English I
Payne
The Lord of the Flies by William Golding
Reading Syllabus
Objective: Read the novel critically for understanding and textual analysis. Reflect what civilized behavior means, and what the breakdown of that behavior (anarchy) can produce as a result.
Guiding Questions:
Is civilization a veneer that is quickly stripped away when a group of people is given the opportunity?
Which is more intrinsic to human nature kindness and empathy or darkness and savagery?
Day 1 ______Chapter 1
Chapter 1 – The Sound of the Shell- Words: conch, asthma, ill-omened, hiatus, enmity, pliant
Quote: “Perhaps there aren’t any grownups anywhere?”
Study questions
1. Who are the characters? (Build a character/symbol chart)
2. What does “fair haired” mean?
3. What is the scar?”
4. How old is Ralph?
5. What prevents Piggy from running and swimming?
6. What does Ralph find that Piggy sees as valuable? What does Piggy suggest be done with it?
7. What does Ralph do for Jack to maintain peace?
8. What excuse does Jack give for not killing the pig?
Day 2 ______Chapter 2-3
Chapter 2 – Fire on the Mountain: Words: gesticulated, pall, tumult, tirade, festooned
Quote: “But this is a good island. We, Jack, Simon and me …we climbed the mountain.”
Study Questions
1. What does the small boy with the mulberry birthmark tell the assembly?
2. What about the island does Ralph say to calm the small boys?
3. What does Ralph plan to do to help the boys get rescued?
4. Why do the boys suddenly need Piggy’s “specs”?
5. For what new job does Jack volunteer his choir?
Chapter 3 – Huts on the Beach - Words: abyss, perceptible, tendril, opaque, oppressive, pallor, audible
Quote: “If you’re hunting sometimes you catch yourself feeling as if… There’s nothing in it of course. Just a feeling. But you can feel as if you’re not hunting, but – being hunted, as if something’s behind you all the time in the jungle.”
1. How has Jack’s appearance changed since the last chapter? (physical)
2. What is Jack doing in the woods?
3. What does the imagery around him suggest?
4. What is Ralph doing while Jack is in the woods?
5. What reason does Ralph give for needing the shelters?
6. Who first suggests they might not be on a “good” island?
7. Where does Simon go when he leaves the boys? (notice the description of the place)
8. What is the imagery used for what Simon “sees”?
Day 3 ______Chapter 4
Quote: “Kill the pig. Cut her throat. Bash her in.”
Chapter 4 – Painted Faces and Long Hair - Words: malevolently, detritus, parody, camouflage, ravenously
1. What gives Littlun Henry so much pleasure as he pokes at the small forms of life in the pool with a bit of stick?
2. What keeps Roger from actually hitting Henry with the stones he throws at the smaller boy?
3. What reason dos Jack give for applying the colored clay to his face?
4. Why couldn’t the boys signal the ship that Ralph spotted on the horizon?
5. Where were Jack and the choir when Ralph spotted the smoke from the ship?
6. Why does Jack physically attack Piggy and what is the result of the attack?
7. What is Jack’s reaction when Simon gives meat to Piggy?
Day 4 ______Chapter 5-6
Quote: “’Maybe,’ he said hesitantly, ‘maybe there is a beast.’ ”
Chapter 5 – Beast from Water – Words: lamentation, inarticulate, improvisation, perilous, incantation
1. Why does Ralph choose an easy path of firm ground to return to the platform to call an assembly?
2. As he walks back to the platform, what does Ralph realize he is discovering he dislikes about the way he is living?
3. How does Piggy show disapproval as Ralph’s assembly is called?
4. What four items / complaints does Ralph bring up for discussion in the hastily called assembly?
5. Littlun Phil reports he saw something at night in the jungles. What did he really see?
6. What does Littlun Percival Wemys Madison reveal to the assembly/
7. What rationale does Piggy give for not believing in ghosts?
Chapter 6 – Beast from Air - Words: bastion, stupendous, leviathan, chasms, taut
Quote: “I’m chief. We’ve got to make certain. Can’t you see the mountain? There’s no signal showing. There may be a ship out there. Are you all off your rockers?”
