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Lord of the Flies is based upon a 19th century novel by R.M. Ballantyne called
The Coral Island which is the story of three boys shipwrecked on an island in the south seas.
The island is identical in both books and the two leading protagonists in each are named Jack and Ralph.
Ballantyne's story, however, is about three British gentlemen whereas Golding's novel portrays the boys
as incompetent savages.
COMPARING THE TWO BOOKS
Lord of the Flies bases its plot upon a much earlier novel by R.M. Balantyne called The
Coral Island.
This is the tale of three British lads who get shipwrecked on a South Pacific island during the mid-19th
century. They are Jack, Ralph and Peterkin.
The tropical island is precisely the same place in both novels. The big difference between the two stories,
however, lies in the quality of the boys.
Ballantyne's heroes are gentlemen -- and they remain gentlemen throughout the novel.
They are true leaders and remain totally loyal to one another. To them, the entire incident is a fun-filled
adventure which they enjoy to the entirety.
Jack is the leader in The Coral Island. He is 18 years of age, whereas Ralph is 15 and Peterkin
just 14. The younger boys therefore look up to Jack at all times and he takes the role of a gentle but
adventurous older brother.
Although Peterkin is not quite as bright as either Jack or Ralph, he is nevertheless also a fun-loving young
chap and remains a respected member of the trio.
William Golding, however, shows serious reservations about the character of the boys as Ballantyne
presents them in The Coral Island.
Indeed, Golding's premise is that British boys of today are not gentlemen at all but are yobs who, if freed
from strict adult control, would quickly descend into unutterable savagery.
In Lord of the Flies, therefore, much of the original plot becomes the springboard for a frightening
scenario of little boys who become megalomaniacs -- little Hitlers -- who would stop at nothing, not even
murder.
All the boys are younger in Lord of the Flies. Indeed, the three protagonists -- Jack, Ralph and
Piggy -- are only twelve. A fourth important character -- Simon -- is also introduced and he is only six.
Peterkin is replaced by Piggy, a boy who is very logical but is fat, irritating and suffers from asthma.
Golding then immediately starts eroding Piggy's comfort zone, making him an antagonist with Jack.
The major difference between the two novels therefore is that, while in The Coral Island the boys
remain gentlemen throughout, in Lord of the Flies they descend quickly into a state of anarchy
and barbarism.
It is as though Golding is saying, "Modern British children have only a veneer of civilization. Leave
them alone for just a short time and they will descend into savagery."
There are probably many teachers in Britain who would agree with him.
Of course, Golding had the contemporary example of Germany to prove his point.
Germany was one of the bastions of civilization during the 19th century and yet, by the mid-20th century,
Hitler revealed that this veneer of civilization was very thin indeed.
Have you looked at the questions in the right column?
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TEST YOURSELF!
Read the left column and then answer the following questions:
" Agreed! " cried Peterkin and I together. We would have agreed to anything Jack had said, for he was
older and much stronger and taller than either of us, and was a very clever fellow; I think he would have
been chosen by people much older than himself for their leader. [From: The Coral Island]
- Comment on the entirely different way in which William Golding has created his character Jack
in Lord of the Flies. (6)
[Need help?]
Jack, in The Coral Island, is an intelligent young man in his late teens. He is older and more
mature than either Ralph or Peterkin.
He is presented in this passage as being a natural leader, and this interpretation is proved to be a correct
one during the rest of the novel.
On the other hand, the Jack of Lord of the Flies is much younger. In fact, he is only twelve years
of age.
He was the head of the school's choir and he believes that this alone makes him a leader. The reality,
however, is that he lacks all of the basic ingredients of leadership.
Indeed, he is jealous of Ralph's election, refuses to cooperate fully and follows his own agenda
throughout. When the opportunity presents itself, he very quickly becomes a bully and a megalomaniac.
Eventually Jack descends into outright murder.
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With the rope and branch Jack soon formed a bow. Then he began to saw hard. In a few seconds
the dry wood began to smoke; in less than a minute it caught fire, and in less than a quarter of an hour
we were eating and drinking coconuts round a fire that would have roasted an entire sheep, while the
smoke and flames flew up among the broad leaves of the palm trees over our heads, and cast a warm
glow upon us. [From: The Coral Island]
- In what way has this same scene from The Coral Island been interpreted differently in Lord
of the Flies. (4)
[Need help?]
In The Coral Island, as soon as the boys realise the need for a fire, they utilize a good scientific
way of making it. They are in control of the situation.
Jack and Ralph in Lord of the Flies, on the other hand, show signs of bumbling incompetence.
They stack the wood into a massive heap and then find that neither knows how to light it.
Eventually someone realises that Piggy's specs could be used to magnify sunlight and so start the fire.
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- This scene from The Coral Island ends in an evening of friendship around a warm camp fire.
How does the similar scene from Lord of the Flies end? (2)
[Need help?]
The fire in Lord of the Flies quickly gets out of control and burns a massive swath through the
bush, killing at least one of the littluns in the process.
