IB English: Analyzing Literature Criticism of 'An Old Study Well Told'

This presentation, created for an IB English class, offers a detailed analysis of William R. Mueller's essay, "An Old Study Well Told," which critically examines William Golding's novel, "Lord of the Flies." The presentation includes a PowerPoint presentation and a separate script document designed to guide the class through a critical exploration of the essay. It focuses on identifying the essay's key arguments, including the thesis statement, and presents discussion points for each section to encourage critical thinking. The presentation also highlights and analyzes specific passages, offering a literature criticism perspective. Additionally, the presentation includes an annotated version of the essay with color-coded notes to facilitate a deeper understanding of the text. The student is expected to provide an excellent quality analysis suitable for an IB student.

Below is the required task. For Literature Criticism Presentation.Please note, this is for an IB
student and the quality is expected to be ‘excellent’. Below are the requirements. Should you have
any queries, please reach out without delay.
1. Create a PowerPoint presentation to give to a class (presentation must be accompanied by a
separate talking points / script document)
I. Identify best part of the essay and create discussion points about each part
II. Identify and talk at the thesis
III. Highlight and talk about the starred passages focusing on literature criticism
2. Annotate the essay electronically (in below word doc) by using color code and notes on the side
ESSAY 3:
An Old Study Well Told
William R. Mueller
Of the Flies uncover the fallen and unredeemed human hearts, it sketches the enormity is of which man,
unrestrained by human and resistant to divine graces, is capable. The varying degrees of goodness as
manifested by Simon, piggy and Ralph, are simply no match for a murderer Jack or a headhunting Rodger.,
when we first meet the boys recently dropped onto an island after escaping from their Bomb-ravaged part of the
world, they are still trailing paint clouds of Glory., even Rodger who shares with Jack The most diabolic
potentialities of them all, early in the novel many face of thin sheath decency and restraint; enjoying stones at
one of the smaller boys he is careful to miss, tulip understand in violet a small circle surrounding his teased
victim:" here, invisible yet strong, watch the Taboo of the old life. Round the squatting child was the protection of
the parents and school and police man and the law. Rogers Aim was conditioned by a Civilization that knew
nothing of him and was in ruins. “The novel delineates the partial conditioning of the arm and the unwilling of the
heart of Rodger and some of his companions.
Lord of the Flies is, of course, more than an expository disquisition on sin. Were it only known it would have gone
virtually unnoticed. The book is a carefully structured work of art organisation-- in terms of a series of hunts-
subsidy will with progressive clarity men's essential Core. There are six stages, six hunts, constituting the darkest
voyages as each satyr she wanted us closer to natural man. To taste the hunts- with pics and boys of victims-
east field Golding’s full impact.
As Ralph, the builder of fire and Shelters, is the main constructive force on the island,, jack the hunter, is the
primary destructive force. Hunting does of course provide food, but it also gratify that last for blood. In his first
confrontation with a pig, cat fails, unable to plant his life into living flesh, to bear the sight of flowing blood, and
enable to do so because he is not far enough away from the " taboo of the old life". But under the questioning
scrutiny of his companions he feels a bit ashamed of his fastidiousness, and, driving his life into a tree trunk, if
you sleep how's that the next time will be different.
And so it is. Returning from second hunt he proclaimed that he has cut a pig’s throat. Yet he has not reached the
point of savage abandonment: We learn that he twitched as he spoke of his achievement- an involuntary gesture
expressing his horror at the deed and disclosing the tension between the old Taboo and the new Freedom. His
reflection upon the triumph, however, indicates that pangs of conscience most certainly fade before the glorious
feeling of new and devastating power: His mind was crowded with memories; memories of the knowledge that
had come to them when they closed in on the struggling pig, knowledge that they had outwitted a living thing,
imposed there will opponent, taken away its life like a long satisfying drink".
The third hunt is unsuccessful; the body gets away. Nonetheless it plants the seed of an atrocity previously
undreamed, and it is followed by an igneous make-believe, smoke point in which Robert, one of the younger
boys, plays pig, the Other encircling him and jabbing with their Spears. The play becomes more frenzied" with
cries of" kill the Pig! Cut his throat! Kill the Pig! Bash him in!" only a fraction of the old Taboo now remains; the

