Throughout the nineteenth century in Europe there arose lots of new

ideas about human nature and human society. For a number of reasons
(including the eclipse of religious belief, the failures of progressive
politics, and the disruption of traditional ways of life caused by the
development of capitalism) the second half of the nineteenth century
had a particularly radical feel to it. In Lord of the Flies, Golding deals
with many of the ideas espoused in nineteenth century Europe.

For your Socratic Seminar, you will be assigned one of the four
quotations below. Each quotation is from a major nineteenth century
thinker (Freud actually worked well into the 20th). In preparation for
your discussion, I want you to think carefully about the quotation and
about how it relates to Lord of the Flies. You should be prepared to
discuss:
a.What parts of LotF suggest that the quotation is true (specific
passages).
b.What parts of LotF suggest that the quotation is false (specific
passages).
c.Whether you think Golding would, on the whole, agree with the
quotation.
d. What you feel personally about the quotation, based on
your own reading and experience.

1. “The first human who hurled an insult instead of a stone was the
founder of civilization.”
-Sigmund Freud

2. “War is nothing more than the continuation of politics by other

means.”
-Carl von Clausewitz

3. “The world itself is the will to power--and nothing else! And you yourself
are the will to power--and nothing else!” -Friedrich Nietzsche

4. “It is not the strongest of the species that survives, nor the most
intelligent that survives. It is the one that is the most adaptable to change.”
-Charles Darwin