Lord of the Flies: Characters (AQA GCSE English Literature)

Characters

It is vital that you understand that characters are often used symbolically to express ideas. Golding uses all of his characters to symbolise various ideas that he chose to explore in Lord of the Flies, and the differences between characters reflect age-old debates about human nature. Therefore, it is very useful not only to learn about each character individually, but how they compare and contrast to other characters in the novel. Below you will find character profiles of:

• Ralph

• Piggy

• Jack

• Simon

• Roger

Minor characters:

• The Littluns

• Sam and Eric

Ralph

• In many ways, Ralph can be seen as the character through which the reader experiences the island:

  • He is the novel’s protagonist and we see a good deal of the novel’s action from his perspective

  • He is also the novel’s moral centre:

    • He can be seen as representative of humanity as a whole

    • He experiences the competing influences of reason (from Piggy) and individualism (from Jack)

    • Ultimately, his demise suggests that Golding believes that individualism (and savagery) will always triumph over reason and cooperation

• Ralph is presented as:

  • Charismatic:

    • He is a charming and magnetic figure for the other boys

    • He is also athletic and physically capable, which makes him even more attractive to the group

    • This means he is a natural choice for the boys to elect as leader

  • Moral:

    • Ralph attempts to do what he feels is “right”

    • Golding has him repeatedly referring to the values and moral codes of English society (“like in school”)

    • He understands, unlike many of the other boys, that acting altruistically is the only way they will survive

    • He deplores the impulsive individualism of Jack and his hunters

  • Impressionable:

    • Although he has a strong moral compass, Ralph is easily led

    • When invited to go hunting by Jack, he very quickly becomes frenzied like the rest of Jack’s tribe

    • He needs constant reminding from Piggy to maintain order, or of his responsibilities as leader

    • He becomes swept up in the ritualistic frenzy during Simon’s murder

  • Reflective:

    • Unlike many of the other boys, Ralph recognises that evil lurks in the boys

    • He acknowledges his part in the murder of Simon

    • He “weeps” when rescued, understanding the “darkness of man’s heart”

• Ralph is used by Golding to represent democratic leadership:

  • He is elected as leader in a vote

  • He sets up meetings which represent government:

    • These meetings allow – via the conch shell – all members of the group to have a voice and to debate

  • He attempts to act in a way that benefits the group as a whole:

    • He prioritises survival and rescue

    • He sets rules and responsibilities to share out the burden of work fairly

• Ralph also represents the English middle class:

  • He feels entitled to lead the group because his father is a commander in the Navy

  • He attempts to recreate English society:

    • His rules and division of labour are an attempt to emulate the society he has come from

  • He mocks Piggy for his lower-class accent

Piggy

• In Lord of the Flies, Golding uses Piggy to represent reason and rational thinking:

  • He is the most intelligent of all the boys

  • He is behind many of the group’s innovations and ideas:

    • It is his idea to use the conch shell in meetings

    • It is his idea to first create shelters

    • Although he objects to the other boys using them, his glasses are used to start the signal fire

  • He supports Ralph diligently in maintaining order:

    • He keeps a register of all the boys

    • He constantly reminds the others – even Ralph – of the need to follow the rules

    • He reminds Ralph of his own leadership responsibilities

  • He – like Ralph – is fully aware of the gravity of their situation:

    • Unlike the immature littluns, and the distracted hunters, Piggy understands how serious it is that they have to fend for themselves

    • In Chapter 2, he seems to be the only boy aware (or willing to state) that “nobody knows where we are”

    • His knowledge of the difficulty of surviving, and being rescued, is one reason he desperately clings to the rules 

  • His rationalism means he doesn’t believe in the existence of the beast:

    • He says at one point that “Life […] is scientific”

• Piggy is the novel’s most tragic character:

  • He is treated terribly throughout the novel by almost all of the boys:

    • None of the boys call him by his real name, but by a horrible nickname: Piggy

      • Indeed, we as readers never discover Piggy’s real name

      • This is dehumanising, and his treatment in Chapter 1 foreshadows the violence first committed by the other boys against real pigs, and later, Piggy himself

    • Jack repeatedly threatens Piggy with violence

    • Piggy is later the victim of violence from Jack and his hunters

    • Despite his absolute loyalty to him, Ralph never steps in to prevent Piggy being verbally or physically abused

    • Ultimately he is killed by a rock thrown by Roger on Castle Rock

  • Piggy’s death represents the death of reason, and of possible reconciliation and agreement among the divided tribes:

    • Just before he dies he states: “Which is better – to have rules and agree, or to hunt and kill?”

