Lord of the Flies Trivia
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This Lord of the Flies trivia quiz has 85 free questions with answers and covers the whole novel: the plane crash and the conch, the election that makes Ralph chief, the signal fire and Piggy's glasses, the imagined beast and the dead parachutist, the feast, the killing on the beach, Castle Rock and the naval officer at the end. It also digs into the book's history: the many rejections before Faber & Faber said yes, the discarded title and the cut nuclear-war opening, its answer to R. M. Ballantyne's The Coral Island, and what the title really means. There are questions on William Golding himself, from D-Day to the Nobel Prize, on the 1963 and 1990 films, and on the book's afterlife in Stephen King, The Simpsons and Yellowjackets. Students revising the novel will find the plot questions useful; book-club veterans can chase the harder ones. Every answer was checked against encyclopaedia entries before publishing.
30 of 85 questions with answers and explanations. Play the quiz
Q 01How do the boys in Lord of the Flies end up stranded on their island?
Their plane crashes
Their plane crashes during a wartime evacuation, and no adults survive, so the boys are left to run things themselves.
Q 02What does Ralph weep for when Lord of the Flies ends?
Innocence
Innocence, or rather its end. As Ralph sobs, the boys around him break down and cry too.
Q 03After many rejections, which publisher finally accepted Golding's Lord of the Flies?
Faber & Faber
Faber & Faber. Its own reader had marked the typescript 'Rubbish & dull. Pointless. Reject.' before a new young editor rescued it.
Q 04What was the working title of the manuscript before it became Lord of the Flies?
Strangers from Within
Strangers from Within. Before publication, Golding made the major cuts his editor asked for.
Q 05The title Lord of the Flies is a literal translation of which biblical demon's name?
Beelzebub
Beelzebub. In 2 Kings the injured King Ahaziah sends messengers to Baal-zebub, god of the Philistine city of Ekron, to ask whether he will recover.
Q 06In Lord of the Flies, what do the older boys call the youngest children on the island?
The littluns
The littluns. One of them first talks of a 'beastie' in the woods, and the older boys never manage to laugh that fear away.
Q 07In Lord of the Flies, what object does Ralph blow to gather the scattered survivors?
A conch shell
A conch shell. Piggy realises what the shell is and talks Ralph into blowing it.
Q 08In Lord of the Flies, how do the boys light their very first fire?
With Piggy's glasses
With Piggy's glasses. Later Jack's tribe steals them in the night, and trying to get them back costs Piggy his life.
Q 09In Lord of the Flies, why does Ralph insist on keeping a fire burning on the mountaintop?
To signal ships
To signal ships. Yet while its keepers are off hunting a pig, the fire goes out just as a ship passes by.
Q 10In Lord of the Flies, what did Jack Merridew lead at his school?
The choir
The choir. After losing the vote for chief to Ralph, Jack turns his choirboys into the island's hunters.
Q 11In Lord of the Flies, which health condition, along with his weight, makes Piggy a target of scorn?
Asthma
Asthma. Yet the scorned Piggy has the best grasp of their plight and comes up with many of the island's most useful ideas.
Q 12What do the boys mistake for the beast on the mountaintop?
A dead parachutist
A dead parachutist, a pilot shot down in an air battle. The one boy who learns the truth is killed before he can tell the rest.
Q 13In Lord of the Flies, which pair of boys, tending the fire, first report seeing the beast on the mountain?
Sam and Eric
Sam and Eric. Later captured by Jack's tribe, they still slip Ralph some meat and warn him about the hunt for him.
Q 21Where was Golding teaching when he began writing Lord of the Flies in 1951?
Bishop Wordsworth's, Salisbury
Bishop Wordsworth's, Salisbury. Only the book's success let him give up teaching there, about fifteen years after he returned from the war.
Q 22Which prize did Golding win in 1983?
Nobel Prize
Nobel Prize. Brought up to be a scientist, he studied natural science at Oxford before switching to English.
Q 23For which novel did William Golding win the Booker Prize?
Rites of Passage
Rites of Passage. On its voyage to Australia, a clergyman caught up in a scandal on board dies of shame.
Q 14What offering does Jack's tribe leave for the beast in the forest?
A pig's head on a stick
A pig's head on a stick. Swarming with flies, it is the 'Lord of the Flies' of the title, and one boy imagines it speaking to him.
Q 15Which Lord of the Flies boy slips away to a hidden forest clearing and is later killed in a frenzied dance?
Simon
Simon. Afterwards Ralph and Piggy, who had joined the dance, tell themselves the death was not their responsibility.
Q 16In Lord of the Flies, who kills Piggy by sending a boulder down from Castle Rock?
Roger
Roger. Earlier on the island he throws stones at a small boy but takes care to miss him.
Q 17In Lord of the Flies, who finally rescues Ralph on the beach?
A British naval officer
A British naval officer. He scolds the boys for not behaving like proper British boys, then turns away, embarrassed, to gaze at his own cruiser.
Q 18Ralph's rescuer calls the boys' island ordeal a 'jolly good show', like which book?
The Coral Island
The Coral Island, Ballantyne's tale whose morality Golding set out to invert; its heroes are also called Ralph and Jack.
Q 19Golding asked his wife whether he should write about boys on an island who behave how?
Like real children would
Like real children would. He had found a classic island adventure story unrealistic.
Q 20During World War II, Golding commanded a landing craft during which operation?
The Normandy landings
The Normandy landings. He had also served in the hunt for the battleship Bismarck, and he counted the war among the greatest influences on his writing.
Q 24Golding's second novel, The Inheritors, is about the encounter between modern humans and whom?
Neanderthals
The gentle Neanderthals come off far better than the deceitful, violent newcomers.
Q 25In which English county was William Golding born?
Cornwall
Cornwall. In 1985 he moved back to the county, and he died at his home there in 1993.
Q 26Which heavy metal band based its 1995 song 'Lord of the Flies' on Golding's novel?
Iron Maiden
Iron Maiden. First sung by Blaze Bayley, it stayed in the band's live shows even after he had left.
Q 27Who directed the 1963 British film of Lord of the Flies?
Peter Brook
Peter Brook. He cast boys who were not professional actors and relied on a lot of improvisation.
Q 28Where was the 1963 film of Lord of the Flies shot?
Puerto Rico
Puerto Rico, largely on the island of Vieques. In 1996 the cast, by then grown men, were reunited for a documentary, Time Flies.
Q 29In the 1990 film of Lord of the Flies, what kind of institution do the stranded boys attend?
A military academy
A military academy. Unlike in the novel, a badly injured adult survives alongside the boys.
Q 30Which author named his fictional town Castle Rock after Jack's camp in Lord of the Flies?
Stephen King
Stephen King. His town in turn gave its name to Rob Reiner's production company, Castle Rock Entertainment.