Lord Of The Flies Key Quotations edexcel 2-Post-1914-Literature

Key Quotations

Remember the assessment objectives explicitly state that you should be able to “use textual references, including quotations”. This means summarising, paraphrasing, referencing single words and the referencing of plot events are all as valid as quotations in demonstrating that you understand Lord of the Flies. It is important that you remember that you can evidence your knowledge of the text in these two equally valid ways: both through references to it and direct quotations from it. 

Overall, you should aim to secure a strong knowledge of the text, rather than rehearsed quotations, as this will enable you to respond to any question you may be set. It is the quality of your knowledge of Golding’s novel which will enable you to select references effectively.

If you are going to revise quotations, the best way is to group them by character, or theme. Below you will find definitions and analysis of the best quotations, arranged by the following themes:

• Civilisation versus savagery

• Good versus evil

• Religion

• Power and leadership

Civilisation versus savagery

Perhaps the central concern of Lord of the Flies is a question: is it more natural for human beings to work together and create a community (civilisation), or do people naturally tend towards their individualistic impulses (savagery)? 

“And another thing. We can’t have everybody talking at once. We’ll have to have ‘Hands up’ like at school” – Ralph, Chapter 2

Meaning and context

• This quotation comes as Ralph attempts to settle the group of boys down in one of their first meetings

Analysis

• At this point in the novel, the boys are presented as unruly and excitable, full of nervous energy

• Ralph and Piggy attempt to establish order in the group by convening meetings and instituting rules (such as “hands up”)

• In Lord of the Flies, meetings and rules symbolise society: 

• Meetings and rules also represent an attempt to create a community with shared values:

Paired quotations

“Kill the pig. Cut her throat. Spill her blood” – The hunters, Chapter 4

“At once the crowd surged after it, poured down the rock, leapt on to the beast, screamed, struck, bit, tore” – Narrator, Chapter 9

Meaning and context

• The first quotation is a refrain that Jack’s choir chant after their first successful hunt

• The second refers to the actions of the entire group of boys during the murder of Simon

Analysis

• These two quotations show the boys’ descent into savagery

• As soon as Jack’s hunters make their first kill, they become more primal, and begin ritual dances, ceremonies and chants:

  • This can be seen as “uncivilised”, akin to savagery

  • This chant is monosyllabic, suggesting that the boys’ own language is less civilised

  • It is also visceral (“throat”, “blood”) and violent, again suggesting savagery

• As the novel progresses, the actions of the boys towards each other becomes more violent and savage:

  • Before Simon’s murder, a boy called Robert is almost killed when a ritual dance becomes violent

  • Here, during Simon’s murder, the boys descend on him – no longer a boy but a “beast” – in an animalistic manner:

    • They use “teeth” and “claws” and “bit, tore” at Simon

“The mask was a thing on its own, behind which Jack hid, liberated from shame and self-consciousness” – Narrator, Chapter 4

Meaning and context

• This quotation describes Jack when he is on his own in the jungle, using soil as face paint to create a kind of mask

• It suggests that once he is hidden by the face paint, he feels free from the normal rules of civilised society

Analysis

• At this point in the novel, the boys (even Jack’s emerging tribe) still feel constrained by society’s rules regarding behaviour:

  • Golding suggests that these social norms give us a healthy dose of “shame” and “self-consciousness”

  • He is suggesting that without these social norms guarding our impulses, we can easily become savages

• This quotation marks a turning-point for Jack, because it signifies that he is turning his back on the rules and conventions of civilised society:

  • From now on, he feels free to act however he pleases

“The rock struck Piggy a glancing blow from chin to knee; the conch exploded into a thousand white fragments and ceased to exist” – Narrator, Chapter 11

Meaning and context

• This quotation describes both the killing of Piggy and the destruction of the conch shell when Ralph and Piggy look to reason with Jack on Castle Rock

Analysis

• Golding deliberately decides to kill off Piggy and the conch shell at the same time in Chapter 11, as both represent a symbolic death:

  • He is the island’s intellectual and always urges Ralph to think logically when making decisions

  • His death, therefore, represents the death of a chance at reconciliation or negotiation between the two camps of boys

  • This links to Charles Darwin’s ideas of survival of the fittest

  • With it now destroyed, no other voice but Jack’s has authority

  • This represents a victory of autocracy over democracy (which has “ceased to exist”)

  • Piggy’s death represents the death of rational thinking, of reason:

  • Piggy’s death also represents the ultimate victory of the strong over the weak:

  • The destruction of the conch represents the death of free speech and democracy on the island:

Good versus evil

In many ways, Lord of the Flies is a morality tale exploring the two sides of human nature. Golding is exploring whether evil is inherent in human beings, or whether it is learnt. Ultimately, his view is a pessimistic one: he seems to suggest that all human beings have a natural capacity for evil. 

Paired quotations

“The creature was a party of boys” – Narrator, Chapter 1

“What I mean is… maybe it’s only us” – Simon, Chapter 5

Meaning and context

• The first quotation is the first description of Jack’s choir – later the hunters – as seen by Ralph and Piggy

• The second quotation is stated by Simon when the boys are discussing the possibility that a beast exists on the island

Analysis

• Throughout the novel, Golding suggests that any evil that exists on the island comes not from any external monster, but from the boys themselves

• Indeed, from the very first description of the characters in Lord of the Flies who represent human evil (Jack and his choir) we see them compared to a “creature”:

  • This metaphor foreshadows the evil that the boys will commit against each other later in the novel

  • It also alerts readers to the fact that there is no external monster at all

• Golding uses the character of Simon at express his own opinions:

  • Simon says that the creature is “only us”, suggesting that the boys are creating the monster in their own heads

  • However, it could also suggest that all evil on the island is perpetrated by “only” the boys themselves, and that the boys are a danger to each other

  • This is reflective of Golding’s larger argument that human beings have a natural capacity for evil