The escalating conflicts throughout Lord of the Flies leave the reader with much to ponder. It is a dark, twisted, and detailed story.
We began this novel by allowing the kids to put themselves in the boy's shoes. During one activity, they were given a specific scenario with specific tools and asked to put them in order from most necessary to least for survival. They didn't fair too well and would've died pretty quickly. Although I would've liked it if they had the skills to survive, the more significant point was to show how difficult it would be to make decisions with very little in hand. From then on, they were not allowed to say that anything the kids in the novel did was "dumb." We were to assume that these boys' choices weren't easy.
They answered questions related to the novel each week, and then we discussed them even more deeply.
About halfway through the novel, we watched a film called The Stanford Prison Experiment. It is a very intense film with language/nudity/violence. I recommended it for a more mature audience. We did fast-forward through some parts.
During this experiment, college students volunteered as guards and prisoners in an isolated prison-like environment in exchange for $15/day. The theme feeds into Lord of the Flies by showing ordinary, good people feeding into power. There is a worksheet to fill out after the film, allowing the kids to further share their thoughts.
After completing the novel, the kids wrote a short essay on the theme of evil within the book. All the details are included in my FREE packet on Google Drive.
We decided to skip watching the movie. Golding did a good enough job of painting the visuals for us in his imagery :) It's available on Amazon Prime if you want to add it to your activities.
To grab a copy of the lessons I have collected, click HERE.