1. What falls to the island during the night?
2. What has happened above the island to make this thing descend?
3. Who discovers this thing?
4. What does the discoverer believe it is?
5. What change comes over the boys because of the resulting fear?
6. What excuses does Ralph make to let Piggy stay behind when the other boys go hunt for the beast?
Day 5
Exam over Chapters 1-6
Day 6 ______Chapters 7-8
Chapter 7 – Shadows and Tall Trees - Words: coverts, furtive, impervious, brandished, taunt
Quote: “Before them something like a great ape was sitting with its head between its knees. Then the wind roared in the forest, there was confusion in the darkness and the creature lifted its head, holding toward them the ruin of a face.”
1. What physical changes in himself does Ralph wish he could make?
2. What distracts the boys from their search for the beast?
3. What does Ralph daydream about?
4. What feeling does Ralph get from the ocean on this side of the island?
5. When the boar charges what does Ralph do? What “competition” does this create with Jack?
6. Who volunteers to go through the jungle alone to tell Piggy the boys will return after dark?
7. What do Ralph, Jack, and Roger see when they get to the top of the mountain? What do they think it is?
Chapter 8 – Gift for the Darkness - Words: demoniac, sanctity, demented, illusive, iridescent
Quote:” ‘Fancy thinking the Beast was something you could hunt and kill!’ said the head. For a moment or two the forest and all the other dimly appreciated places echoed with the parody of laughter. ‘You knew, didn’t you?” I’m part of you?... I’m the reason why it’s no go? Why things are what they are?’ ”
1. What action does Jack take in response when Ralph calls his hunters “boys armed with sticks”?
2. Why don’t the boys at the assembly respond the way Jack wants them to? What does he do as a result?
3. Why does Simon suggest they go back to the mountain?
4. What does Piggy suggest they do, since they can’t return to the mountain to build a fire?
5. What happens to most of the biguns while Ralph and Piggy are busy?
6. What is a new “taboo” evolving around?
7. What “crisis” occurs?
8. What gift does Jack offer to help pacify the beast? Why is this offer ironic?
9. What does Jack ask Roger to do to a stick?
Day 7 ______---- Chapters 9-10
Chapter 9 – A View to a Death - Words: corpulent, succulent, sulphurous, phosphorescence
Quote "Kill the beast! Cut his throat! Spill his blood! Do him in!”
1. What eases the “pressure” in Simon’s head?
2. When Simon awakens and goes up to the mountain, what does he discover?
3. Why does Jack organize the feast?
4. Why does Jack get the boys to dance? What does the dance do to the group?
5. What is the “thing that crawls out of the forest”?
6. What does Simon try to tell the boys?
7. What do the boys do to Simon?
8. What happens to the parachutist?
Chapter 10 – The Shell and the Glasses – Words: feverish, torrid, burrowed
Quote “The things we did---”
1. How does Piggy place the blame for what happened to Simon on Simon himself?
2. Ralph and Samneric deny being part of the dance, yet Golding gives clues that the boys might have been involved. What are the physical signs on the boys that they were there? What does Ralph say that shows he was there?
3. How do the boys in Jack’s tribe protect Castle Rock?
4. What does Ralph say that shows he is beginning to forget, what up until now, he has considered to be their most important goal?
5. What does the discussion of Wilfred reveal about Jack as a leader? What idea does it give to Roger?
Day 8 ______---- Chapter 11
Chapter 11 – Castle Rock - Words: myopia, luminous, talisman, pinnacles, menace
Quote “ Which is better—to have rules and agree, or to hunt and kill?”
1. Why do Ralph, Piggy and Samneric venture to Castle Rock?
2. What do they take with them as a symbol of their authority?
3. What happens to Piggy and the conch? How does it happen?
4. What (exactly) happens to Samneric during the confrontation?
5. What does Jack do just before Ralph runs away? Why does Ralph run?
Day 9______Chapter 12
Chapter 12 – Cry of the Hunters - Words: elephantine, crepitation, cordon, ululation
Quote: “ I know. Jolly good show. Like the Coral Island.!”
1. What do Samneric say that Jack and Roger are going to do to Ralph? What do they say Jack told Roger to do?
2. What is used in the first attempt to flush Ralph out of the thicket?
3. When the first attempt to flush Ralph out fails, what is the next attempt?
4. What do the boys finally do to get Ralph out into the open?
5. What has drawn the naval captain to the island? Why is it ironic?
6. What message does the author deliver through Ralph’s tears?