Characters
This character is elected chief.
Who is Ralph?
This boy breaks one side of Piggy's glasses.
Who is Jack?
The glasses symbolize rational thought. Because Jack breaks them, it indicates that Jack is not a rational thinker. He is acting more on instinct/gut feelings rather than thinking carefully about situations.
Jack originally wants to paint his face in order to do this.
What is be camouflaged from the pigs?
He says that he thinks the pigs can see him: a pink thing in the woods. He says the camouflaging is using "dazzle paint."
Piggy is understood to be (civilized, savage, between) when he participates in the murder of Simon.
What is savage?
Piggy explains his participation as "an accident." He is in denial of his own savage capabilities. Ironically, he behaves much like a kid when passing off his responsibility for Simon's death as an accident. He has consistently said that the others are behaving "like a bunch of kids."
Piggy is a dynamic character because he changes. He does not realize that he has changed, but it is evident in his actions.
This boy stages a rebellion against Ralph.
Who is Jack?
That is man vs man conflict.
This character suggests that the beast is themselves.
Who is Simon?
This is the only boy whose hair does not grow.
Who is Piggy?
The hunters leave this as a sacrifice to the beast.
What is the pig's head on a pike (that's a stick)?
Ralph is understood to be (civilized, savage, between) when he says he doesn't want to hunt the beast in the dark.
What is civilized?
Most everyone is afraid of the dark at some point. It is scary to not be able to see. Bad things happen in the dark. The birthmark boy said he saw the beast in the dark.
Percival Wemys Madison saw Simon creeping in the dark and thought he was a monster.
Samneric saw the parachutist in the dark and thought he was a monster.
The group sees Simon in the dark and kill him.
Jack and his bros sneak into Ralph's camp to steal things in the dark.
This boy hits a boar on the nose with his spear and get super excited about it.
Who is Ralph?
He thinks hunting is okay for the first time... a little savagery creeping in.
This character murders Piggy and decimates the conch by releasing a boulder which crushes them.
Who is Roger?
Piggy's body falls off the bridge that leads to Castle Rock. His body lands on a huge slap of rock in the ocean.
The conch is shattered into a bajillion pieces and is nonexistent after the boulder.
Ralph and Jack argue over the importance of these two symbolic activities.
What are building huts vs hunting pigs?
This is a conflict between civilized vs savagery. Ralph is trying to hold on to the small civilized society they have on the island by doing something rational like building huts, while Jack is moving toward savagery and prioritizing his decisions based on instincts.
This is what brings the British Navy to the island in the end.
What is the smoke from Jack's fire, the fire that is meant to burn Ralph out of hiding?
This is situational irony. Many times, Jack has expressed his lack of concern for creating /maintaining a signal fire. He would rather "have fun" and hunt than focus on getting rescued. It is ironic that it is Jack's hunting tactics of Ralph that ultimately bring the rescue ships. When the Navy arrives, Ralph is running for his life, away from Jack.
Jack is understood to be (civilized, savage, between) when he smears blood and hair flat on his forehead.
What is savage?
These two characters have high expectations for the boys due to their being British.
What are Jack and the Naval Officer?
Jack says this when they talk about rules in the beginning.
The Naval Officer says it after Ralph tells him that he doesn't know how many of them there are.
This character takes responsibility for all of the boys on the island when asked "who's the boss" by the Naval Officer.
Who is Ralph?
This is how the face paint changes Jack.
What is it removes his sense of shame and self-consciousness?
With the face paint, he feels liberated from any worry of what others think of him. He is able to hide his fear of not being liked, his fear of being seen as weak, his fear of actually being weak. The mask/ face paint allows him to assume an identity of a confident and aggressive boy.
The hunters raid the beach on two different occasions. In order of theft, they steal these two items.
What are fire and glasses?
Ralph is understood to be (civilized, savage, between) when he can't remember what the smoke's purpose is.
What is between?
This boy disappears in the huge fire in the beginning of the novel and is never seen again. He is assumed to be dead.
Who is the birthmark boy?
This child has the mulberry colored birthmark. He is the first to mention anything about a beast.
This character is forced to help Jack hunt.
Who is Samneric?
Samneric are described as dogs in the novel. They are like dogs because they do whatever someone tells them, regardless of their own feelings on it. They are forced to help Jack hunt the pig (that's why the fire is out when the ship is passing), to help guard Castle Rock, to be a watchdog for Ralph. They do not stand up for themselves and what they think/know is right.
Roger personally and purposefully destroys these two symbols (one of them is not Piggy).
What are sandcastles and the conch?
Jack does this the first time he is faced with a pig.
What is hesitates to kill it?
Roger is understood to be (civilized, savage, between) when he aims to miss while throwing stones at a littlun.
What is between?
Roger is throwing stones which is wrong. According to rules of his parents and school and society, we do not throw rocks at each other because of the potential to injure another. Roger is engaging in a potentially savage behavior. It is not fully savage because he is not actually hurting this boy. He is coming close but is not actually causing injury.
The only thing keeping Roger from hitting the child is Roger's memories of his "old life." He remembers the rules and morals of his home and knows that what he is doing is really wrong.
This boy is the only one to not participate in murder.
Who is Simon?
Everyone (even Piggy) participates in the killing of Simon, but Simon is completely innocent.
Ralph depends on this character for advice.
Who is Piggy?
This is the Lord of the Flies message to Simon.
What is that evil/sin exists within every person?
In Simon's hallucination, the pig's head says that Simon correctly knew that the beast was inside us (people). The evil is from within.
Lord of the Flies = Beelzebub = demon, Satan, devilish figure = evil, sinfulness
This is the prediction that Simon makes for Ralph.
What is that Ralph will make it home alright?
In the beginning of the novel, Jack is (civilized, savage, in between) in the way that he controls the choir.
What is civilized?
Jack is covered head to foot in a black robe (clothing = civilized). He has them marching in straight lines and remaining at attention even in the heat of the day (very structured).
This character emotions change from excitement about no adults on the island to relief at seeing an adult on the island.
Who is Ralph?
In the beginning, he does handstands when he learns there are no adults. In the end, he is relieved to see the Naval Officer because Jack is trying to kill him.
Ralph is a dynamic character because he changes (as opposed to a static character who does not change).