terrified Robert emerges alive but with wounded rump. what is boards the make believe is but the prelude to an
all too real drama.
IV and Ethan electrifying success, a mayhem accomplished with no twitch of conscience, no elements of
preteens. The boys Discover sow “sunk in deep material bliss",” the great bladder of her belly. Print with a row of
piglets that's left or borrowed and squeaked. “What a prize! Wounded she flees, “bleeding and mad" the Hunter
follows, where did to her in last excited by the long chase and the Drop blood. So finally falters read in a ghastly
scene Jack and Rodger ecstatically consummate their Desires:
Here, stuck down by the Heat, the sow fell and the Hunters hurt themselves at her. This grateful eruption from an
unknown world made her frantic; she squeaked and bucked and the air was full of sweat and noise and blood
and terror. Rodger ran around the head prodding with his spear whenever pig flesh appeared. Jack was on top of
the sow, stabbing downward with his knife. Rodger founded lodgement for the point and begin to push dining with
his whole weight. The spear move forward Inch By Inch and the terrified squealing become a high pitched
scream. Then Jack found the throat and The Hot Blood sprouted over his hands. The pic collapsed under them
and they were heavy and fulfilled upon her. The butterfly still danced, preoccupied in the centre of the clearing.
The fifth hunt, moving us even closer to the impulses of the human heart, it is a fine amalgam of the third and
fourth. This time Simon is at the centre of the circle, yet the person is more make believe then it was with the
heavy treated sow. Simon is mother not only without compunction but the orgiastic delight.
The final and climatic abhorrence is the hunt for Ralph it steroid will be celebrated here; suffice it to say that one
refinement not present in the Simon episode is added to stick that Roger sharpens at both ends. It had indeed be
used for the sow, one point piercing the Earth and the other supporting the severe head, but it's human use had
not yet been tested on that island paradise.
Such being Mr Golding’s art and conviction, it is little wonder that some leaders have just him offensive,
depravedly sensational, totally wicked. He has been impaled to say that many human beings, left unrestrainedly
to their own devices, will find the most natural expression of their desire to lie in human head hunting. Those who
perform that man is made in God's image will be given some pause, but reflection they will probably interpret the
novel as a portrayal of the inevitable and the ultimate condition of a world without grace. - there Huye firm that
man is basically and inherently good-- and becoming better- main simply find the Nobel a monstrous
perpetuation of falsehood.
Golding’s main offence, I suppose, is that he profane what many men hold most precious: Believe that the
human being is essentially good and the child essentially innocent. Yet his offence, as well and his genius, lies
not in any originality of view or statement but in his starting ability to make history really, social that many readers
can only drawback in terror. I would strongly affirm, however that Golding’s intention is not simply to leave us in a
negative state of Horror. Lord of the Flies has a tough moral and religious flavour, one which a study of its own
title helps make clear.
The term Lord of the Flies is the translation of the Hebrew word "Baalzebub" or "Beelzebub". The Baal were the
local nature Gods of the early Semitic peoples. In II kings1,Baalzebub is named as the god of akron. All three
synoptic gospels referred to Beelzebub; in Luke 11:15 he is called the chief of the devils. In English literature
among those who refer to him are Christopher marlowe and Robert burton, do it is left to Milton to delineate his
character at some length. Weltering site he is described as one next himself [Satan] in power and next in crime,
/long after known in Palestine, and nam'dBelzeebub." shuttle service to the great adversary kind are well known.
To disregard the historical background Golding's title, aur the place of The Lord of the Flies within the novel is to
miss a good part of the author intent, it is, indeed, tulip as nothing but horror.
At the conclusion of the food hunt, after the boys have multiparous sow, the place its head on a stick as a
sacrificial offering for some reputedly mysterious and awesome beast- actually a dead parachutist who had
plummeted to the ground now recognisable as his body Rises and Falls each time the wind field the parachute
and then withdraws from it. Meanwhile Simon, pulav for his companions and desire to protect them in the island,
leave them to search out the dark some creature. He finds himself confronted by the primitive offering the Flies,
the spilt guts, even ignoring the integrity of being spiked on a stick". As he is improved to stare at the gruesome
object , it undergoes a black, unholy transfiguration; he sees no longer just a pig head on a stick; his gaze, we
are told is" killed by that accident inescapable recognition". And that which is inescapable a recognised by Simon
is of primordial root. Its shrewdness and devastation have long been from chronicled: It is on centre stage in the
third chapter of Genesis; it get the rapt attention of Moses and Amos and the prophet who followed them.

