1. How does Simon get along with the littluns?   Why?
2. Where does Simon go to be alone?   Would you want to be alone in the jungle if you were stranded on this island?

• Prediction:   Will Ralph and Jack be able to overcome their differences? _____

1. What do the littluns do all day?   Do you think a typical group of 11-12 year old schoolboys today would take more care, less care, or about the same care of the younger ones than the boys in this story do?
2. Is killing the pig essential to the survival of the group?   What was neglected while Jack and his hunters were out killing the pig?
3. How does Ralph react to hearing about the pig hunt?   Why?   Is he jealous?
4. How are Piggy’s glasses broken?   Does Jack feel guilty at all?
5. As Simon bends to retrieve the glasses, “passions beat about Simon on the mountaintop with awful wings.”   What does this image suggest?   What is Simon experiencing?
6. What kind of dance and chant do the boys do?   What does it remind you of?
7. Will Piggy be able to get by with one lens of his glasses missing? ______

1. Why do you think things are breaking up?
2. What happens when little Percival takes the conch?   How do the others respond?
3. How does Simon feel about speaking up?   What is it about “mankind’s essential illness” that he is trying to explain?

 

Chapters 6-9 Questions

Chapter 6 “Beast From Air”

1. What is the sign that comes down from the world of grown-ups?   What is ironic about that?

2. How do Sam and Eric describe “the beast”?   Why is their description so different from how the parachutist actually looks?

3. What do the boys do about the beast from the air?

4. How do you explain the phrase “something flittered there in front of his mind like a bat’s wing” when Ralph yelled at the boys for rolling the rock into the sea?

Chapter 7 “Shadows and Tall Trees”

5. What is the physical condition of the boys?

6. Why are Ralph’s fingernails bitten?

7. Why do you think Simon says, “ You’ll get back all right”?   What does he seem to be implying about his own future?

8. Why are we allowed to “see” Ralph’s daydream about his childhood?

9. Ralph, Roger, and Jack think the parachutist is a creature “something like a great ape”.   Do you think the story would be better if the reader didn’t know what the “beast” was?   Why or why not?

Chapter 8 “Gift for the Darkness”

10. How does Jack feel when everyone chooses to keep Ralph as leader?

11. Use three adjectives to describe the killing of the sow.   Assuming the boys may be on the island a long time, why was killing the sow a stupid thing to do?

12. Who is the Lord of the Flies?

13. Why does Simon believe the sow’s head talks to him?

14. What is the “Beast”?

Chapter 9 “A View of Death”

15. Why do you think Simon released the tangled parachute lines?

16. Ralph teases Piggy by squirting water toward his glasses.   How would Piggy usually react?   How does Piggy react this time?   Why this change, do you suppose?

17. During the dance, why don’t the boys recognize Simon (or do they)?

18. How does the mood of the chapter change when the rainstorm ceases?

 

Chapters 10-12 Questions

 

Chapter 10 “The Shell and the Glasses”

1. Eventually, how do Ralph, Piggy, and Samneric deal with their consciences about Simon’s death?

 2. How does Jack’s leadership style differ from Ralph’s?

3. Ralph finds he can’t remember what it is that is good about a fire.   Why not?   What do you think is happening to him?

4. Why does Jack’s group attack the four boys in their hut?

5. During the attack, it seemed to Ralph that there were “ a dozen others”.   Why?   Who was Ralph actually fighting with?

Chapter 11 “Castle Rock”

6. Whose idea is it to go to Jack and demand Piggy’s glasses?   ____________

7. Are you surprised he wants to go?_____________

8. Do you think it is a good idea? _________Why?

9. What happens when Ralph’s band arrives at castle rock?   Should Ralph have foreseen this outcome?

 10.How is Piggy killed?   What does it symbolize?

 11.What do you know about Roger?   What is the significance of the fact that Roger “edged past the chief, only just avoiding pushing him with his shoulder”?

12. How do Jack’s “savages” treat Samneric?  

 13.Prediction:   Will Samneric join Jack’s gang?________   Will Roger ever be punished for murdering Piggy? ______ What will happen to Ralph?

Chapter 12 “Cry of the Hunters”

14. How does Ralph manage to survive once the hunt for him begins?

 15. Samneric tell Ralph that Roger has sharpened a stick at both ends.   What do you think Jack intends to do?

 16. Why do the twins confess Ralph’s hiding place?

 17. What is another plan of action or escape for Ralph that he did not think of?

 18. What is the “better show” the navy officer thought British boys should have made?

19. What is ironic about the fact that the adult who saves the boys from their own savagery is a naval commander?   What is ironic about his comment that the “little boys” are having “fun and games”?

 20. What do you think of Jack’s action of stepping forward and then backwards again indicates?

21. Why does Ralph cry?