Characters

The characters in William Golding’s Lord of the Flies are all young British schoolboys who have been stranded on a tropical island. The boys fall into two categories. The “bigguns” are the older boys who are probably around 11 or 12 and have distinguishable personalities. The “littluns” are probably around six years old and don’t do much other than play. The older boys don’t even know how many “littluns” there are on the island, nor what their names are. 

Apart from a few central characters, the boys act as a collective character, repeatedly getting caught up in the mood of the moment and acting without thinking. The most notable example of this is when the boys lose control of themselves while dancing in the storm and end up murdering Simon. 

Out of the “bigguns”, five key characters stand out. Ralph, the main character, is an older boy who establishes himself as the leader of the group. His focus in on maintaining a sense of civilization and trying to get rescued. Jack is Ralph’s main rival as he becomes jealous of Ralph’s authority. He becomes increasingly violent and abuses his power. Piggy is an overweight, intelligent boy who criticizes the others for acting like children and savages. Simon is kind and fair. His fear that the beast exists inside the boys themselves is proved right by Roger, who becomes increasingly confident in his cruelty, torturing the other boys and killing Piggy.