William Golding · 1954 · survival

William Golding's 1954 debut. English schoolboys are flown out of a Britain at nuclear war, and their aircraft is attacked and comes down on an uninhabited coral island. Golding never says where that island is. The only clue in the whole novel is one boy's passing mention of refuelling at Gibraltar and Addis Ababa - and the line those two points draw across the map.

1. 1
   England

   The boys are evacuated by air from a Britain at nuclear war. Piggy repeats what the pilot said about the atom bomb, so the adult world they are being carried away from has already destroyed itself before page one.

2. 2
   Gibraltar

   The first refuelling stop, known only because Jack mocks Simon for having fainted there. The entire geography of the novel rests on one throwaway line of playground cruelty in Chapter 1.

3. 3
   Addis Ababa

   The second stop named in that same line. Draw England to Gibraltar to Addis Ababa and carry the course on, and it runs toward Australia - the refuge the boys were most probably being evacuated to.

4. 4
   The Scar

   The crash-landing tears an open scar through the jungle, and in the night the wreckage is dragged out to sea with the pilot in it. Ralph and Piggy meet here, and there is no adult left on the island.

5. 5
   The Beach and the Lagoon

   The camp, the shelters and the great platform of pink granite where assemblies are held and whoever holds the conch may speak. The boys' whole attempt at government is conducted on a strip of sand.

6. 6
   The Mountain

   The signal fire burns here, and rescue depends on it being kept alight. Later a dead airman comes down by parachute onto the summit, and the boys who see him stir in the wind take him for the beast.

7. 7
   Simon's Glade

   Simon's secret clearing in the jungle, where he goes alone - and where the sow's head on a stick, black with flies, tells him the beast is not something you can hunt down and kill.

8. 8
   Castle Rock

   The rock fort at the far end, reached along a narrow neck, where Jack sets up as chief. Roger levers a boulder from the top; it kills Piggy and shatters the conch, and the last argument for order goes with it.

9. 9
   The Beach

   Jack fires the island to drive Ralph into the open, and Ralph runs until he falls at a naval officer's feet. The smoke that finally brings rescue is the smoke of the island burning down.