In Chapter One of the novel, the boys explore the jungle ...



In Chapter One of the novel, the boys explore the jungle and look down on the island, and Golding uses their journey to give the reader an aerial perspective on the island. Re-read the description of the island from their viewpoint:

‘It was roughly boat-shaped: humped near this end with behind them the jumbled descent to the shore. On either side rocks, cliffs, tree-tops and a steep slope: forward there, the length of the boat, a tamer descent, tree-clad, with hints of pink: and then the jungly flat of the island, dense green, but drawn at the end to a pink tail. There, where the island petered out in water, was another island: a rock, almost detached, standing like a fort, facing them across the green with one bold, pink bastion.

The boys surveyed all this, then looked out to sea. They were high up and the afternoon had advanced; the view was not robbed of sharpness by mirage.

”That’s a reef. A coral reef. I’ve seen pictures like that.”

The reef enclosed more than one side of the island, lying perhaps a mile out and parallel to what they now thought of as their beach. The coral was scribbled in the sea as though a giant had bent down to reproduce the shape of the island in a flowing, chalk line but tired before he had finished. Inside was peacock water, rocks and weed showing as in an aquarium; outside was the dark blue of the sea. The tide was running so that long streaks of foam tailed away from the reef and for a moment they felt that the boat was moving steadily astern …

Beyond falls and cliffs there was a gash visible in the trees; there were the splintered trunks and then the drag, leaving only a fringe of palm between the scar and the sea. There, too, jutting into the lagoon, was the platform, with insect-like figures moving near it.’ (pp.26-7)

When we think about Lord of the Flies symbolically, the island is a presented is as a small-scale version of society and the description of the island as a sort of paradise makes us think of an Eden, where the boys are the first settlers. Isolated from the world and uninfluenced by outside forces, they are true to their primitive selves, and the ‘types’ of humanity they represent.

Consider the significance of each of these ‘places’ in the novel. What do they represent or stand for in the boys’ lives, either before or after their arrival on the island? Some of the key quotations have been given to start you off. Use your copy of the text to find a suitable quotation where none has been provided.

|Place |Key quotations |Significance of |

| | |the place |

|The bathing-pool / lagoon | |The island is good and perfect. |

| |The water was warmer than his blood. | |

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|The platform |‘a criss-cross pattern of trunks, very convenient to sit| |

| |on.’ (p.7) | |

| |’the palms that still stood made a green roof’ (p.7) | |

| | |The island is benign and welcoming |

| | | |

| | | |

|The shelters on the beach |‘The shelter might fall down if the rain comes back.’ | |

| |(p.85) |Ineffective |

| |‘He saw a shelter burst into flames’ (p.222) | |

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|The ‘scar’ |‘The long scar smashed into the jungle’ (p.1) | |

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| | |Man’s arrival is destructive |

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|The jungle | |Unknown, threatening |

| |The darkness of the forest | |

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|Place |Key quotations |Significance of |

| | |the place |

|Simon’s clearing |‘more sunshine fell’ (p.58) |Like a church. A sanctuary. Holy |

| |‘a pair of golden butterflies danced round each other’ | |

| |(p.58) | |

| |‘the bars of honey-coloured sunlight … passed over the | |

| |green candle-like buds … the candle-buds stirred.’ | |

| |(p.59) | |

| |‘The candle-buds opened their wide white flowers | |

| |glimmering under the light that pricked down from the | |

| |first stars.’ (p.59) | |

|Castle Rock |‘The rock of the cliff was split and the top littered |Threatening, dark, powerful, frightening |

| |with great lumps that seemed to totter’ (p.113) | |

| |‘Soon, in a matter of centuries, the sea would make an | |

| |island of the castle’ (p.114) | |

| |‘There was one flat rock there, spread like a table, and| |

| |the waters sucking down on the four weedy sides made | |

| |them seem like cliffs. Then the sleeping leviathan | |

| |breathed out – the waters rose, the weed streamed, and | |

| |the water boiled over the table rock with a roar.’ | |

| |(p.115) | |

| |‘“This is a rotten place.”’ (p.116 – Ralph says it) | |

| |‘Beneath him, the death rock flowered again’ (p. 210) | |

|The top of the island where the | | |

|parachutist comes to rest | | |

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Try to explain why each of these features of the island may be important.

