So. We’ve read part of Chapter 1, have met Ralph and Piggy, have some insight into what kind of boys they are, and are about to meet Jack. Here are the answers to your most interesting questions. In digging around for photos to accompany this blog post, I found a fact I didn’t know before. Golding took his degree in Science but became an English teacher, teaching in a boys’ school. In an unpublished memoir, he said he liked to “stir up antagonism” to see how the boys would react. He called what he did “experimental science,” giving them “freedom to behave as they wished, with minimal interference.” Then he would watch how far they would go in tormenting each other.
And then he wrote the book. Hello, Jack.
(There’s more than this, but you can look it up yourself. He called himself “a monster,” possibly commenting on his relationships with girls in his youth. One of his latest biographers states that Golding “was aware of and repelled by the cruelty in himself and was given to saying that, had he been born in Hitler’s Germany, he would have been a Nazi.”)
Note: To look at the photos close up, just single click on them. The class photo at the bottom is particularly interesting. You can learn a lot just by looking at the pictures.
Here are the answers to your most interesting questions:
How many times have you read this book? At least 55 times, counting the time I read it in high school.
Why are there only boys on the plane? It appears that a number of boys’ schools were evacuated. These kids are from what we would term private schools, and they don’t have girls in their schools. Hence, no girls.
Did the boys have any prior experience with each other? Probably not. It would have been an emergency evacuation. If you look up the evacuations that happened in England during World War II, you’ll find train stations full of kids being shipped off all over the country. They didn’t know each other and some government ministry has determined where they’ll go. Jack’s group does know each other, however. He’s the Head Choir Boy and he’s been in charge of them at school. That’s why they’re already an organized group when we meet them.
How long have they been on the island at beginning of the book? I suspect it’s only been only an hour or two.
Will they be able to find the plane and use it to their advantage? No. It’s never mentioned again!
Why were they dropped? Did the pilot know they were going to crash? They weren’t dropped. The plane crashed. It made a scar on the island, meaning, a huge swath of trees have been knocked down, and part of the plane has floated out to sea. Not all of the kids survived. They assume the pilot died because that would be the part of the plane that’s gone.
Why did they survive and not the pilot? I assume the plane went nose down. They must have been at the back of the plane.
Why are they so calm? Good question. I think they’re young and don’t know any better. Also, they are free of adults and see that as a form of adventure. Ralph immediately thinks of a boys’ book called “Coral Island” and imagines himself as one of the characters. You’d have to know how restricted their lives were in school to understand their immediate response to having no adults around. There’s almost a sense of being let out of jail. They would have had very little personal freedom in a boys’ school in England in the early 1950s.
How were a large group of boys able to organize themselves so easily? Another good question. The book was written in the days when kids were seen and not heard. Kids were told how to behave in those days, and by and large, they did. All of those kids would have been submissive to adult authority. They were organized because they were constantly thinking,What would the grownups tell us to do? Just as Piggy has internalized his aunty’s instructions, the other boys have internalized their parents’ and teachers’ instructions. They have grown ups inside their heads. Another possibility is that some of these kids might have been evacuated before or have heard about the evacuations.
What happened to Ralph’s family and Piggy’s family? We never know.
Why did Ralph call Piggy “Piggy” when he asked him not to? Good observation. Piggy said “I only want you to do one thing: Don’t call me ‘Piggy.’” And that’s the one thing Ralph does. Right from the beginning, Golding is telling us his worldview. There’s something in people, he believes, that makes us just do the bad thing. (Think back to Adam and Eve. One thing: Don’t eat the fruit. “Think I’ll eat the fruit now.”)
Why is Piggy the way he is? Both of Piggy’s parents have died and he’s been taken in by his over solicitous auntie. We know that she’s overprotective because Piggy has internalized all of her advice; he’s become like his aunt, concerned about minute details, keeping things in order, and his health. He’s proud of having glasses and is concerned about his asthma. It’s clear he’s also been bullied at school. It’s also clear, he doesn’t know why and just wants to prevent it from happening again. The first person he meets, Ralph, sets the bullying up yet again when he laughs at his name, mockingly saying “Piggy. Piggy.”
How did Piggy’s parents die? We don’t know but in the 1963 movie, the producer gives Piggy a strange little monologue about where he’s from in England. He’s from Camberley and Camberley, like most of the areas in and around London, was bombed during the Blitz. I think we can assume Piggy’s parents died in the war.
Why would Piggy tell Ralph the nickname he hates so much? Piggy is probably a bit traumatized from the crash and gloms on to the first person he sees. He wants to feel safe and assumes Ralph is a safe person. Piggy is naive and trusting, and that’s probably hurt him a lot in his past life. We know he’s been bullied and probably doesn’t know why. It’s easy to see him going to aunty with his complaints and confusion and her giving him sweeties (candies) from her shop to calm him down.
Does Piggy suffer from depression after having his mom and dad die? What an insightful question. I don’t know. I think his closeness to his aunty is his way of coping. If you follow Piggy closely in the novel, you’ll see he has a need to feel attached. You’ll also see both he and Ralph go through mental instability.
What makes Ralph so much “better” than Piggy? We’d have to be English to get this, and we’d have to be living in the past to really understand it. The best advice I can give is to watch an episode of “Downton Abbey.” If Canadians have a class system, it’s just based on money. In England, the class system is based on family background, school attended, accent, and money. At the time the book was written, all a person had to do was start talking and people would know their place in the pecking order. If you had a low class accent, you were low class, and if you had a posh accent, you were upper class. And you were treated accordingly. Piggy’s bad grammar is a dead giveaway. We don’t even have to hear his accent. We just know.
Why were the other children so attracted to Ralph? They knew as soon as he opened his mouth that Ralph was “posh.” Even a child knew the social standing of people. Because Ralph looks and sounds posh, he’s automatically given a leadership role.
Why did Ralph take off his clothes right away? What a good question. It was unusual, wasn’t it? Besides telling a story, Golding is telling us his view of the world through the story. When Ralph takes off his clothes it is symbolic. He’s ridding himself of the society he’s left; his clothes represent the England that was. Now, it’s just Ralph on and island. Ralph just equals “boy.” What will “boy” do?
Why did Golding choose the setting as an island? He wanted to see how human beings would act without anything affecting their behaviour. If you take young boys, who theoretically are all innocent, and eliminate society, you can then see what is in the heart of man. It’s like a science experiment, in a way. He’s creating laboratory conditions.
Is Lord of the Flies based on a real story? Yes, and no. There is no evidence of boys crash landing on an island and going through the experience Golding writes about; however, Golding did participate in World War II and would have seen a lot of violence. He was in command of a rocket launcher and he was in the invasion of Normandy. He would have seen death and fighting. And he was a teacher. He was a teacher before the war and after the war, so he would have observed kids. This seems pretty obvious to us, but most adults don’t see groups of kids together so they don’t know how they act and react in groups. Golding observed groups of kids and groups of adults.
Why is there a picture of a pig covered in blood on the cover of the book? You’ll find out. It’s a symbol in the book.
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