Modern texts, Year 11: civilisation, fear and power (Lord of the Flies option)

The conch shell

HintOnly the boy holding it may talk.

The whyThe rule is one of the first the boys make. It stands for order and fair debate, which is why its destruction matters so much.

Ralph for order and civilisation, and Jack for savagery and the desire for power

HintTheir rivalry is the novel's central struggle.

The whyRalph builds shelters and keeps the fire; Jack hunts, paints his face and rules by fear. The book shows the struggle between them as a struggle inside humans.

That the group has turned into a frenzied mob, which acts without thought

HintThey move together and chant.

The whyIn this state they kill Simon without knowing who he is. Golding shows how a group can do what no single person would.

From inside the boys themselves, not from an outside monster

HintThe beast is not found on the mountain.

The whyThe pig's head tells Simon this, and the parachutist turns out to be a dead man. People bring the savagery with them, and civilisation holds it back.

That the last shred of order and reason has gone

HintThink of what the shell stood for.

The whyAfter it is smashed there is nothing to stop Jack's rule by force. Ralph is hunted as an outcast.

The body of a dead pilot, whose parachute has brought him down

HintA real thing, but not a monster.

The whyThe boys' fear has made a creature out of a corpse. The truth is a body from the adults' war.

They turn to Jack, who promises protection, and to ritual and violence

HintA frightened group looks for a strong leader.

The whyRalph's calm and reasonable arguments cannot compete. Jack's tribe makes offerings to the beast and dances.

The head of a pig, set on a sharpened stick

HintThe result of a hunt.

The whyThe head soon swarms with flies. This is the image that gives the novel its title.

A small boy, who later vanishes in the big fire on the mountain

HintThe fear starts with a very young child.

The whyRalph dismisses it as a nightmare, but the idea grows. The boy's disappearance is the novel's first sign of the cost of carelessness.

Beelzebub, a name for the devil

HintA demon associated with pride and war.

The whyThe title links the pig's head to evil. It is the fear of that evil, inside as well as outside, that drives the story.

Ralph is chosen by a vote and rules by agreement; Jack takes power by force and fear

HintOne was elected; the other made himself leader.

The whyThe book sets two ways of leading side by side, democracy and dictatorship, and shows which the boys follow when they are afraid.

He leaves and forms his own tribe, and the older boys mostly follow him

HintHe walks out of the group.

The whyThe split is the point at which the island's single society becomes two. Jack's promise of meat and security is more attractive than Ralph's talk.

That cruelty is let loose once those in charge allow it

HintHe is restrained until the right moment.

The whyRoger is one of the quiet boys of the group until Jack's tribe gives him freedom. The novel suggests that power without rules draws out violence.

He uses fear of the beast and the thrill of the hunt, rather than argument, to hold them

HintHe gives the group excitement and a common enemy.

The whyJack's tribe has rituals, face paint and feasts. A leader who offers belonging and action can overcome a leader who offers reason.

Piggy and the twins, Sam and Eric

HintA very small group, shrinking fast.

The whyRoger forces the twins to join Jack's tribe. Ralph ends the book with no supporters at all.