William Golding, Lord of the Flies

Essay/Project

There are two parts to this assignment. Both parts are to be passed in on time as LATE PAPERS WILL NOT BE ACCEPTED.

Part 1: Do ONE of the following essay questions. (50%)

1. Discuss the symbols found in the novel.

2. Discuss what you consider to be the main theme of Lord of the Flies.

3. Discuss the limitations of the boys in Lord of the Flies.

4. What is Golding's opinion of modern society as depicted in Lord of the Flies?

5. What is the author's attitude to history? Find evidence in Lord of the Flies for your opinion.

6. What does Golding say about human destiny in Lord of the Flies?

7. What is the ethical view expressed in Lord of the Flies?

8. What is Golding's concept of a hero? Find evidence for your thesis in Lord of the Flies.

9. What is the significance of the title, Lord of the Flies?

10. What is the meaning of Simon's encounter with the Lord of the Flies?

11. What is the meaning of fire in Lord of the Flies?

12. Explain the meaning of the hunt in Lord of the Flies?

13. What is the significance of the corpse and the parachute on the mountain?

14. What is the relation of the individual to the state according to Golding? Find evidence for your thesis in Lord of the Flies.

15. How is the relation between human and non-human nature portrayed in Lord of the Flies?

16. Comment on the importance of self-discovery in Lord of the Flies.

17. To what extent are human beings free according to Golding in Lord of the Flies?

18. Yeat's classic poem "The Second Coming" provides an excellent companion text to Lord of the Flies:

The Second Coming -- W. B. Yeats

Turning and turning in the widening gyre
The falcon cannot hear the falconer;
Things fall apart; the centre cannot hold;
Mere anarchy is loosed upon the world,
The blood-dimmed tide is loosed, and everywhere
The ceremony of innocence is drowned;
The best lack all convictions, while the worst
Are full of passionate intensity.

Surely some revelation is at hand;
Surely the Second Coming is at hand.
The Second Coming! Hardly are those words out
When a vast image out of Spiritus Mundi
Troubles my sight: somewhere in sands of the desert
A shape with lion body and the head of a man,
A gaze blank and pitiless as the sun,
Is moving its slow thighs, while all about it
Reel shadows of the indignant desert birds.
The darkness drops again; but now I know
That twenty centuries of stony sleep
Were vexed to nightmare by a rocking cradle,
And what rough beast, its hour come round at last,
Slouches towards Bethlehem to be born?

Discuss any connections you see between Yeat's poem and Golding's novel.

19. What does it mean to say that Lord of the Flies is an allegorical novel? What are its important symbols? Explain.

20. Compare and contrast Ralph and Simon. Both seem to be “good” characters. Is there a difference in their goodness? How does Jack use the beast to control the other boys?

21. Of all the characters, it is Piggy who most often has useful ideas and sees the correct way for the boys to organize themselves. Yet the other boys rarely listen to him and frequently abuse him. Why do you think this is the case? In what ways does Golding use Piggy to advance the novel’s themes?

22. In his Leviathan, Thomas Hobbes described human life in a state of nature as "solitary, poor, nasty, brutish, and short." Read through the excerpts of Hobbes' treatise on the importance of rule, and use Hobbes' theory to analyze Lord of the Flies. What is Hobbes' view of human nature, and how is it similar/different to the view in Golding's book? Do you agree with the authors about human nature? Explain why or why not.

23. What, if anything, might the dead parachutist symbolize? Does he symbolize something other than what the beast and the Lord of the Flies symbolize?

24. The sow’s head and the conch shell each wield a certain kind of power over the boys. In what ways do these objects’ powers differ? In what way is Lord of the Flies a novel about power? About the power of symbols? About the power of a person to use symbols to control a group?

25. What role do the littluns play in the novel? In one respect, they serve as gauges of the older boys’ moral positions, for we see whether an older boy is kind or cruel based on how he treats the littluns. But are the littluns important in and of themselves? What might they represent?

26. Compare and contrast the theories of human nature found in the works of Jean-Jacques Rousseau and Thomas Hobbes. How would each political philosopher evaluate the story told by William Golding in Lord of the Flies?
Part 2: Do ONE of the following projects. (50%)

1. Develop a Survival Manual. The manual should describe the essentials of survival in a foreign or hostile environment. It is expected that students will have researched survival techniques thoroughly.

2. Do some research on conch shells and make a poster of the shell probably used by the boys in the novel. The poster should include the scientific name of the shell chosen, a background of where the chosen shell is found, and the symbolic meaning of the shell in the novel.

3. Develop a poster providing three real-world situations of human rights abuses by current governments. Compare and contrast these abuses with those that Jack and the hunters inflict on the boys after Jack gains power in Lord of the Flies.

4. Draw comparisons and contrasts between the view of human nature that is purported in Golding's Lord of the Flies and the Survivor TV show. You may use poster form or write a short exploratory essay on the subject. Be sure to assess the validity of the view of human nature that each portrays.

5. Create a map or model of the island based upon careful analysis of the geographical descriptions provided in the novel. Your map or model should include all the hallmarks of cartography (i.e., compass, labels of important sites and geographic features, title, scale).

6. Do a movie review of the 1990 version of William Golding's Lord of the Flies (Director: Harry Hook). Be sure to detail what you thought was good about the movie, as well as what you thought was bad about it. Was the movie true to the book? Did it leave too much out? Did it add things that took away from the book's message? On a scale of 1 to 10, how would you rate this movie?

7. Do a movie review of the 1963 version of William Golding's Lord of the Flies (Director: Peter Brook). Be sure to detail what you thought was good about the movie, as well as what you thought was bad about it. Was the movie true to the book? Did it leave too much out? Did it add things that took away from the book's message? On a scale of 1 to 10, how would you rate this movie?

8. Create a plausible new ending for the novel in seven or more paragraphs. In addition, provide a one-paragraph rationale at the bottom to justify your ending.

9. Write a littleun’s diary in seven or more paragraphs. In addition, provide a one-paragraph rationale at the bottom to justify your character’s point of view. Try to make the diary look authentic and use language a six year old would use. Be sure to cover all the major events in the novel.

10. Create a board game based on the novel. It should include all the major events and should be playable as a review game. Be sure to include directions that are simple to follow. You will be expected to produce a quality product!