Resources

Mary Lovell appears in Christopher Martin’s flashbacks of memory throughout Pincher Martin. Martin, a repugnant misanthropist, is obsessed with the idea of possessing her, but is […]

The Castle Rock is a fictional place in Lord of the Flies. The boys discover it halfway through the book while looking for the beast and […]

Pincher Martin Christopher Martin’s desire to defeat death forms the narrative of this whole novel, as he battles to survive. Early on, he declares ‘I […]

As many of Golding’s novels feature aspects of survival, hunger is a recurrent theme.

Lord of the Flies The island is the home of a number of animals, most notably pigs, who become the target of the boys’ hunts. Ralph, […]

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.

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 […]

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.