Secondary Language Arts

Personality and Lord of the Flies

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Curriculum page : Language Arts Curriculum : Language Arts Lesson Plans

Title of Lesson: Personality and Lord of the Flies

Appropriate for Grade: 12

Supporting Mastery of Outcomes: 1201, 1202, 1205, and 1208

Lesson Objectives: Students will . . .

  1. complete the reading of Lord of the Flies ,
  2. use the Internet web site listed in the lesson to review personality types and to associate characters from Lord of the Flies with the personality types listed, and
  3. write a theme comparing and contrasting the personalities of two characters in the novel, Lord of the Flies .

Time Needed to Complete the Lesson: Three-to-five 40 minute periods

Materials Needed to Complete the Lesson:

  1. The novel, Lord of the Flies
  2. An outline of the four personality types to be reviewed from the web site
  3. Notes on personality types (from item 2)
  4. Paper and pen or word processing support to write an outline and a theme of comparison and contrast

Web Site(s) Required to Complete the Lesson:

Lesson Procedures:

  1. Students will complete the reading of the novel, Lord of the Flies .
  2. Students will access the web site.
  3. Students will take general notes on the four types of personalities listed.
  4. Students will apply one of the four temperaments to each of the four main characters in the novel: Jack, Ralph, Simon, and Piggy.
  5. Students will take specific notes on how each character exemplifies a particular personality type.
  6. Students will write an outline and a theme which will compare and/or contrast how two characters exemplify specific personality types. Students will use the following outline format:

I. Introduction

Thesis: _____ (first character) exhibits aspects of the _____ temperament, whereas _____ (second character) exhibits aspects of the _____ temperament.

II. _____ (first character)

A. _____ (major similarity)
B. _____ (another major similarity)
C. _____ (major difference)

III. _____ (second character)

A. _____ (major similarity)
B. _____ (another major similarity)
C. _____ (major difference)

IV. Conclusion

Lesson Assessment: Students will be successful in this lesson if they are able to:

  1. use the Internet to find and take notes on the personality profile web site,
  2. apply the information found on personalities to the four major characters in Lord of the Flies , and
  3. write a theme comparing and contrasting the personalities of two of the four major characters.

For additional information about this lesson, please contact Peggy Wheeler , CentralHigh School, or Patrick J. Salerno, English/Language Arts Curriculum Supervisor, OmahaPublic Schools.

Curriculum page : Language Arts Curriculum : Language Arts Lesson Plans

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Last update: January 29, 1998

Character

I made a short description and a table of all the characters, I hope it will help you.

Character table

RALPH / JACK / PIGGY / SIMON
Character "Type" / Model boy / Ruthless leader / Thinker / Mystic
Central Motivation / To be rescued / To hunt / To be rescued / To know the truth
Principal Actions / Forms democracy; lights the signal fire / Splits boys into two groups; hunts down Ralph / "Feeds" ideas to Ralph / Talks to Lord of the Flies; solves mystery of the beast
Principal Emotions and Attributes / Dreamer; easygoing, but very responsible / Hatred; a natural leader / Serious; thoughtful / Visionary; brave
At the beginning of the novel / Happy; excited by adventure / In charge of a boys' choir / Apprehensive; frightened / Fainting; choirboy
At the end of the novel / Hunted like an animal / The chief of a band of savages / Murdered / Murdered

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Characters on allegorical level

In Lord of the Flies there can also be found 3 types of allegories. I listed the relationship between the characters and what they represent on allegorical level.

Ralph / Jack / Piggy / Simon
Moral allegory / Common sense. / Emotion / Intellect / Soul
Social allegory / (Democratic) government / Power; dictator / Technology / Humanism
Religious allegory / Every day person / Ruthless / corruption / Intellect / Spiritual truth

Moral allegory

Ralph : Common sense. He has the potential to go the good way or the "evil " way.
Jack : Emotion, how he lives and dies.
Piggy : Intellect.
Simon : Soul.

Ralph could not balance emotion, intellect and soul ==> Jack (emotion (Jack displays this as violence)) took control, while on a moral level we need all four aspects (Ralph, Jack, Piggy, Simon) to achieve a society that can be successful.

Social allegory

Ralph : Fair government / democratic government. He tries to achieve unity.
Jack : Power / tyrant / dictator. He has the desire to get power / hunt . He puts his own needs above the needs of other people.
Piggy : Technology. He never makes it past a nickname.
Simon : Humanism. Goes out in nature and figures out that the beast is within all of them.

On a social level Ralph again tries to balance the different powers (for the social allegory it is power (Jack), technology (Piggy) and humanism (Simon). But government allows power to take over and to warp technology and destroy humanism.

Religious allegory

Ralph : Everyday man who is searching for hope and salvation.
Jack : Corruption within society. He does not think beyond himself.
Piggy : Intellectual who does not understand the everyday man, corruption and spirituality (Ralph, Jack and Simon respectively).
Simon : Spirituality / faith in humanity.

If we (Ralph / civilization) cannot balance emotion, intellect and spirituality one of these powers will start to dominate and destroy the others. We need all of these powers to be successful but not let one of them dominate.

According to dholi_one(@hotmail.com) is this also true for religious allegory in LOTF:
>a religious allegory you either missed, or i did, is Jack vs. Piggy.
>Jack and Piggy are representative of Cain and Abel. If you are familiar
>with the story, Cain kills Abel.
>e are dwords of dholi_one

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Symbolism

In Lord of the Flies symbolism plays a major role. I will give you the symbols and what they can represent (if you think deep enough).

OBJECT / SYMBOLIC MEANING
Conch / Authority, order
Glasses / Ability to see clearly, to perceive what is best
Fire / Civilization, the hearth, hope, community celebration
Lord of the Flies / Pig's head on a stick, symbol of the evil in the boys (and in humanity)
Mask / Facade, means of hiding self from self
Beast / The Devil, decay, destruction
Island / A microcosm of the world
Darkness / Ignorance, fear, superstition
Mountain / Perspective, power, truth, barrier
Forest / Fear, violence, unknown, hiding
Beach / Safety, openness, games, communication
Castle Rock / Punishment, violence, restraint
Jack's hair / Caused Jack's loss of focus
Flies / Corruption

Some of the symbols also follow the events throughout the story. A good example of this is the conch. In the beginning of the book it is pink and is quite powerful. But as the story goes the conch becomes lighter and almost transparent ==> the power is diminishing. At the end the conch gets crushed which means that it lost power.

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