LOTF Exam Flashcards
Law and Order theme quotes
- ) “Because the rules are the only thing we’ve got!” – Ralph
- ) “If you don’t blow, we’ll soon be animals anyway.” – Piggy
- ) “He can hold it when he’s speaking.” – Ralph
Chaos and Evil theme quotes
- ) “As if it wasn’t a good island.” – Simon
- ) “There was a blackness within, a blackness that spread.”
- ) “Then he backed away, keeping his face to the skull that lay grinning at the sky.” (He = Simon)
Roger’s quotes
1.) “Let’s have a vote.” – Roger
2.) “You don’t know Roger. He’s a terror.”
“And the chief—they’re both—”
“—terrors—”
“—only Roger—” – Sam&Eric
Simon’s quotes
- ) “You’ll get back to where you came from.” (on the way to find the ‘beast’, Simon tells Ralph about this)
- ) ‘Simon was crying out something about a dead man on a hill.’ (Simon was on his way to tell others that there is no such things as beasts. Only parachute man)
- ) “What I mean is . . . maybe it’s only us”–Simon (Simon’s words are central to Golding’s point that innate human evil exists. Simon is the first character in the novel to see the beast not as an external force but as a component of human nature. Simon does not yet fully understand his own idea, but it becomes clearer to him in Chapter 8, when he has a vision in the glade and confronts the Lord of the Flies.)
Ralph’s quotes
“Things are breaking up. I don’t understand why.” (When no one wanted to contribute to making a shelter and using the fire with a good purpose, Ralph made an assembly)
Symbols:
Piggy’s glasses
Piggy is the most intelligent, rational boy in the group, and his glasses represent the power of science and intellectual endeavor in society.
This symbolic significance is clear from the start of the novel, when the boys use the lenses from Piggy’s glasses to focus the sunlight and start a fire.
When Jack’s hunters raid Ralph’s camp and steal the glasses, the savages effectively take the power to make fire, leaving Ralph’s group helpless.
Symbols:
The Conch Shell
Ralph and Piggy discover the conch shell on the beach at the start of the novel and use it to summon the boys together after the crash separates them.
Used in this capacity, the conch shell becomes a powerful symbol of civilization and order in the novel.
The shell effectively governs the boys’ meetings, for the boy who holds the shell holds the right to speak. In this regard, the shell is more than a symbol—it is an actual vessel of political legitimacy and democratic power. As the island civilization erodes and the boys descend into savagery, the conch shell loses its power and influence among them. Ralph clutches the shell desperately when he talks about his role in murdering Simon. Later, the other boys ignore Ralph and throw stones at him when he attempts to blow the conch in Jack’s camp. The boulder that Roger rolls onto Piggy also crushes the conch shell, signifying the demise of the civilized instinct among almost all the boys on the island.
Symbols:
The Beast
The imaginary beast that frightens all the boys stands for the primal instinct of savagery that exists within all human beings. The boys are afraid of the beast, but only Simon reaches the realization that they fear the beast because it exists within each of them. As the boys grow more savage, their belief in the beast grows stronger. By the end of the novel, the boys are leaving it sacrifices and treating it as a totemic god. The boys’ behavior is what brings the beast into existence, so the more savagely the boys act, the more real the beast seems to become.
Symbols:
The Lord of the Flies
The Lord of the Flies is the bloody, severed sow’s head that Jack impales on a stake in the forest glade as an offering to the beast. This complicated symbol becomes the most important image in the novel when Simon confronts the sow’s head in the glade and it seems to speak to him, telling him that evil lies within every human heart and promising to have some “fun” with him. (This “fun” foreshadows Simon’s death in the following chapter.) In this way, the Lord of the Flies becomes both a physical manifestation of the beast, a symbol of the power of evil, and a kind of Satan figure who evokes the beast within each human being. Looking at the novel in the context of biblical parallels, the Lord of the Flies recalls the devil, just as Simon recalls Jesus. In fact, the name “Lord of the Flies” is a literal translation of the name of the biblical name Beelzebub, a powerful demon in hell sometimes thought to be the devil himself.
Symbols:
Ralph, Piggy, Jack, Simon, and Roger
Ralph represents order, leadership, and civilization.
Piggy represents the scientific and intellectual aspects of civilization.
Jack represents unbridled savagery and the desire for power.
Simon represents natural human goodness.
Roger represents brutality and bloodlust at their most extreme.
To the extent that the boys’ society resembles a political state, the littluns might be seen as the common people, while the older boys represent the ruling classes and political leaders.
The relationships that develop between the older boys and the younger ones emphasize the older boys’ connection to either the civilized or the savage instinct: civilized boys like Ralph and Simon use their power to protect the younger boys and advance the good of the group; savage boys like Jack and Roger use their power to gratify their own desires, treating the littler boys as objects for their own amusement.
About:
Jack
The leader of the choir/hunters. Already militant as a choir leader, Jack leads his group of choirboys-turned-hunters in mutiny against Ralph’s leadership by playing on the boys’ baser instincts. Jack favors hunting and its savage reward of meat over the civilized domesticity and hope for rescue that Ralph tries to maintain.
About:
Ralph
The elected leader of the boys and the main protagonist. He is neither the smartest nor the strongest but has a kind of quiet charisma and good looks. He tries to keep the boys focused on domestic order and the rules of civilization but loses his authority and almost his life to Jack’s seizure of power.
About:
Simon
The visionary of the group. Given to fainting spells and spending time alone in the jungle, he is considered odd by the other boys. Only Simon understands the true nature of the beast they fear, and only Simon has the courage to investigate the eerie creature sighted on the mountain. Before he can reveal what he has learned, he is killed in a tribal ritual gone too far.
About:
Samneric
The twin boys who are in charge of keeping the signal fire going. Until they are captured by the tribe, they remain loyal to Ralph. They speak as one, often finishing each other’s sentences, so that the other boys pronounce their two names as one word.
About:
Roger
A sly, secretive boy who displays, early on, a cruelty toward the weak and vulnerable. Once joining Jack’s tribe, he becomes the hangman, causing Piggy’s death, torturing Samneric (Sam and Eric) until they join the tribe, and preparing a stick on which to mount Ralph’s head.
