Welcome to the LitCharts study guide on William Golding's Lord of the Flies. Created by the original team behind SparkNotes, LitCharts are the world's best literature guides.
Lord of the Flies: Introduction
Lord of the Flies: Plot Summary
Lord of the Flies: Detailed Summary & Analysis
Lord of the Flies: Themes
Lord of the Flies: Quotes
Lord of the Flies: Characters
Lord of the Flies: Symbols
Lord of the Flies: Literary Devices
Lord of the Flies: Theme Wheel
Brief Biography of William Golding
Historical Context of Lord of the Flies
Other Books Related to Lord of the Flies
- Full Title: Lord of the Flies
- Where Written: England
- When Published: 1954
- Literary Period: Post-war fiction
- Genre: Allegorical novel / Adventure novel
- Setting: A deserted tropical island in the middle of a nuclear world war
- Climax: Piggy's death
- Point of View: Third person omniscient
Extra Credit for Lord of the Flies
Beelzebub. The phrase "lord of the flies" is a translation of the Greek "Beelzebub," a devil mentioned in the New Testament. In the Bible, Beelzebub sometimes seems to be Satan himself, and at other times seems to be Satan's most powerful lieutenant.
Coral Island. William Golding based several of the main ideas in Lord of the Flies on Coral Island (1858), a somewhat obscure novel by Robert Ballantyne, a 19th-century British novelist. In Coral Island, three English boys create an idyllic society after being shipwrecked on a deserted island. They battle wild hogs, typhoons, hostile island visitors, and eventually Pirates on the South Seas.