    • For Golding, clearly savagery (“hunt and kill”) triumphs over reason and civilisation (“have rules and agree”)

• Piggy also represents the English lower classes:

  • He is mocked for his lower-class accent

  • Despite his obvious intelligence he is given a low status in the group:

    • He is constantly bullied by Jack and his hunters

    • He is routinely ignored by others, including the littluns

  • Piggy is desperate for the boys to maintain the rules and moral codes of society, because this offers him protection:

    • Society’s rules prevent human beings acting on their violent impulses

    • Golding is suggesting that without these social norms  people with lower status would come to harm

Jack

• Jack is the novel’s antagonist:

  • He stands in opposition to Ralph in almost every way

  • It becomes increasingly clear that Jack becomes an obstacle that Ralph must overcome in order to first survive, and then be rescued

• Jack is presented as:

  • Violent:

    • As early as Chapter 1, Jack is described as “slashing” his knife at the plants on the island

    • In Chapter 4, Jack paints his face and immediately feels “liberated” from the social and moral conventions of society:

      • This is a turning-point for Jack’s character, as after this moment he becomes less and less inhibited to commit acts of violence

    • His violent acts from Chapter 4 onwards accelerate:

      • The hunters have their first successful hunt

      • They also begin to take part in ritual ceremonies, one of which (with a boy called Robert) almost ends in bloodshed

      • He begins a reign of terror on Castle Rock, torturing any boys who disobey him

  • Monomaniacal:

    • Jack is obsessed with the idea of killing a pig

    • For Jack, although he claims that he is hunting to provide food, it is much more about a primal and savage desire to kill another living creature

    • He ignores all of his other responsibilities (such as tending to the signal fire and building huts) to hunt:

      • Not tending to the signal fire (as he was supposed to) leads to a missed chance of rescue, but Jack firmly defends his actions

      • Golding is perhaps suggesting, therefore, that the human impulse towards savagery is much stronger than that of civilisation (which rescue would represent)

  • Individualistic:

    • Jack is furious when he is not elected leader in Chapter 1:

      • This means that he is not in total control, and has to compromise

    • Jack never follows the rules and responsibilities set out by Ralph:

      • Initially he insists that doing whatever he pleases (hunting instead of building huts or gathering water) is actually better for the group (“I gave you food”)

      • However, later his total rejection of Ralph’s authority is more explicit: “Bollocks to the rules!” (Chapter 5)

    • When Jack sets up his own tribe, he presents it as a chance for other boys to reject the rules-based government of Ralph and for each boy to have individual freedom:

      • However, this freedom is totally illusory, because Jack always has total authority on Castle Rock

      • Jack punishes any boy who disobeys his orders

      • On Castle Rock, Jack becomes a symbol for absolute autocracy

  • Influential:

    • Jack – like Ralph, but for different reasons – is a very attractive leadership figure for the other boys:

      • Jack is also athletic and physically imposing (he is one of the tallest and oldest boys)

      • He has authority over his choir from the outset (in Chapter 1 he is described as “controlling them”)

      • He is powerful enough to kill 

      • He offers the boys freedom, where Ralph offers chores and rules

• Jack is used by Golding – in contrast to Ralph – to represent autocratic and authoritarian rule:

  •  The fact that the majority of the boys choose Jack over Ralph’s style of government suggests that Golding believed that:

    • 1) A society based on sacrifice is less attractive to humans than one where personal freedom is promised

    • 2) Authoritarianism dominates democracy, given the opportunity 

Simon

• Golding uses the character of Simon to represent human goodness:

  • He is moral:

    • Simon is the only character described by Golding directly helping the littluns:

      • In Chapter 3 he helps the littluns gather food by picking fruit they cannot reach

      • This shows that he believes in acting altruistically

      • He is – perhaps other than Ralph – the only character in Lord of the Flies who makes personal sacrifices for others

  • He is cooperative:

    • He is the only boy who is consistently described by Golding helping build the huts

  • He is respectful of nature:

    • In direct contrast to Jack, he respects and delights in his new surroundings:

      • Where Jack “slashes” at them, Simon sees the beauty in a particular plant he refers to as “candle buds”

      • Where the other boys fear the island, Simon sees the island’s beauty, especially in the secluded glade he finds

