Lord of the Flies
Study Guide Questions
*As you read, note potential symbols and consider their meaning/significance.
**Have your resources close by when you read. Think about how this story is an allegory.
Chapter One
1. What does the "sound of the shell" represent to the boys?
2. What is Ralph's attitude toward Piggy?
3. Why is Ralph elected chief?
4. Describe Jack's personality.
5. What do Piggy, Simon, and the littlun with birthmark have in common?
6. Why is Jack unable to kill the pig?
7. Why do you think the author uses British schoolboys from a private school for his story?
Chapter Two
1. What question does the littlun with the birthmark raise?
2. How do Ralph and Jack answer the question about the Beast?
3. What is the significance of the chapter's title?
4. How do they start the fire? What happens to the fire? Significance?
5. How does Piggy act differently than the other children?
6. What evidence is there that Jack is trying to take over as leader?
Chapter Three
1. What is the significance of this chapter's title?
2. Why is Ralph angry with Jack?
3. What two groups with different goals are emerging? Analyze significance of their goals and their differences.
4. Why does Simon go to the forest to be alone?
Chapter Four
1. Describe the daily life of the littluns.
2. Describe Roger's treatment of the littluns, especially Henry. Analyze.
3. Why does Roger aim to miss Henry?
4. In what ways does painting his face change Jack?
5. What definite stand does Ralph take in this chapter?
6. In this chapter is there a difference between Jack and Henry's feelings toward control over life? What might
Golding be implying?
7. Why do the boys reenact the killing of the pig?
Chapter Five and Six
1. What does the Beast seem to represent?
2. What is happening to Ralph's control over the boys on the island?
3. Why is Ralph afraid to blow the conch at the end of chapter five?
4. What is ironic about the "sign" from the grownups?
5. What has Jack's opinion of the conch become? Why does he think this?
6. Explain this quote..." However Simon thought of the beast, there rose before his inward sight the picture of a
human at once heroic and sick."
7. Describe both Jack and Ralph's opinion of Castle Rock.
Chapter Seven and Eight
1. How does Ralph react to the experience of his first hunt?
2. Describe the significance behind the reenactment of the boar chase with Robert as the boar.
3. What do the boys find at the top of the mountain? Describe the image. Significance?
4. When Jack's call for Ralph to be voted out of power fails, how does he react?
5. What do Jack and the hunters leave as a sacrifice to the beast? Why?
6. What is the Lord of the Flies?
Chapter Nine and Ten
1. What happens to Simon? Describe the scene.
2. "Men fear the bearers of the truth and will destroy them."
a) How does this quotation apply to Simon?
b) What real historical people or event may this quote apply to?
c) Why would people fear and destroy bearers of the truth?
3. Why is Jack correct when he asks, "How could we - kill - it?" (The beast)
4. "All children are essentially criminal." How does this apply to Ralph, Piggy, and Samneric?
5. Describe how Ralph and Piggy react to their role in what happens to Simon.
6. How do Jack and his group react?
7. Why does Jack attack Ralph's camp?
Chapter Eleven and Twelve
1. Why does Ralph take the conch to Castle Rock?
2. What happens to Piggy at Castle Rock? Significance?
3. How does Ralph learn of Jack's plans for him?
4. What does Ralph say to the twins when they refuse to help him? Significance?
5. Does Ralph understand why he must be killed? Explain.
6. How do Samneric betray Ralph? Significance?
7. How does Golding describe Ralph's flight across the island?
8. What is the irony of the fire?
9. Why is Percival unable to remember his name?
10. Why does Ralph weep at the end of the novel?
11. What comparison is made between the boys on the island and the naval officer who rescues them?
12. Discuss everything ironic found in the last couple of pages.