Seminar 4.

Lord of the Flies (1954) as an Exemplary Text of Modern Anti-robinsonade

23 October 2019
Texts: William Golding Lord of the Flies (in English)
1. How was the novel received initially? How did it later become a classic text? Do you know film
adaptations of the novel? What are your expectations about a probable Luca Guadagnino’s
adaptation of the novel?
After the war, Golding resumed teaching and started to write novels. His first and greatest
success came with  Lord of the Flies  (1954), which ultimately became a bestseller in both Britain and
the United States after more than twenty publishers rejected it. The novel’s sales enabled Golding to
retire from teaching and devote himself fully to writing. Golding wrote several more novels,
notably Pincher Martin (1956), and a play, The Brass Butterfly (1958). Although he never matched
the popular and critical success he enjoyed with Lord of the Flies, he remained a respected and
distinguished author for the rest of his life and was awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1983.
Golding died in 1993, one of the most acclaimed writers of the second half of the twentieth century.
Readers and critics have interpreted Lord of the Flies in widely varying ways over the years since
its publication. During the 1950s and 1960s, many readings of the novel claimed that Lord of the
Flies dramatizes the history of civilization. Some believed that the novel explores fundamental
religious issues, such as original sin and the nature of good and evil. Others approached Lord of the
Flies through the theories of the psychoanalyst Sigmund Freud, who taught that the human mind
was the site of a constant battle among different impulses—the id (instinctual needs and desires),
the ego (the conscious, rational mind), and the superego (the sense of conscience and morality). Still
others maintained that Golding wrote the novel as a criticism of the political and social institutions
of the West. Ultimately, there is some validity to each of these different readings and
interpretations of Lord of the Flies. Although Golding’s story is confined to the microcosm of a group
of boys, it resounds with implications far beyond the bounds of the small island and explores
problems and questions universal to the human experience.
William Golding’s Lord of the Flies has been made into two notable film adaptations. While the
1963 black and white version directed by Peter Brook is typically viewed as the more faithful and
moving of the two, Harry Hook’s 1990 film has won a cult following. Notably, neither film shows the
significant scene from the book where the Lord of the Flies explains the inherent evil and barbarity
of mankind to Simon. Both films opted instead for a scene that focused on the visual, unspoken
communication between Simon and the mounted hog head. In 2017, Warner Bros.’ announcement
of a forthcoming all-female version of Lord of the Flies was met with backlash from critics who
argued that masculinity was at the core of Golding’s book. No scheduled release date for the all-
female remake has been announced.
2. Elaborate on how William Golding came to write the novel.
 Writing in an era following the Second World War known as the ‘atomic age,’ Golding tapped into a
widespread cultural panic over nuclear destruction and man’s capacity for warfare in Lord of the
Flies.  After the first atomic bombs were detonated over Japan at the end of the war in 1945, the Soviet
Union and the United States began building their nuclear arsenals, leading many people to fear
apocalyptic nuclear conflict.
As a member of the British Navy during the Second World War, Golding had been the captain of a
ship that assisted in the invasion at Normandy, or D-Day, when the allies invaded Nazi occupied France,
and this experience directly informed his view of man’s capacity for cruelty. Golding wrote “before the
Second World War I believed in the perfectibility of social man.... but after the war I did not because I
was unable to. I had discovered what one man could do to another...” Following the war, Golding
worked as a headmaster at a boys’ school, which influenced his writing as well. By setting his story
among schoolboys, rather than grown men fighting an actual war, he made his themes of brutality and
the breakdown of civilization innate and inevitable. He intended his novel to be a direct warning about
the specific dangers of nuclear proliferation, but his editor at Faber and Faber, Charles Monteith, edited
out a lengthy beginning describing a nuclear war that sets the plot in motion, leaving the sense of global
apocalypse, and the boys’ swift and inexorable descent toward the warfare that landed them on the
island.
3. The 1719 novel Robinson Crusoe by Daniel Defoe and the 1858 youth novel The Coral Island by
R.M. Ballantyne are often described as literary precedents of Golding’s first novel. What is a
Robinsonade?