• Sharks swim in the sea around the island. Emphasises that they are hemmed in, claustrophobic, cannot escape

• Jack’s side of the island is not protected by the reef. This is ‘the other side of the island’ described on p.120. Emphasises that they are wild, exposed, unprotected

• We are constantly reminded of the heat: ‘with that word the heat seemed to increase till it became a threatening weight and the lagoon attacked them with a blinding effulgence.’ (p.9) / ‘the diamond haze of the beach’ (p.11) Hellish inhospitable climate remeniscient of colonial countries

At the beginning of the novel (in Chapter 2) Ralph is sure that ‘this is a good island’ but by the end of the novel the island has become a violent force that acts against him when he is being hunted by Jack’s tribe. Read this pair of quotations, one from the beginning and one from the end of the novel, and use the questions that follow as a starting point to think about what happens to the island over the course of the whole novel.

‘The three boys walked briskly on the sand. The tide was low and there was a strip of weed-strewn beach that was almost as firm as a road. A kind of glamour was spread over them and the scene and they were conscious of the glamour and made happy by it. They turned to each other, laughing excitedly, talking, not listening. The air was bright. Ralph, forced by the task of translating all this into an explanation, stood on his head and fell over. When they had done laughing, Simon stroked Ralph’s arms shyly; and they had to laugh again.‘ (Chapter 1)

‘Ralph looked at him dumbly. For a moment he had a picture of the fleeting glamour that had once invested the beaches. But the island was scorched up like dead wood – Simon was dead – and Jack …’ (Chapter 12)

• Why does Golding repeatedly refer to ‘glamour’? Suggests it will not last, it’s fake but it initially ‘seduces’ them.

• Why is Simon mentioned in both extracts? He symbolises goodness and then the death of goodness.

• What is the significance of the island having been burnt up? Nucelar holocaust, man’s innate destructiveness

How does Golding present The Island and the significance of setting in Lord of The Flies?

Introduction: Present your thesis statement using words from the question.

Golding uses the island to represent ideas about….

At the beginning the island is ….

Later on the idea is developed when….

Finally …..

PETAL 1

Point: Initially the island is presented as…

Evidence:

Analysis of effects: This suggests/ this implies/ this seems to suggest/ this highlights/ this draws the reader’s attention to….

For 6 – 9 development: Furthermore, the use of/ reference to/ the development of … another quote(s), more detailed analysis

Link: Zoom back out to context and Golding’s big messages (themes).

PETAL 2

Point: Later the island is presented as…

Evidence:

Analysis of effects: This suggests/ this implies/ this seems to suggest/ this highlights/ this draws the reader’s attention to….

For 6 – 9 development: Furthermore, the use of/ reference to/ the development of … another quote(s), more detailed analysis

Link: Zoom back out to context and Golding’s big messages (themes).

PETAL 3

Point: By the end of the novel, the island is presented as…

Evidence:

Analysis of effects: This suggests/ this implies/ this seems to suggest/ this highlights/ this draws the reader’s attention to….

For 6 – 9 development: Furthermore, the use of/ reference to/ the development of … another quote(s), more detailed analysis

Link: Zoom back out to context and Golding’s big messages (themes).

Evaluation/ Conclusion: Evaluate what Golding is saying and link it to themes or your own opinion:

Ultimately Golding seems to present the reader with a world where…

The pessimism of this novel reflects the world from which is sprung….

Golding presents a truly damning indictment of the human condition but….

It is clear that in Golding’s opinion…..

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What does this remind you of? Devil? Hints at a snake in paradise?

What does this become?

Castle Rock

What is the significance of the boat shape? Journey?

How does this paragraph present the island as isolated?

They are hemmed in by the reef

How are humans presented as destructive here?

The arrival of man causes the destruction of the islans

‘Astern’ means backwards. Is this important?

They’re going to regress to their natural ‘evil’ state

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