Lord_of_the_Flies_-_Setting

Setting, atmosphere, and mood all reflect the way people think, act and feel. In novels, an accurate description of the surroundings someines indicates what is going to happen in the novel, or how the characters will act. In the novel Lord of the Flies, the author, William Golding, pays alot of attention to decribing the setting in great detail, and the setting reflects the actions of the novel and/or the characters. The first way the setting reflects what will happen in the novel in the first chapter. The author descibes the island in a way that makes it seem heavenly, "a great platform of pink granite thrust up.....the top was covered with a thin layer of soil and course grass and shaded with young palm trees....the water. It was clear to the bottom and bright with the efforescence of tropical weed and coral. A school of tiny, glittering fish flicked hither and thither." (pg.12) It makes the reader believe that this island is going to be a wonderful and heaven-like place to live, a feeling that will soon be contradicted in upcoming chapters. The most obvious way that the setting reflected the actions of the characters was in chapter nine. In this chapter, the boys dance around a campfire and killed (who they thought was "the beast") Simon. During the whole scene, there was thunder, lightning, rain, and gusty wind. This creates and mysterious, depressing feeling, a feeling that something bad will or has happened. Golding first foreshadows that a bad event is about to happen by opening up the chapter "Over the island the build-up of clouds continued."(pg. 145) He adds to the foreshadowing later on by descibing the start of the storm, "There was a blink of bright light beyond the forest and thunder exploded again so a littlun started to whine. Big drops of rain fell among them making individual soungs when they struck."(pg. 151) Golding pays alot of attention to really descibing the atmosphere in a way so it creates a mysterious feeling. Also, Golding adds to that "Between the flashes of lightning the air was dark and terrible"(pg.151) This really makes it aware to the reader that it is dark and the boys can't see very well, which is why they mistakenly kill Simon. Another way the setting reflected the actions of the novel is in the last chapter, the chapter in which the "lord of the flies" is found, and the boys are finally rescued. It is suggested by the phrase "The afternoon died away"(pg.183) that things are about to change, old things are going to die away. The setting in Lord of the Flies is essential for foreshadowing the events that will happen or actions of the characters. Golding took a great deal of care in painting a picture for the reader when he described the island, and the atmosphere when Simon was killed and the boys were rescued. Clearly in these situations setting reflected the actions of the characters.