Dystopia
This term describes an imagined society that is deeply unjust, oppressive, or terrifying — the opposite of a utopia. Bonus: what is the word origin.
What is Dystopia?
What is Greek - dys = bad, topia = place?
This character is elected leader at the beginning of the novel and represents order and democracy.
Who is Ralph?
This object is used to establish order and the right to speak during assemblies — it represents democracy and civilisation.
This central conflict in Lord of the Flies represents the struggle between order and chaos that underpins all dystopian fiction.
What is civilisation vs savagery?
Lord of the Flies was published in this year, after this major event.
This technique, common in dystopian fiction, uses characters, objects, or events to represent larger ideas about society.
What is Allegory?
May accept: Symbolism
This character is associated with logic, reason, and the adult world — and is frequently dismissed by the group.
Who is Piggy?
The boys maintain this throughout the novel as their best hope of rescue — it represents their connection to the adult, civilised world.
What is the fire/signal fire?
In dystopian fiction, leaders like Jack maintain control through this emotion rather than through reason or earned trust.
What is fear?
Lord of the Flies is a direct response to this earlier novel by R.M. Ballantyne, which depicted stranded boys behaving heroically and virtuously.
What is 'The Coral Island'?
Dystopian fiction typically features this type of government that exercises total control over its citizens.
This character is the only one who understands that the beast is not real — it is within the boys themselves.
Who is Simon?
The severed pig's head on a stick is given this name by the boys.
What is 'Lord of the Flies'?
Lord of the Flies explores the idea that human beings contain the potential for violence within themselves. Provide 3 examples of this from the text.
Open answer - teacher discretion.
Name one other canonical dystopian text and identify one convention it shares with Lord of the Flies.
Open answer - teacher discretion.
Dystopian fiction often features a moment where a society appears stable and ordered before rapidly collapsing. Name the two leaders in Lord of the Flies who represent this contrast between order and its breakdown.
Who is Ralph (order/democracy) and Jack (breakdown/tyranny)?
Jack offers the boys this in exchange for their loyalty, which is how he consolidates his authoritarian power.
What is food?
What is protection from the beast?
When Jack's hunters paint their faces before the hunt, their behaviour becomes more violent and uninhibited. What does Golding suggest this transformation reveals about the relationship between identity and cruelty?
What is: individuals conceal their identity to free them from personal accountability and hide impulses they may naturally suppress?
This theme, central to dystopian genre, is explored through Piggy's glasses — which are stolen, broken, and ultimately lost, mirroring the erosion of reason in the boys' society.
What is the suppression of knowledge/destruction of rational thought/anti-intellectualism?
Some critics argue that Lord of the Flies cannot claim to speak for all of humanity because of who Golding chose to put on the island. What is this criticism, and do you find it convincing?
What is: the novel features white British, middle-class schoolboys - which is not representative of human nature?
Golding wrote Lord of the Flies largely in response to these two major historical events of the early 20th century.
What is World War 2/The Rise of Nazism?
This minor character carries out the most deliberate act of violence in the novel, pushing the boulder that kills Piggy, suggesting that cruelty does not require a leader's direct command.
The naval officer who arrives at the end of the novel is a deeply ironic figure. Explain what the irony is.
What is: he represents a 'civilised' adult world, yet is engaged in the same violence the boys have enacted on the island - the rescuer is implicated in the same 'savagery'?
Golding's novel suggests that the capacity for evil is not confined to villains or particular groups — it is universal. Connect this idea to one real-world example and explain the parallel.
Open answer - teacher discretion.
Golding wrote Lord of the Flies largely in response to the novel The Coral Island. Explain what Golding was subverting and why that subversion matters as an act of dystopian writing.
What is: The Coral Island presented boys as virtuous and civilised, which is subverted in LoTF by the boys becoming violent? What is: it works for dystopia because it takes something familiar and reveals assumptions to be false?