Name_______________________________________
Themes of Lord of the Flies
PRIMITIVITY/SAVAGERY
1. How does Piggy justify Simon’s death?
2. What is the most primitive, savage act committed in LOTF?
3. Whose fault is it that Simon and Piggy are killed? Is there a difference between being at fault and
being responsible for it?
4. Who is the most savage character on the island?
INNOCENCE
1. At what point in the novel does Ralph start thinking that mankind is inherently evil?
2. Are the terms “mankind” and “man’s heart” used interchangeably, in this novel? What might be
the difference between the two terms?
3. When Ralph talks about the “darkness of man’s heart,” is this a cop-out? Do you think it’s easier
for Ralph to think man is inherently evil than lament the fact that all boys, including Ralph, have
chosen to be violent and hurtful?
RULES AND ORDER
1. Ralph’s attempted system of law goes to the dogs. Does Jack take over with anarchy, or with his
own system of laws? Is anarchy really just another system, no different than any other arbitrary
set of values?
2. What makes the system of laws disintegrate on the island? Whose fault is it?
3. Sam and Eric teeter between Ralph’s orderly camp and Jack’s rebellious one. Are they good, lawabiding guys, or do they just end up being bad guys?
4. Are there any “good guys” on the island? Or, are there really any “bad guys?” Is there such a
thing as good vs. bad at all? Or are there just humans, and that’s how we are, and we should all
stop passing judgment?
FEAR
1. Supposedly, we humans fear “the unknown.” What is “the unknown” in LOTF?
2. What do the littluns really fear when they talk about the beast? At what point in the novel do the
boys fully accept the reality of the beast, and what is the catalyst?
POWER
1. Why do the boys follow Jack’s lead more readily than they do Ralph’s? How are Jack’s power
tactics different from Ralph’s?
2. What’s the point of having power anyway? For Ralph? For Jack? For Roger?
3. Ralph seems to realize that with the power of being the chief comes responsibility. Does this
mean Jack, by not taking real responsibility, isn’t actually chief?