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" What can it be? " said Peterkin, in a low voice, while we all crept close to each other. We listened
for a long time for the sound again, but it did not come.
"Very strange," said Peterkin, quite gravely. "Do you believe in ghosts, Ralph?"
" No," I answered, "I do not. But I must say that strange sounds for which I cannot account, such as we
have just heard, make me feel a little uneasy." [From: The Coral Island]
- William Golding adapts this scene and presents it very differently in Lord of the Flies. How
does he reinterpret this ghostly picture? (6)
[Need help?]
In The Coral Island, the ghostly sound eventually turns out to be a colony of penguins on a
neighbouring island.
In Lord of the Flies, on the other hand, the fear is less tangible. One of the littluns reports having
seen a ghostly snake-like thing in the dark -- a beast.
At first the others scoff at him but slowly the concept of a beast seizes them. Eventually, they search for
this beast and find the remains of a fighter pilot trapped in his parachute at the top of the mountain.
For them the beast is real and they even begin offering sacrifice to it.
But it is Simon who discovers that there is no beast except the one which lives inside each one of them
-- a beast known as "Beelzebub" or "Lord of the Flies".
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- Why would the two stories differ so markedly in their interpretation of a similar
event? (6)
[Need help?]
The Coral Island's story is a simple, straight-forward adventure. "Lord of the Flies", on the
other hand, sees sinister overtones everywhere.
R.M. Ballantyne had no hidden agendas. He was simply writing an adventure story where every teenage
boy at the time could identify with the characters.
Golding, however, twists the tale to examine the irrational behaviour of modern society. He is exploring
"the heart of darkness", the evil which lies inside every person.
To do this most effectively, Golding presents us with a group of choir boys from a church school -- boys
whom one would expect to behave well -- and shows us how they become the most depraved and
perverted of the lot.
Indeed, it is these religious boys who become the bullies and the murderers. It is also they who represent
modern society as a whole, a society which quickly degenerates into a race of murderers just like
Germany did under the rule of Adolph Hitler.
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Jack, being the tallest, walked next the sea, and Peterkin marched between us, as by this arrangement
either of us could talk to him or he to us, while if Jack and I happened to wish to converse together we
could conveniently do so over Peterkin's head. Peterkin used to say that had he been as tall as either of
us, everything we said to him would have passed in at one ear and out at the other, as his head could, of
course, form no interruption to our discourse. [From: The Coral Island]
- There is an almost identical description in Lord of the Flies. In what way does it differ from
this passage from The Coral Island? (4)
[Need help?]
In Lord of the Flies, it is Jack, Ralph and Simon who set off along the beach. Simon,
however, is much younger than the other two -- he is only six whereas Jack and Ralph are each twelve
years of age.
Lord of the Flies uses two boys to take the place of Peterkin: Simon and Piggy. In this scene,
Piggy wishes to go with Jack and Ralph but Jack rejects him and they choose Simon instead.
Nevertheless, because of Simon's age and height, he makes a better substitute for Piggy who would
simply not fit the description offered in The Coral Island.
Jack and Ralph talk over Simon's head -- but Simon is in fact very bright and so their words could not
pass through his empty head.
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"I should have thought," said the officer as he visualized the search before him, "I should have thought
that a pack of British boys -- you're all British aren't you? -- would have been able to put up a better show
than that -- I mean -- "
"It was like that at first," said Ralph, "before things -- "
The officer nodded helpfully.
"I know. Jolly good show. Like the Coral Island." [From: Lord of the Flies]
- Why would the officer have expected that the boys "would have been able to put up a better show
than that"? (4)
[Need help?]
The boys are British. Back in 1952, when this novel was written, it was still commonly believed that British
children were somehow better than children elsewhere in the world.
This is something that is known as "jingoism", the belief that everything British was always the best.
Nobody spoke of British children as "yobs" back then.
British boys, therefore, should have acted as the three heroes in The Coral Island.
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- What is the significance of the officer's reference to "the Coral Island"? (4)
[Need help?]
The Coral Island was read by most literate British boys up to about 1950, hence the naval officer's
reference to it. He see the similarity at once: a bunch of British boys shipwrecked on a coral island.
He also sees that they have made a thorough mess of it, hence his reprimand: "I should have thought
that a pack of British boys would have been able to put up a better show than that."
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- Was the officer correct to compare the setting on this island with that of "the Coral
Island"? (6)
[Need help?]
He was indeed correct. The setting is precisely the same. The same island. The same coral reef. The
same lagoon. The same mountain.
The officer wouldn't have known this but even the two leading boys are the same: Ralph and Jack.
And, just as in The Coral Island, the boys have been shipwrecked and forced to fend for
themselves -- except that, in this case, they have become stranded after an air crash rather than a
shipwreck.
It is possible that the story could have been told in much the same way as in The Coral Island,
where the boys succeeded in upholding British honour throughout.
Instead, however, Golding has them descend into savagery -- which makes for a much more thought-
provoking tale and one which makes one reflect on the nature of modern society.
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