Key Facts

• • Full Title: Lord of the Flies
  • Author: William Golding (1911–1993)
  • When Written: 1952–1953
  • Where Written: Salisbury, England
  • When Published: 1954
  • Literary Period: Post–World War II; Modern Allegory
  • Genre: Allegorical Novel; Adventure; Dystopian Fiction
  • Time Setting: During an unspecified nuclear war (mid-20th century)
  • Place Setting: An uninhabited tropical island somewhere in the Pacific Ocean
  • Climax: When the boys, in a savage frenzy, kill Simon; and later when Jack’s tribe hunts Ralph and sets the island on fire
  • Point of View: Third-person omniscient (mainly focused on Ralph’s perspective, but sometimes shifts to others like Jack or Simon)
  • Tone: Dark, symbolic, ironic, and tragic

• Main Symbols:

Piggy’s Glasses: Reason, knowledge, and technology

The Beast: Inner human evil and fear

The “Lord of the Flies”: The devil within humanity; pure savagery and corruption

The Signal Fire: Hope, civilization, and the boys’ desire to be rescued

• • Protagonist: Ralph
  • Antagonist: Jack (and symbolically, human savagery itself)

• Famous Line: