Plot Elements
The boys are stranded on the island after this event.
What is a plane crash?
The tall fair haired and attractive boy is elected Chief at the first assembly.
Who is Ralph?
This object is used to call assemblies and grant the right to speak. It symbolizes authority and order.
What is the conch?
At the first assembly, the boys instinctively try to recreate this.
What is the society/civilization they are familiar with?
This word is defined as: pressed, squeezed, or reduced into a smaller volume, space, or time frame.
What is compressed?
In chapter 4, the signal fire goes out as a ship passes while Jack and his hunters are doing this.
What is hunting a pig?
In chapter 1, this boy can't bring himself to kill a piglet. By chapter 6, he has become a violent, primal leader of hunters who ignores the rules.
This object is the boys' only way to make fire. They symbolize intelligence, reason, and rationality.
What are Piggy's glasses?
Simon's "maybe it's only us" develops the idea that the true source of fear and evil lies here.
What is within the boys themselves?
This word is defined as: hidden from view, made difficult to see, or rendered unclear and hard to understand.
What is obscured?
At the first assembly, the boys establish these two rules that mirror the society they are familiar with.
What are electing a leader and establishing a rule about taking turns to speak?
This intelligent boy is ridiculed and ignored, yet his glasses are the only way to make fire.
Who is Piggy?
This mechanism of rescue is repeatedly neglected, symbolizing the waning commitment to rescue due to distractions and carelessness.
What is the signal fire?
Piggy's ideas are ignored in favor of Jack's and Ralph's, yet survival depends on his intellect. This suggests the boys value these over rational thought.
What are strength, attractiveness, and charisma.
This word is defined as: a projecting part of a fortification; such as a castle or rampart.
What is bastion?
At the end of chapter 5, the assembly falls apart after Jack does this, and Ralph hesitates to blow the conch.
What is dismissing Ralph's rules and leading the other boys away?
At the assembly about the beast, this boy says "maybe it's only us," showing he understands where evil really comes from.
Who is Simon?
In chapter this item frees Jack from shame and self consciousness, amplifying his violent tendencies. And symbolizes the rejection of reason in favor of a more emotional and primal path.
What is Jack's mask?
The boys mistake a dead parachutist for the beast. Because the reader knows the truth, this literary device is created.
What is dramatic irony?
This word is defined as: unable to express ideas or feelings clearly in words, or spoken in a way that is hard to understand.
What is inarticulate?
In chapter 6 Ralph allows Jack to lead the hunt for the beast, and after an argument at Castle Rock it ends with Jack leading the way back to their home base. This decision pushes the plot forward by doing this.
What is shifting the balance of power in Jack's favor?
When Jack declares that "The Beast is a hunter" and pledges that he and his hunters will protect everyone from it, he shows that he does this with the boys' fear.
What is leverages it to gain power and influence?
Ralph says, "If I blow the conch and they don't come back, then we've had it." The conch's loss of power most clearly symbolizes this.
What is the breakdown of order and democracy?
Dunbar's speakers hide "torn and bleeding hearts" behind a smile, while Jack's face paint frees him from shame. Both texts show that a mask conceals or changes this.
What is a person's true self or identity?
This word is defined as: the passionate, demonstrative expression of deep grief, sorrow, or mourning.
What is lamentation?