Robinsonade, any novel written in imitation of Daniel Defoe’s Robinson Crusoe (1719–22) that deals
with the problem of the castaway’s survival on a desert island (Britannica).
Although Lord of the Flies  is an allegorical novel, it draws a great deal from adventure literature, a
genre that pits humans against nature to explore the personality traits necessary for the survival of the
species. Both William Golding and his fictional characters were familiar with Robinsonades, a 19th
century genre that took its name from Daniel Defoe’s desert island novel, Robinson Crusoe. For Golding,
though, the most influential Robinsonade was R.M. Ballantyne’s 1858 novel, The Coral Island: A Tale of
the Pacific Ocean,  a novel about three British schoolboys marooned on an island who show bravery and
valor in a series of adventures and conquests. Golding said in interviews that this novel was a boyhood
favorite of his, and was part of the inspiration for Lord of the Flies.
Stephen King, in novels like It,  drew from Golding’s depiction of children as capable of violence.
Suzanne Collins, the author of the Hunger Games, considers Lord of the Flies to be a primary influence
for her work. 
4. Golding’s novel is also labelled as the author’s rebuttal to The Coral Island, in what way? Why is
Lord of the Flies defined as anti-robinsonade?
 Golding was more interested in subverting traditional adventure tales like The Coral Island and
reversing their moral messages than in continuing their themes. The boys reference adventure stories in
the first chapter, citing Coral Island and Robert Louis Stevenson’s Treasure Island as models for their
experience. The events of the rest of the novel will correct their naïve ideas about fun and games in the
sand. In Ballantyne’s novel, his schoolboys exhibit honor and valor that Ballantyne considered to be
British virtues. In contrast, Golding’s characters exhibit cowardice, selfishness, sadism, and savagery. By
having his characters turn into anarchistic tribalists, Golding pokes holes at racist, imperialist myths
about the supremacy of British culture or virtues. 
An anti-robinsonade is the opposite of a Robinsonade. Shipwrecked people in a Anti-Robinsonade
do not use their common sense nor their wits to overcome their struggles on the island. In fact, they
become savage and their civilization and education disappear.
Because Lord of the Flies  presents the characters as living in a nightmarish, oppressive society as a
result of to their inherently flawed natures, it is also an example of dystopian fiction. In direct contrast
to utopian fiction, which posits that human beings are perfectible and a society free of suffering is
possible, dystopian fiction asserts that societal injustice is inevitable.
5. Write character sketches for Ralph, Jack, Piggy, Simon, and Roger, giving details and quotations
to support your descriptions. What are the central conflicts of the novel and how are they
‘distributed’ among the boys?
Ralph is the athletic, charismatic protagonist of Lord of the Flies. Elected the leader of the boys at
the beginning of the novel, Ralph is the primary representative of order, civilization, and productive
leadership in the novel. While most of the other boys initially are concerned with playing, having fun,
and avoiding work, Ralph sets about building huts and thinking of ways to maximize their chances of
being rescued. In the earlier parts of the novel, Ralph is unable to understand why the other boys would
give in to base instincts of bloodlust and barbarism. The sight of the hunters chanting and dancing is
baffling and distasteful to him.
“Things are breaking up. I don’t understand why. We began well; we were happy.”
“Don’t you want to be rescued? All you can talk about is pig, pig, pig!”
“Which is better, law and rescue, or hunting and breaking things up?”
The strong-willed, egomaniacal Jack is the novel’s primary representative of the instinct of
savagery, violence, and the desire for power—in short, the antithesis of Ralph. From the beginning of
the novel, Jack desires power above all other things. He is furious when he loses the election to Ralph
and continually pushes the boundaries of his subordinate role in the group. Early on, Jack retains the
sense of moral propriety and behavior that society instilled in him—in fact, in school, he was the leader
of the choirboys. The first time he encounters a pig, he is unable to kill it. But Jack soon becomes
obsessed with hunting and devotes himself to the task, painting his face like a barbarian and giving
himself over to bloodlust. The more savage Jack becomes, the more he is able to control the rest of the
group.
