Lord of the Flies: Writer's Methods and Techniques (AQA GCSE English Literature)

Writer’s Methods and Techniques

The best responses at GCSE don’t limit their analysis to individual words and phrases. Examiners are really looking for analysis of Golding’s overall aims, so try to take a ‘whole-text’ approach to writer’s methods and techniques. Each of the below topics do just that:

• Structure

• Foreshadowing

• Allegory

• Symbolism

Structure

Writing about structure is a great way to explore a writer’s methods in any GCSE English Literature essay. By thinking about how Golding has structured Lord of the Flies, you are already taking a ‘whole-text’ approach to the novel (which examiners love) and will be commenting on sophisticated techniques without the time-consuming need to learn lots of quotations.

Setting

• Much like Ancient Greek tragedies, Golding utilises a technique known as the unity of place in Lord of the Flies:

  • The unity of place means that the story takes place in just one location

  • Much like Ancient Greek tragedy, Lord of the Flies also contains morally flawed characters and death

• The single location of Lord of the Flies is a deserted island:

  • This is a particularly restricted setting:

    • On their own, the boys cannot escape this setting

    • The fact that there is no escape lends a claustrophobic tone to the novel

    • The isolated setting also builds tension, as the reader knows that the boys – especially as they begin to fall out – will not survive on this island forever

    • This setting, therefore, creates a sense of jeopardy

    • Only the naval officer’s arrival punctures this claustrophobia and jeopardy

  • The island setting also enables Golding to create a microcosm:

    • A microcosm is a small place, or setting, that represents something much larger

    • In Lord of the Flies, the island represents human society

    • Like a thought-experiment, by creating a microcosm in Lord of the Flies, Golding is able to explore how different ideologies (democracy versus autocracy; altruism versus individualism) clash with each other

    • The arrival of the naval officer destroys the microcosm, and the boys are no longer representations of democracy , or autocracy, but little boys once more

Foreshadowing

• Golding uses foreshadowing on many different occasions throughout the novel to hint to the reader what is about to happen:

• Golding foreshadows the division between the boys, and the destruction of nature by Jack’s tribe, with the use of “the scar”:

  • “The scar” is the name the boys give to the damage their aeroplane makes after it crash lands on the island

  • It takes the form of a large indentation, which has destroyed a large part of the forest

  • The scar divides two parts of the forest, just like Jack’s and Ralph’s tribes will be divided later in the novel

  • The scar has spoilt a paradise, just like the boys will do

  • A scar also represents pain and damage, just like Jack will attempt to kill Ralph – and burn down a large part of the forest to do so – in Chapter 12

• Golding foreshadows the death of Piggy with the earlier description of Roger throwing stones at Henry:

  • In Chapter 4, Roger is described as throwing stones at a littlun called Henry

  • At this point in the novel, Roger is still conditioned by society’s rules for behaviour, so “throws to miss”

  • However, Golding’s deliberate reference to a “stone” here foreshadows the rock that Roger launches from Castle Rock that kills Piggy

• Golding foreshadows Simon’s death with the earlier ritual dance involving Robert:

  • After a successful hunt in Chapter 7, Jack’s tribe decide to create a ritualistic re-enactment of the killing of the pig

  • They choose a boy called Robert to play the ‘role’ of the pig

  • The game goes too far, and Robert is jabbed with spears and fears for his life

    • Golding describes the boys’ collective frenzy: “the desire to squeeze and hurt was over-mastering”

  • This foreshadows all of the boys’ participation in the murder of Simon in Chapter 9, which again took the form of a savage ritual

• Golding foreshadows the dehumanisation of the boys, and the killing of Piggy, when the boys give him the nickname “Piggy”:

  • Piggy is never referred to by his real name in the novel, and as such is dehumanised

  • It is no coincidence that Golding chooses pigs as the victims of Jack’s hunters:

    • Before the first kill, Jack says: “If only I could get a pig!”

    • Piggy is verbally and physically abused by Jack throughout the novel, almost treated like an animal

    • This is ominous for Piggy and foreshadows his death in Chapter 11:

      • If the hunters can kill an animal, they can also kill a person they treat as an animal

Allegory

Lord of the Flies is sometimes referred to as psychological fiction, or philosophical fiction, but its genre can be neatly defined simply as allegory.

• The novel is written in the form of an allegory:

  • An allegory is a fictional work in which the characters and events represent particular qualities or ideas

• Lord of the Flies uses its setting and characters to represent the whole of human society:

  • The characters represent human nature:

    • Different characters represent different aspects of human nature:

      • Roger represents human evil

      • Simon represents human goodness

      • Piggy represents human innovation

  • The characters also symbolise different styles of government:

    • Different characters represent different leadership styles:

      • Ralph represents democracy and free speech

      • Jack represents [popover id="dWYjG_Wskdm7H5Hx" label=autocracy"] and authoritarianism

  • The island represents a tabula rasa, or blank slate, on which the boys can create a society of their choosing

• Golding uses the genre of allegory to reach a pessimistic conclusion:

  • All human beings have a natural impulse towards evil

  • If you stripped away society’s rules that govern behaviour, human beings commit atrocities

Symbolism

Golding uses many symbols throughout his novel. However, the following symbols are used multiple times across the text, and are thus known as motifs. If you understand the following motifs, and what they represent, you will be able to use them in almost any essay.

The conch shell

• The conch shell represents order:

  • Ralph blows it to convene the boys’ very first meeting

  • It can, therefore, be seen to represent Ralph and Piggy’s attempt to organise a miniature society on the island

• The conch shell represents free speech:

  • Only those who hold the conch are permitted to speak in meetings

  • This means that any boy who wishes to be heard, or debate, is given equal status in meetings

  • Despite the fact that Jack has ignored most of the other rules, even as late as Chapter 8 Jack “clings” to the conch when speaking in a meeting

  • However, as soon as he leaves for Castle Rock, he leaves the conch behind and doesn’t create an equivalent system

• The conch shell represents democracy:

  • In Ralph’s system of government, all people have a say, not just literally, but also in terms of the decision-making

  • The conch represents this

  • When the conch is destroyed in Chapter 11, it also signals the death of Ralph’s system of government (democracy) and the triumph of Jack’s autocratic rule

The island

• The island represents nature and man’s relationship with nature:

  • The first human contact with the island is the damage (“the scar”) that the aeroplane makes as it crash lands:

    • This highlights Golding’s opinion that humanity’s presence is damaging to nature

  • One character, Simon, has a positive relationship with the island:

    • He finds peace on the island, especially in his glade

    • He finds wonder and beauty in the natural world (“bright fantastic birds”; “candle buds”)

    • However, he is unusual, being the only boy who doesn’t fear the island

    • Furthermore, his paradise (the  glade) is spoilt by the actions of the other boys

  • Jack’s character represents man’s destructive relationship with nature:

    • Jack is seen, as early as Chapter 1, “slashing” at the island with his knife

    • He takes his frustration out on the natural world, stabbing a tree trunk after an unsuccessful hunt

    • This foreshadows his burning of the forest in Chapter 12, and displays Golding’s belief that all human beings aim to subjugate nature

The Lord of the Flies

• The Lord of the Flies is the name given to the sacrificial sow's head that Jack places on a stick

• The Lord of the Flies represents human evil:

  • Far from being an external devil, or demon (“Lord of the Flies” is another name for the devil), the

  • sow's head is created by Jack and the hunters:

    • This suggests that all evil is human-made, and doesn’t come from external forces

  • When Simon hears the Lord of the Flies talking to him, it is his imagination talking

• The Lord of the Flies also represents human destruction:

  • Jack placing it there literally spoils the beautiful glade that Simon found:

    • This represents humanity’s destruction of unspoilt nature

  • Human evil is also psychologically destroying the boys’ minds:

    • Simon’s hallucinations terrorise him  

Signal fire 

• The signal fire represents rescue:

  • Ralph decided that the boys need to build and maintain a small fire to alert passing aeroplanes and ships of their presence on the island

  • It represents a bridge from the children back to the adult world:

    • It is also, therefore, a link back to civilisation

    • Jack and his hunters would rather hunt than be on duty tending to the signal fire

    • Neglecting the signal fire can, therefore, be seen as them rejecting the adult world that they came from, even rejecting civilisation in general

• The signal fire represents cooperation and altruism:

  • Ralph creates a rota to ensure that the signal fire is always lit

  • This represents the boys making a sacrifice for the greater good (being rescued)

  • However, the boys either cannot, or will not, stick to the rota:

    • Sam and Eric fall asleep while on duty

    • Jack and his tribe prioritise hunting over their duties

    • Golding is, therefore, suggesting that:

      • Creating a society based on altruism is extremely challenging

      • The human impulse towards individualism is greater than that towards cooperation

Clothing and hair

• Clothing and hair represent civilisation:

  • Well-kept hair and clothes represent society’s expectations in terms of appearance

  • In Chapter 1, all the boys have short hair and are still in their school uniforms:

    • This includes Jack and the choir wearing long, black cloaks and square hats

  • As the novel progresses, the boys’ hair grows longer and they begin wearing fewer and fewer clothes:

    • This represents their growing distance from civilisation and its expected social and moral codes

    • It also represents the boys’ (and by extension all of humanity’s) inherent savagery

    • It is only once Jack’s appearance changes by Chapter 4 that he is able to kill a pig, and he becomes less and less bound by society’s rules:

      • Jack undergoes the biggest transformation in terms of his appearance (from choir cloaks to being near naked by Chapter 12), which reflects that his behaviour shifts the most of any character

Piggy’s glasses

• Piggy’s glasses represent technology:

  • Piggy’s glasses are used to start the signal fire

  • However, they are also the cause of the first forest fire, which potentially kills the littlun with the mulberry-coloured birthmark

  • They are also fiercely fought over by Ralph’s and Jack’s tribes

    • Therefore, Golding could be suggesting that technology is at the same time humanity’s salvation, but also the cause of human conflict and very dangerous in the wrong hands

    • This could be a reference to nuclear weapons and the clash of civilisations in the Cold War