Website Address:

http://www.gerenser.com/lotf/

Content of Site:

Summary
Analysis
Characters
Island Map
Vocabulary
Links

Rating:

Review

This is an interesting and comprehensive information web page on The Lord Of The Flies. It begins with an individual Summary of each chapter, and the significance of each is thoroughly explained. The Analysis section is an in-depth look at the most significant symbolism and themes within the novel. Under the heading of Symbolism, a number of characters and objects are listed and their meaning or what they represent, is explained. It is acknowledged that many more aspects in the story may be considered to be symbolic, but that those listed are the most central. Under the heading of Themes, it is said that the most basic and obvious theme in the novel is;

"that society holds everyone together, and without these conditions, our ideals, values, and the basics of right and wrong are lost."

However, also included here, is a list of several other secondary themes. This Analysis section ends with some brief Miscellaneous Information, which indicates other writers, including Robert Ballantyne and Jules Verne as authors whose work appears to have had a tremendous influence on Golding. The profiles of each of the Characters in this resource are interesting in that they each come with a photograph. Obviously these are pictures of the children from the film adaptation of the novel, but nonetheless, I think that these could help some pupils to clarify their images of the characters, as each child actor was obviously chosen because of their resemblance to Golding's descriptions of the physical appearances of his characters.

Also useful to pupils will be the Island Map. Of course this is only an artist's impression of what the island might have looked like, but if pupils click on the image they will see a larger view of the island, complete with labels indicating the important locations on the island and where important events, such as Piggy's death, took place. The Vocabulary section selects any difficult words from each chapter and gives clear definitions of these, and the Links section, indicates links to other Internet resources on this novel.