“I ought to be chief...because I'm chapter chorister and head boy. I can sing C sharp.”
“I agree with Ralph. We’ve got to have rules and obey them. After all, we’re not savages. We’re English,
and the English are best at everything. So we’ve got to do the right things.”
Piggy is the first boy Ralph encounters on the island after the crash and remains the most true
and loyal friend throughout Lord of the Flies. An overweight, intellectual, and talkative boy, Piggy is the
brains behind many of Ralph’s successful ideas and innovations, such as using the conch to call meetings
and building shelters for the group. Piggy represents the scientific and rational side of humanity,
supporting Ralph’s signal fires and helping to problem solve on the island. However, Piggy’s asthma,
weight, and poor eyesight make him physically inferior to the others, making him vulnerable to scorn
and ostracism. Piggy is also the only boy who worries about the rules of English civilization, namely what
the grownups will think when they find the savage boys. Piggy believes in rules, timeliness, and order,
and as the island descends into brutal chaos, Piggy’s position comes under threat of intense violence.
“Acting like a crowd of kids!”
“What are we? Humans? Or animals? Or savages? What's grownups going to think?”
Whereas Ralph and Jack stand at opposite ends of the spectrum between civilization and
savagery, Simon stands on an entirely different plane from all the other boys. Simon embodies a kind of
innate, spiritual human goodness that is deeply connected with nature and, in its own way, as primal as
Jack’s evil. In Golding’s view, the human impulse toward civilization is not as deeply rooted as the
human impulse toward savagery. Unlike all the other boys on the island, Simon acts morally not out of
guilt or shame but because he believes in the inherent value of morality. He behaves kindly toward the
younger children, and he is the first to realize the problem posed by the beast and the Lord of the Flies
—that is, that the monster on the island is not a real, physical beast but rather a savagery that lurks
within each human being. The sow’s head on the stake symbolizes this idea, as we see in Simon’s vision
of the head speaking to him. Ultimately, this idea of the inherent evil within each human being stands as
the moral conclusion and central problem of the novel. Against this idea of evil, Simon represents a
contrary idea of essential human goodness. However, his brutal murder at the hands of the other boys
indicates the scarcity of that good amid an overwhelming abundance of evil.
Introduced as a quiet and intense older boy, Roger eventually becomes a sadistic and brutal
terrorist over the course of Lord of the Flies. Midway through the book, Roger’s cruelty begins to surface
in an episode where he terrorizes the littlun Henry by throwing rocks at him. Still beholden to the rules
of society, Roger leaves a safe distance between the rocks and the child, but we see his moral code
beginning to crack. As Jack gains power, Roger quickly understands that Jack’s brutality and willingness
to commit violence will make him a powerful and effective leader. When he learns that Jack plans to
torture Wilfred for no apparent reason, he thinks about “the possibilities of irresponsible authority,”
rather than trying to help Wilfred or find out Jack’s motivation. Roger gives into the “delirious
abandonment” of senseless violence when he releases the boulder that kills Piggy. He then descends
upon the twins, threatening to torture them. The next day, Samneric tell Ralph “You don’t know Roger.
He’s a terror.”
Sam and Eric are twin older boys on the island who are often referred to as one entity, Samneric,
and who throughout most of Lord of the Flies, remain loyal supporters of Ralph. Sam and Eric are easily
excited, regularly finish one another’s sentences, and exist within their own small group of two. Like
Ralph and Piggy, Samneric participate in the death of Simon, but insist that they left the dance early, too
ashamed to admit what really happened. After Jack leaves to start his own tribe, the twins are two of
the few boys who remain with Ralph and Piggy to help maintain the signal fire and look after the littluns.
They bravely go with Ralph and Piggy to get the glasses back from Castle Rock. But after Piggy’s death,
they are coerced and manipulated into joining Jack’s tribe. Sam and Eric try to warn Ralph about Jack
and Roger’s bloodlust, but they are physically dominated the next day and reveal Ralph’s hiding spot in
the underbrush.
