Q 01/05

How do the boys in Lord of the Flies end up stranded on their island?

A) Their plane crashes

B) Their ship sinks

C) They run away from school

D) A storm wrecks their yacht

Answer · why

A) Their plane crashes

Their plane crashes during a wartime evacuation, and no adults survive, so the boys are left to run things themselves.

Q 02/05

What does Ralph weep for when Lord of the Flies ends?

A) Innocence

B) His father

C) Lost power

D) His home

Answer · why

A) Innocence

Innocence, or rather its end. As Ralph sobs, the boys around him break down and cry too.

Q 03/05

After many rejections, which publisher finally accepted Golding's Lord of the Flies?

A) Penguin

B) Jonathan Cape

C) Faber & Faber

D) Chatto & Windus

Answer · why

C) Faber & Faber

Faber & Faber. Its own reader had marked the typescript 'Rubbish & dull. Pointless. Reject.' before a new young editor rescued it.

Q 04/05

What was the working title of the manuscript before it became Lord of the Flies?

A) The Beast on the Mountain

B) The Island of Boys

C) Strangers from Within

D) The Dark Heart

Answer · why

C) Strangers from Within

Strangers from Within. Before publication, Golding made the major cuts his editor asked for.

Q 05/05

The title Lord of the Flies is a literal translation of which biblical demon's name?

A) Mammon

B) Beelzebub

C) Asmodeus

D) Belial

Answer · why

B) 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.