“Lord of the Flies” – Island Description

The shore

“He climbed over a broken trunk, and was out of the jungle. The shore was fledged with palm trees. These stood or leaned or reclined against the light and their green feathers were 100 feet in the air.” (Golding 10)

The jungle

“The most usual feature of the rock was a pink cliff surmounted by a skewed block; and that again surmounted, and that again, till the pinkness became a stack of balanced rock projecting through the looped fantasy of the forest creepers.” (Golding 34)

Whole island and jungle

“It was roughly boat-shaped: humped near this end with behind them the jumbled descent to the shore. On either side rocks, cliffs, treetops and a steep slope: forward there, the length of the boat, a tamer descent, tree-clad, with hints of pink: and then the jungly flat of the island, dense green, but drawn at the end to a pink tail.” (Golding 38)

The reef

“The reef enclosed more than one side of the island, lying perhaps a mile out and parallel to what they now thought of as their beach. The coral was scribbled in the sea as though a giant had bent down to reproduce the shape of the island in a flowing chalk line but tired before he had finished.” (Golding 38)

Lagoon

“Within the irregular arc of coral the lagoon was still as a mountain lake—blue of all shades and shadowy green and purple.” (Golding 10)

Beach

“The beach between the palm terrace and the water was a thin stick”(Golding 10)

Beach

“The palms that still stood made a green roof, covered on the underside with a quivering tangle of reflections from the lagoon.” (Golding 13)

Scar

“Beyond falls and cliffs there was a gash visible in the trees; there were the splintered trunks and then the drag, leaving only a fringe of palm between the scar and the sea” (Golding,39).

Fruit

“Then, amid the roar of bees in the afternoon sunlight, Simon found for them the fruit they could not reach, pulled off the choicest from up in the foliage, passed them back down to the endless, outstretched hands” (Golding, 76).

The sea

“The glittering sea rose up, moved apart in planes of blatant impossibility; the coral reef and the few stunted palms that clung to the more elevated parts would float up into the sky, would quiver, be plucked apart, run like raindrops on a wire or be repeated as in an odd succession of mirrors.” (Golding, 79).

The beach

“They had built castles in the sand at the bar of the little river. These castles were about one foot high and were decorated with shells, withered flowers, and interesting stones” (Golding, 82).