6. To what extent is the ending of the novel a resolution of the novel’s central conflicts? How
would you interpret the events of the concluding pages?
 Ironically, Ralph’s main motivation throughout the entire novel has been maintaining a smoke
signal, yet Jack’s careless and murderous wildfire incites their rescue from the island. Soon the rest of
the boys join Ralph and tell the officer about their ordeal. As they speak, the reality of what has
happened to them finally hits them, and several boys begin crying. They are transformed from
murderous savages back into scared children. The quickness of the boys’ transformation suggests their
experience on the island has been a form of mass hysteria they weren’t fully aware of as it was
happening. The devastating realization for both Ralph and the reader suggests that despite our best
efforts to uphold order and civility, humans are inherently prone to self-destruction. This ending
suggests that despite what we want to believe, the line between civilized order and inherent human
savagery is blurred.
The officer represents civilization, but he also represents the horror of civilization: war. It might be
cleaner—and the officer might not need his nose wiped—but it's no less savage. In fact, it might
be more savage, because it hides behind "a white-topped cap […] a crown, an anchor, gold foliage"
(12.215).
Rescue? Not quite. The boys may be getting off the island, but they're just going to grow up into
soldiers destroying another Eden—only this time, the Eden is the whole world; and the "fire" is an
atomic bomb.
7. Research the meaning of the novel's title. 
Let's get the easy part out of the way first: "the Lord of the Flies" is what Simon ends up calling the
severed pig's head—presumably because it's covered in flies. So, calling the book Lord of the Flies brings
the boys' primitive violence front and center. Now let's break it down. "Lord" is a word of power, and
the desire for power drives the book's central conflict: who gets to decide what the boys will do? "Flies,"
on the other hand, connote death and decay. Put them together, and you've got death and decay tied
up with power and corruption. Nice.
Lastly, as if that weren't enough, "The Lord of the Flies" is also the popular translation of Beelzebub,
who's either a demon or the devil himself, depending on how you like your mythology. And that makes
us ask: is evil external to us, like a talking, decaying pig head? Or does Simon call the head "Lord of the
Flies" because he sees it as a manifestation of the boys' nature—and possibly his own?
Group assignment #1 (2-3 volunteers)
Watch the 1963 original b&w film by Peter Brook and then the 1990 Harry Hook colour version.
Compare and evaluate the films. Consider how the changes to the novel made by both films affect
understanding of the novel itself.
Group assignment #2 (2 volunteers)
Explore the front covers the novel has had (English, Ukrainian and other editions). Write your version of
a blurb of praise (up to 150 words) for the back cover.
Bibliography
1. Baker J. R. An Interview with William Golding // Twentieth Century Literature : A Scholarly and
Critical Journal. – 1982. – Vol. 28(2). – P. 130–169 or any other interview with the author in which he
comments on the novel
2. Лілія Мірошниченко. Скептицизм і література: перечитуючи «Володаря мух» Вільяма Голдінга
// Іноземна філологія. Український науковий збірник. – Вип. 128. – Л.: Львів. нац. ун-т ім. І.
Франка, 2015. – С. 243–252. Режим доступу
http://old.lingua.lnu.edu.ua/Foreign_Philology/Foreign_Philology/Foreign_Philology_128/articles/3
4Miroshnychenko.pdf
3. Mia Galuppo. Luca Guadagnino to Direct 'Lord of the Flies' Movie for Warner Bros. / The Hollywood
Reporter. 7/29/2019 Available at https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/news/lord-flies-luca-
guadagnino-direct-adaptation-1226519
4. Павлычко С. Философские романы Уильяма Голдинга / С. Павлычко // Литература Англии. ХХ
век / под ред. К. А. Шаховой. – К. : Вища шк., 1987. – С. 256–283.
5. Use the resources provided by William Golding Official Website at https://www.william-
golding.co.uk/

Words: blurb, robinsonade, anti-robinsonade