LotF Reading Questions

Lord of the Flies
Chapter 1
1. Why is the chapter entitled “'The Sound of the Shell"?
2. What is Ralph’s attitude toward Piggy in the first chapter?
3. How did the boys arrive on the island?
4. How did Ralph call the first meeting?
5. What are the names of the twins?
6. What does Ralph’s dad do?
7. What nationality are the boys?
8. Why is Ralph elected chief?
9. What is the rough shape of the island?
10. What is the scar?
11. For whom did Piggy vote for chief?
12. Why did Golding use British schoolboys?
13. How is Piggy revealed as most closely tied to the world of adults?

14. How is Piggy indirectly responsible for the blowing of the conch?
15. What is the significance of Piggy’s plea to join the expedition?
16. Who went to make sure the island was really an island?
17. Who is your favorite character so far?
Chapter 2
1. What is the significance of the chapter’s title, "Fire on the Mountain"?
2. Who is the only one who may interrupt the speaker holding the conch?
3. Who saw the beast/beastie/snake-like thing?
4. Who says again and again that there isn’t a beastie?
5. On page 37, Ralph makes a two—fold "mission statement? What are the two parts?
6. Why do they need a fire?
7. What did the boys use to start a fire?
8. Who is the first boy to die?
Who said it? (indicate page numbers)
“How do you expect to be rescued if you don’t put first things first and act proper?

“I told you to. I told you to get a list of names!”
“We’ll have rules! Lots of rules! Then when anyone breaks ‘em—“
Chapter 3
1. What is the significance of the title “Huts on the Beach”?
2. What is Jack doing as the chapter opens (be specific)?
3. Who helps Ralph in building huts.
4. Why does Ralph reproach Jack?
5. Why can’t Jack get the pig to stay on his spear?
6. All the hunters but Jack have gone where?
7. Who helps the littluns get fruit?
8. At the end of the chapter, where does Simon go? Why?
Who said it? (Indicate page numbers)
“We want meat!”
“I was talking about smoke! Don’t you want to be rescued? All you talk about is pig, pig, and
pig!”
“I thought I might kill.”
Chapter 4
1. What is the significance of the title “Painted Faces and Long Hair”?

2. Who “still felt the unease of wrongdoing?”
3. Who was affected by the “taboo of old life?”
4. How was Jack “liberated from the shame of self—consciousness?”
5. Why did the “littluns” always obey the summons of the conch?
6. Why did Jack want Samneric to get him a coconut?
7. Why weren’t the boys rescued?
8. Why were the littluns used to “Stomach aches and a sort of chronic diarrhea”?
Who said it? (indicate page numbers)
“You don’t half look a mess.”
“They don’t smell me. They see me, I think. Something pink, under the trees.”
Chapter 5
1. What is the significance of the title “Beast from Water”?
2. What is the paradox of the boys’ attitude toward the beast?
3. Why does Ralph call a meeting?
4. What is “Taken short?”

5. What does Ralph think they ought to do before they let the fire go out?
6. Who scared the littlun by walking around in the jungle at night?
7. Who are the two littluns who hold the conch and speak about the beast at the assembly?
8. Why does Piggy dissuade Ralph from giving up his position as chief?
9. How did Piggy’s specs get broken?
Who said it? (Indicate page numbers)
“The thing is, we need an assembly?”
“Serve you right if something did get you, you useless lot of c1y—babies!”
“Life ..... is scientific, that’s what it is.”
“What l mean is ...... maybe it’s only us.”
“What are we? Humans? Or animals? Or savages?”
Chapter 6 & 7
1. What was the “sign that came down from the world of the grown-ups?”
2. What is the irony of the dead parachutist landing on the mountain?
3. Who saw the “beast" on top of the mountain?"
4. Why is Simon the only one to doubt the existence of a beast?

