Universal Themes in Lord of the Flies Answers

Read the passages from Lord of the Flies by William Golding.Passage 1"Things are breaking up. I don’t understand why. We began well; we were happy. And then—”He moved the conch gently, looking beyond them at nothing, remembering the beastie, the snake, the fire, the talk of fear."Then people started getting frightened.”A murmur, almost a moan, rose and passed away. Jack had stopped whittling. Ralph went on, abruptly."But that’s littluns’ talk. We’ll get that straight. So the last part, the bit we can all talk about, is kind of deciding on the fear.”The hair was creeping into his eyes again."We’ve got to talk about this fear and decide there’s nothing in it. I’m frightened myself, sometimes; only that’s nonsense! Like bogies. Then, when we’ve decided, we can start again and be careful about things like the fire.” A picture of three boys walking along the bright beach flitted through his mind. "And be happy.”Passage 2[Ralph said,] "The trouble is: Are there ghosts, Piggy? Or beasts?”"’Course there aren’t.”"Why not?”"’Cos things wouldn’t make sense. Houses an’ streets, an’—TV—they wouldn’t work.”The dancing, chanting boys had worked themselves away till their sound was nothing but a wordless rhythm."But s’pose they don’t make sense? Not here, on this island? Supposing things are watching us and waiting?”Ralph shuddered violently and moved closer to Piggy, so that they bumped frighteningly."You stop talking like that! We got enough trouble, Ralph, an’ I’ve had as much as I can stand. If there is ghosts—”

Read the passage from Lord of the Flies by William Golding.They set off again, the hunters bunched a little by fear of the mentioned beast, while Jack quested ahead. . . . Ralph leaned against a tree and at once the daydreams started swarming up. Jack was in charge of the hunt and there would be time to get to the mountain—Once, following his father from Chatham to Devonport, they had lived in a cottage on the edge of the moors. . . .When you went to bed there was a bowl of cornflakes with sugar and cream. And the books—they stood on the shelf by the bed, leaning together with always two or three laid flat on top because he had not bothered to put them back properly. They were dog-eared and scratched. There was the bright, shining one about Topsy and Mopsy that he never read because it was about two girls; there was the one about the magician, which you read with a kind of tied-down terror, skipping page twenty-seven with the awful picture of the spider; there was a book about people who had dug things up, Egyptian things; there was The Boy’s Book of Trains, The Boy’s Book of Ships. Vividly they came before him; he could have reached up and touched them, could feel the weight and slow slide with which The Mammoth Book for Boys would come out and slither down . . . Everything was all right; everything was good-humored and friendly.

Read the passages from Lord of the Flies by William Golding.Passage 1"The fire is the most important thing on the island. How can we ever be rescued except by luck, if we don’t keep a fire going? Is a fire too much for us to make?”He flung out an arm."Look at us! How many are we? And yet we can’t keep a fire going to make smoke. Don’t you understand? Can’t you see we ought to—ought to die before we let the fire out?”There was a self-conscious giggling among the hunters. Ralph turned on them passionately."You hunters! You can laugh! But I tell you the smoke is more important than the pig, however often you kill one. Do all of you see?” He spread his arms wide and turned to the whole triangle."We’ve got to make smoke up there—or die.”Passage 2"The rules!” shouted Ralph. "You’re breaking the rules!”"Who cares?”Ralph summoned his wits."Because the rules are the only thing we’ve got!”But Jack was shouting against him."Bollocks to the rules! We’re strong—we hunt! If there’s a beast, we’ll hunt it down! We’ll close in and beat and beat and beat—!”He gave a wild whoop and leapt down to the pale sand. At once the platform was full of noise and excitement, scramblings, screams, and laughter. The assembly shredded away and became a discursive and random scatter from the palms to the water and away along the beach, beyond night-sight. Ralph found his cheek touching the conch and took it from Piggy.

Read the passage from Lord of the Flies by William Golding."You got to be tough now. Make 'em do what you want.”Ralph answered in the cautious voice of one who rehearses a theorem."If I blow the conch and they don’t come back, then we’ve had it. We shan’t keep the fire going. We’ll be like animals. We’ll never be rescued.”"If you don’t blow, we’ll soon be animals anyway. I can’t see what they’re doing but I can hear.”The dispersed figures had come together on the sand and were a dense black mass that revolved. They were chanting something and littluns that had had enough were staggering away, howling. Ralph raised the conch to his lips and then lowered it.

Read the passage from Lord of the Flies by William Golding.The sound of mock hunting, hysterical laughter, and real terror came from the beach."Blow the conch, Ralph.”Piggy was so close that Ralph could see the glint of his one glass."There’s the fire. Can’t they see?”"You got to be tough now. Make 'em do what you want.”Ralph answered in the cautious voice of one who rehearses a theorem."If I blow the conch and they don’t come back, then we’ve had it. We shan’t keep the fire going. We’ll be like animals. We’ll never be rescued.”"If you don’t blow, we’ll soon be animals anyway. I can’t see what they’re doing but I can hear.”The dispersed figures had come together on the sand and were a dense black mass that revolved. They were chanting something and littluns that had had enough were staggering away, howling. Ralph raised the conch to his lips and then lowered it.

What is the difference between a theme and a universal theme?