Lord of the Flies – Oral Task

The Background:

The oral task will be set after the end of the novel ‘Lord of the Flies’. The boys have been rescued by the sailors who arrived on the beach in the last chapter and are being taken home to safety.

The captain of the rescue ship, however, is aware that something terrible appears to have happened on the island. Not only has this tropical paradise been reduced to a smoking inferno but the discovery of a bloody mass of clothes and broken spectacles on the rocks at the far end of the island seems to indicate that there has been at least one gruesome death. In addition, the landing craft passed the bloated dead body of a young boy who appeared to have suffered from multiple stab wounds on the way into the lagoon. The body was, unfortunately, badly decomposed after having been eaten by numerous fish making identification at this stage impossible.

These suspicious circumstances have prompted the captain to hold an interview with each of the rescued children in order to ascertain exactly what happened on the island before his arrival. In order to keep the children safe from each other (as there is clearly a high level of animosity between a number of the rescued individuals) and to prevent them from agreeing on a shared version of the events of the island everyone has been kept in isolation, with the exception of visits from the ship’s doctor, until their interview.

The Interview:

Will consist of three stages:

1. The Captain’s initial question: ‘In your own words, what happened on the island?’

2. Your response to this question which should be a 3 - 5 minute long speech.

3. 2 or 3 unprepared questions from the Captain based on your speech.

Your Task:

You have to produce a 3 - 5 minute speech from the point of view of the character that you have invented in class and which we have been working on in lessons. In your speech you must:

· establish your character’s personality

· explain some of the events that happened on the island and your involvement in them

· explain who you think was to blame for things going so horribly wrong or, at least, why you were not to blame

· you will be allowed 1 cue card with notes on it but your speech must be learnt