the group, such as “working for days” on the shelters, and does not fulfill his
primal desires like Jack and his tribe. However, even Ralph has potential for
savagery and he is not innately ‘good’.In Chapter 8, Ralph admits he would
“like to put on war-paint and be a savage”, but knows they must “keep the fire
burning”. Simon has a goodness far more
pure and natural than Ralph’s. His goodness seems to come out of a kind and
caring heart, rather than what society has taught him. It is he who helps Ralph
with the shelters when everyone else abandons him, and it is he who finds for
the littluns the “fruit they could not reach”. He never participates in the hunting
and seems devoid of any savage instincts like the other boys. Even when he
dies, he does so while trying to help the boys by telling them of the “dead man
on a hill” and freeing them of the delusion of the beast.