Simon and The Lord of the Flies continue to face each other, the nature of the letter is clearly and explicitly set
forth in an imaginary conversation which turns into a dramatic monologue the head speaks:
“What are you doing out here all alone? Aren’t you afraid of me?"
Simon shook.
“There isn't anyone to help you, only me. And I am the Beast".
Symonds mouth laboured, brought forth audible words.
“Pig’s head on a stick. "
" fancy thinking the beast what something you could ant and kill" said the head..." you knew, didn't you? I am part
of you? Close, close, close! I’m the reason why it’s no go? Why things are what they are?”
A moment later the beast goes on:
“I’m warning you I’m going to get angry. D’you see? Yo’re not wanted. Understand? We are going to have
fun on this island. Understand? We are going to have fun on this island! So don’t try it on my poor disguised boy,
or else-“
Simon found he was looking into a vast mouth. There was black less within , a blackless that spread.
“-or else,” said the lord of the flies, we shall do you .See? Jack and Rogers and Maurice and Robert and Bill and
Piggy and Ralph. Do you see?”
Simon was inside the mouth. He fell down and lost consciousness.
The ancient incapable recognition is there The Lord of the Flies is a part of Simon, of all the boys on the island, of
everyman. And he is the reason things are what they are. He is the demonic isn't whose inordinate hunger never
assuaged, seeks to devour all men, to blind them to his will. He is, in goldings Novel, identified only by Simon.
And history has made clear, as Lord of the Flies affirms, that the Simons are not wanted, that they do spoil what
is quantity called the fun of the world, and that antagonists will do them.
Simon does not heat the "or else" imperative, for the bears two important a message: That the beast is Hamlet
and horrible. The direct reference here is that the date do spectrally moving form had terrified the boys, the
Corpse is, obviously, both harmless and horrible. But it also should be remembered that the Lord of the Flies
identified itself as the beast and that it too might be termed harmless and horrible. Simon alone has the key to its
potential harmlessness. It will become harmless only when it becomes universally recognised, recognised not as
a principal of fun but as the demonic impulse which is utterly destructive. Simon staggers on his companions to
we are the immediate good news that the Beast (the rotting parachutist) is harmless. Yet he carries with him a
deeper relation; namely the Beast (lord of the Flies) is not overwhelming extinction force, what are potentially
fatal inner itching, recognition of which is a first step towards its annihilation. Simon becomes, of course, the
suffering victim of the boys on the island and, by extension, on The Reader of the book.
To me Lord of the Flies is a profoundly true book. Its happy offence lies in the masterful, drama tick and powerful
narration of the human condition, with which a part of the daily newspaper should already be familiar. The
ultimate purpose of the novel is not to leave its readers in a state of paralytic horror. The intention is certainly to
impress upon the man's, any man's, miraculous ingenuity in perpetrating evil; but it is also to impress upon them
the gift of a saving recognition which, to Golding, is apparently the only saving recognition. Unorthodox craze for
his recognition is the "conviction of sin", an expression which grades on many contemporary ears, and yet one
which the author's seemingly does not hold in derision.

At John Hopkins University in the spring of 1968, Golding said that Lord of the Flies is a study of sin. And he is a
person who uses what with precision. Sin is not to be confused with crime which is transgression of human law; it
is instead a transgression of divine law. What does Golding believe that the jacks chat are going to be
constructed through social legislation eventuating in some form of utopianism- hi and Conrad's Mr. Kurtz are at1
in their evaluation of which, they agree, exercise external restraint but have at best a slight effect on the human
heart. Is explicit: The theme of[ the Lord of the Flies]," he writes, " is an attempt to trace the defects of the society
back to the defects of human nature. The moral is that the shape of a society must depend on the critical nature
of the individual and not on any political system however apparently logical or respectable.
William Golding story is as old as the written word, the figure of The Lord of the Flies, of Belzeebub, is one of the
primary archetypes of the Western world. The novel is the parable of fallen man. But it does not close the door on
that man; eat n treat him to know himself and his adversary, for he cannot do combat against an unrecognised
force, especially when it lies within him.