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Lord of the Flies - Understanding the Text
How well have you understood Lord of the Flies?

Lord of the Flies - Understanding the Text

This GCSE quiz is about understanding the text in William Golding's Lord of the Flies. Understanding a text is crucial if you wish to analyse and write about it. Comprehension might seem a fairly easy task, but it can be trickier than people often think. If a text had a single “message”, authors wouldn’t devote so much time and so many words to saying it.

Lord of the Flies was written a good number of decades ago, and some of its language and ideas mark its historical context as one no longer shared in the Britain of the 21st century. At its heart, however, it deals with humankind’s enduring capacity for destruction and violence and the fragility of law and culture in the face of such violence.

Authors have a variety of methods available through which to convey meaning.

Sometimes an author can state the meaning directly, but it is more typical for an author to communicate through other aspects of fiction: character, setting, plot, theme and dialogue, for example. You will be able to increase your understanding of the text by focussing on each of these elements in turn. Make time to re-read the text, too. If you read a book only once, you might miss very important details. Don’t worry if you feel you need to read certain sections several times in order to understand them. Noticing when you haven’t fully understood a section means that you have been paying attention to the text’s various complexities of meaning.

A timeline of events can be enormously helpful in revision and it is a good idea to make one. Draw up a list of chapters and note the key events which happen in each. See how well you can relate each of these chapters to the overall plot.

Think about the relationship between characters’ actions and motivations. Are you able to explain why certain characters act the way they do? Does the text contain clues? Whose words (if any) can be taken at face value? Are later events foreshadowed in any way? As you think about the text, consider how you might justify your views through evidence.

You should pay especially close attention to the beginnings and ends of the text. Can you explain why the text begins as it does? What do we learn at the beginning about the setting or the characters? You can think about possible answers to such questions when you consider individual chapters, too. Devoting some attention to careful and detailed analysis of this sort will greatly improve your understanding of the text.

Read the questions below on Lord of the Flies and test your knowledge and understanding of the text.

1.
How do the boys hope to communicate with the outside world?
They make a sign reading "Help!" on the beach
They try to get the wrecked aeroplane's radio to work
They try to keep a fire going so that people aboard passing ships or aeroplanes might see the smoke
They make no attempt to communicate with the outside world
The boys try to keep the fire burning on top of the mountain. Later they are too afraid to tend the fire, believing the beast to be there
2.
Why are no adults present on the island?
The adults die in a battle to protect the boys
The adults leave the boys in order to seek help
Any adults who were present with the boys die in the crash
There were no adults present with the boys when they were evacuated
Two specific adults are mentioned: the pilot and the "man with the megaphone". The wrecked aeroplane is washed out to sea in the storm
3.
Why does Jack become the leader of the hunters?
The choir appoints him to be leader
The entire group of boys votes for Jack to be the chief hunter
Jack appoints himself leader of the hunters
Making a generous gesture after being voted leader, Ralph suggests that Jack become leader of a band of hunters
Ralph feels sorry for Jack after defeating him in the vote and tries to ease his embarrassment by suggesting that the choir can be hunters; Jack then repeats the idea
4.
How is Piggy killed?
He is accidentally knocked off the narrow ledge when Jack and Ralph are fighting
He is knocked off the narrow neck of rock by the boulder Roger drops onto him
He loses his balance and falls off the ledge
He is crushed by a boulder dropped by Roger
Jack's "tribe" constructs a defence of Castle Rock, including a method of using a lever to drop great rocks onto those standing below. This method is later used against Ralph
5.
Which of the following is the "Lord of the Flies"?
Jack
The pig's head
The conch
The dead parachutist
The Lord of the Flies is a reference to Satan, or Beelzebub, from the Hebrew word meaning "fly-lord". Jack and his hunters place a slaughtered pig's head on a stick to pacify the beast. Covered in flies, the head later seems to speak to Simon, confirming all his worst fears
6.
The boys attack and kill Simon when he comes out of the forest during one of their feasts. What do they believe they have killed?
A sow
Another boy
An enemy fighter
The beast
In a frenzy, the boys shout, "Kill the beast! Cut his throat! Spill his blood!"
7.
Jack leaves to set up his own camp directly after which of the following events?
He, Ralph and Roger are frightened off the mountain by the sight of the dead parachutist
The first pig is killed
Piggy demands to have his stolen glasses back
Ralph gets angry with him because he let the fire go out
Jack is humiliated when the boys do not support his challenge to Ralph's leadership
8.
What object symbolises authority on the island?
The spear
The sow's head
The conch
Piggy's glasses
The conch represents authority, civilisation and the rule of law. By agreeing to respect the holder of the conch, the boys signal their willingness to abide by rules
9.
What activity does the naval officer who appears on the island to rescue the boys believe he has interrupted?
A deadly hunt for Ralph
A game of hide and seek
Having a play war
Pretending to be firefighters
The officer assumes the boys have been enjoying "fun and games". He cannot conceive of the deadly violence that the boys have committed during their time on the island
10.
The novel opens with the boys scattered across a tropical island. How do they come to be there?
Their plane crashes onto the island
Their ship sinks just off the island
The boys were attending school on the island
The boys were born on the island
The boys are being evacuated from their schools during a war. Their plane is attacked and crashes onto the island during a storm
You can find more about this topic by visiting BBC Bitesize - Lord of the Flies

Author:  Sheri Smith

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