5. Why do Ralph and Jack both insist on going after the beast?
6. Why does Jack say that they don’t need the conch any longer?
7. What did the boys want to do instead of going to the other side of the island to check the fire?
Who said it? (indicate page numbers)
“I don’t believe in the beast.”
“We want smoke. And you go wasting your time. You roll rocks.”
8. Why does Simon tell Ralph that “you” will get back all right?
9. Who hit the boar with his spear?
10. Who got hurt playing the role of the pig?
11. Who went through the forest alone to tell Piggy that the group hunting the beast wouldn’t be
back until after dark?
12. What does Ralph ask Jack?
13. Who climbed the mountain to look for the beast?
Chapter 8
1. Who called the first assembly? .
2. During the assembly, how many voted that Ralph shouldn’t be chief?

3. On page 140, the hunters get a new name. What is it?
4. The group of boys looked at it with affectionate respect. What was it?
5. Why is the killing of the sow discussed in such detail?
6. What does the Lord of Flies tell Simon?
Who said it? (indicate the page number)
“I’m not going to play any longer. Not with you.”
“I think we ought to climb the mountain.”
“We’ll hunt and I’m going to be chief.”
“The head is for the beast, it’s a gift.”
“I’d like to put on war-paint and be a savage. But we must keep the fire burning?”
“Funny thinking the Beast was something you could hunt and kill.”
“You knew didn’t you? I’m part of you!”
Chapter 9
1. What was the “cannon” that “continued to play” throughout chapter 9?
2. What reason does Ralph give for the boys’ defection to Jack?
3. Who sat, like an idol, painted and garlanded, in the center of the lawn?
4. What kind of leader is Jack?

5. During the party, evening had come, not with calm beauty but with what?
6. At the party, who acted like the pig?
7. What happened to the parachutist?
8. Who was killed because the boys thought he was the beast?
9. What happened to the body on the beach?
10. What is the significance of the terms of glorification used to describe the body?
Who said it? (indicate the page numbers)
“Do our dance! Come on! Dance!”
“Let them go. I don’t care.”
“P’raps we ought to go too … I mean to make sure nothing happens?”
Chapter 10
1. What is the significance of the title “The Shell and the Glasses”?
2. What were Samneric doing in the beginning of the chapter?
3. Why do Ralph, Piggy, and Samneric lie about their part in Simon’s death, or use the darkness
as an excuse?
4. On page 157, what is Ralph frightened of?
5. How is Wilfred punished?

6. How does Jack account for the death of Simon?
7. Who went with Jack to take the fire from the others`?
8. Before they were attacked, what did Ralph “desperately pray?’
9. Who was Ralph fighting in the dark?
10. What did Jack take from the others?
Who said it? (indicate page numbers)
“That was murder!”
“We don’t want another night without fire.”
“I thought they wanted the conch.”
Chapter 11
1. Why do Ralph and Piggy decide to visit Jack’s camp?
2. Who “protested out of the heart of civilization?”
3. What is the reaction of Jack’s tribe to Ralph’s talk of rescue?
4. What happens when Piggy holds up the conch and tries to talk?
5. Who killed Piggy?
6. How did Piggy die?

Who said it? (Indicate page numbers)
“After all we aren’t savages really, and being rescued isn’t a game.”
“Well, we won’t be painted, because we aren’t savages?”
“You’re a beast and a swine and a bloody, bloody thief!”
“See? See? That’s what you’ll get! I mean that! There isn’t a tribe for you anymore! The conch
is gone—”
“Which is better, law and rescue, or hunting and breaking things up?”
Chapter 12
1. Who was the “savage whose image refused to blend with that ancient picture of a boy in
shorts and shirt?”
2. How does Ralph learn of Jack’s plans for him?
3. What does Ralph say to the twins when they refuse to help him?
4. Does Ralph understand why he must be killed?
5. Why would “bathing [Ralph’s] injuries have to wait”?
6. What did Ralph do to the Lord of the Flies?
7. Who had the "memory of a new and shameful loyalty?"
8. Who sharpened a stick on both ends intending to use it on Ralph?
9. How did they try to get Ralph out of the thicket?

10. Ralph had three different strategies for "escaping" the hunters. What were they?
11. What is the irony of the fire?
12. Why is Percival unable to remember his name and address?
13. Why is Piggy’s fall emphasized?
14. Why does Ralph say that he is in charge on the island?
15. What comparison is implied at the end of the novel?
16. Who said it? (indicate page numbers)
17. “Nobody killed, I hope? Any dead bodies?”
18. “They are going to hunt you tomorrow?”