      • Jack spoils this glade with the sacrificial sow’s head, just as he will destroy nature later by setting fire to the jungle in Chapter 12

  • He is prescient:

    • He is the first boy to realise that there is no beast on the island

    • Furthermore, he suggests that while there is indeed no external beast, perhaps the boys are creating one in their own minds:

      • He says of the beast: “maybe it’s only us”

      • This could also be Golding suggesting that there is no external evil on the island, only the evil that comes directly from the boys themselves

• Golding also uses the character of Simon to explore ideas about morality and Christianity:

  • Unlike Jesus Christ (which Simon can be seen to represent), his goodness does not inspire others to act altruistically

  • In fact, far from being an inspiration to the other boys, his capacity for good and cooperative spirit, means he is seen as strange by the group:

    • They call him “queer” and Simon seems to have no friends

    • He cuts an isolated figure and is marginalised by the other boys

  • His death can be seen to represent the triumph of human evil over goodness:

    • Golding is perhaps suggesting that the human impulse for savagery and individualism is much stronger than that for civilisation and cooperation

    • It is significant that all of the other boys are involved in his murder:

      • This is further evidence that all of humanity naturally tends towards savagery

    • Golding is perhaps also suggesting that this human impulse is stronger than external value systems, such as the moral code of Christianity

Roger

• Roger is used by Golding to represent humanity’s capacity for evil

• Initially, Roger is presented as a quiet member of Jack’s choir

• However, over the course of the novel his impulse towards violence and cruelty becomes more and more apparent:

  • In Chapter 4, Roger is described by Golding as throwing rocks at a littlun, Henry

    • At this stage he “threw to miss”

    • This suggests that he is still constrained by society’s moral codes (“Roger’s arm was conditioned by civilisation”)

    • However, this episode foreshadows later violent acts committed by Roger

  • Later in the novel, Jack’s tribe split from Ralph’s and become liberated from Ralph’s and Piggy’s rules

  • They also kill a pig for the first time, which also marks a turning point in the novel:

    • After the first successful hunt, the hunters are emboldened to commit more and more acts of violence (even against other boys)

  • After the tribes split, and the hunters’ first successful kill, Roger feels no inhibitions in acting on his cruel impulses:

    • In Chapter 11 he again throws a rock at another boy, but this time, doesn’t throw to miss:

      • This rock – a boulder – is launched directly at Piggy, the impact of which kills him

    • He also becomes Jack’s torturer-in-chief on Castle Rock

      • Sam and Eric indicate that Roger’s  inhibitions have now completely vanished: “You don’t know Roger. He’s a terror”

• Golding is suggesting that the very real human impulse for violence and evil is largely constrained by society’s rules and values:

  • Without these conventions governing our behaviour, he seems to suggest, evil is unleashed

Minor characters

The Littluns

• The littluns are a collection of much younger boys who rely almost entirely on the older boys

• If Jack and Ralph are used by Golding to represent different styles of government, then the littluns represent ordinary citizens in society

• As citizens of this makeshift civilisation, its leaders assume responsibility for them:

  • They keep registers

  • They build shelters and provide drinking water for all the boys

  • At the end of Chapter 2, Piggy notices that one littlun – with a mulberry-coloured birthmark – has disappeared

  • This boy was last seen playing where a wildfire has just been raging

  • It is clear to the reader that this boy has probably perished in the fire, but the boys ignore it and the littlun is barely mentioned again

  • Golding could be suggesting that establishing a civilisation and assuming responsibility for its citizens is extremely challenging:

    • Ultimately, Ralph and Piggy’s project fails, and this episode with the littlun with the mulberry-coloured birthmark foreshadows this

  • Ralph and Piggy try to take this responsibility seriously:

  • However, it is clear that even Ralph’s community-focused leadership fails the littluns:

Sam and Eric

• Sam and Eric are twin boys and are known collectively as Samneric

• They are loyal to Ralph and Piggy, even after Jack’s tribe splits from the group

• Golding uses the characters of Sam and Eric to explore the different leadership styles of Ralph and Jack:

  • Although Sam and Eric wish to remain loyal to Ralph, they are forced to join Jack’s tribe

  • This shows that Jack’s authoritarian rule is more powerful than Ralph’s democratic leadership

  • Golding’s view is, therefore, a pessimistic one: that even though it is recognised that democratic government is preferable, it will lose out to authoritarianism