Resources

Lord of the Flies In many ways, war is the central theme of Lord of the Flies; the experience of the boys on the island is […]

Piggy’s glasses are symbolic for a number of reasons in Lord of the Flies. The spectacles represent the boys’ only means of obtaining fire through reflecting […]

The battle between civilisation and savagery is represented in a number of Golding’s novels, most famously in Lord of the Flies and The Inheritors.

Evie is introduced by Oliver in The Pyramid as a member of a lower class group – she ‘came from the tumbledown cottages of Chandler’s Close’. […]

The Naval Officer appears at the end of Lord of the Flies and represents the chance of rescue to the stranded boys. He surveys the […]

In Lord of the Flies Percival is described as ‘not … very attractive even to his mother’. He is one of the ‘littluns’ who first […]

Ha is the strongest male of the group of Neanderthals portrayed in The Inheritors and is intelligent and thoughtful. Described by Golding as ‘the man for […]

In The Inheritors Mal is the oldest member of the Neanderthal group.  At the beginning of the novel, he is clearly very frail but is […]

Music is a major theme in some of Golding’s novels, particularly The Pyramid, but it also plays a minor, but important role in others, including Pincher Martin […]

Religion is a theme in many of Golding’s novels, including The Inheritors, The Spire and Darkness Visible.

The garden in The Paper Men was inspired by Golding’s garden at his house Ebble Thatch, in Bowerchalke, Salisbury. Rick Tucker appears at the end of the […]

Golding’s biographer, John Carey, writes that Savernake Forest, on the outskirts of Marlborough,Wiltshire, was the inspiration for the setting of The Inheritors. Golding’s parents would take him […]