Essay on Allegory in Lord of the Flies

A simple way to define an allegory is a story that’s living a double life. To say that Lord of the Flies is an allegorical novel means it contains a surface story and another story which readers must dig deeper within the text to identify. William Golding’s 1954 novel explores philosophical concepts in a situation where young boys are left stranded on an island during the period in which a World War was occurring. Golding demonstrates that the children are not conditioned by society to act evil or, that a satanic force is driving them towards such a malevolent and nefarious demeanor; it is an innate evil within that is causing them to act this way. The novel could be read literally as a tale of stranded schoolboys who gradually deteriorate

Ralph is an insufficient leader, which causes his society to greatly decline. Ralph creates the policy of only speaking when one holds the conch in their hands; only Ralph is allowed to interrupt since he is the leader. The boys are at the top of a mountain, defeated, because their fire didn’t stay lit. When Piggy tries to explain why it didn’t work, Jack interrupts him.

Oftentimes authors will use symbolism through the characters in order to represent a larger encompassing theme. William Golding’s book Lord of the Flies is no exception to this pattern—as various characters in the book have such allegorical meanings. In the case of Jack, he could be said to represent the evilness in humanity, proven by three established concepts in the story: the true nature of his hunting tendencies, the progression of events that happen in his dancing rituals, and his interactions towards other symbolic figures. These three reasons, furthered by evidence shown throughout the novel, fit Jack into a role of symbolic evilness (add something here).

In the novel Lord of the Flies, by William Golding, a group of English boys in their adolescence are stranded on an island. They crash-land while being evacuated because of an atomic war, so the boys must learn to cooperate with each other in order to survive. The boys are civil at first, but the bonds of civilization unfold as the rapacity for power and immediate desires become more important than civility and rescue. The conflict between Ralph, the protagonist, and Jack, the antagonist, represents the conflict between the impulse to civilization and the impulse to savagery, respectively. In Lord of the Flies, Golding uses Ralph and Jack’s struggle for power to show that greed and lust for power can corrupt the best

In the novel “Lord of the flies” written by William Golding examines the true nature of humankind when unfettered by the constraints of civilization, culture and society. When a group of boys varying in ages are stranded on an island without adult supervision, they immediately organize a society and elect Ralph as their Chief and Jack as the Hunter. The group of boys were divided into two groups the bigguns which comprised of the more seasoned children that symbolized government and littleuns which comprised of the younger children that symbolizes the ordinary people. Initially, everybody was given a responsibility and their role was taken seriously. However, the lack of maturity within them caused them to abandon assigned task that was pivotal

Ralph is not only a leader, but a voice of reason within the group. Ralph’s main priority throughout the novel is to be rescued, even when it did not seem as important to the other boys in the group. Ralph creates a signal fire and consistently reminds the boys that it is imperative to their survival. Ralph explains, “Don’t you understand? Can’t you see we ought to--ought to die before we let the fire out?” (Golding 81). Ralph’s scolding to the hunters is well deserved considering that they wasted a possible opportunity to be rescued after letting the signal fire go out. As time went on, Jack and his hunters become more and more consumed with hunting and order began to turn into chaos. The hunters chant, “Kill the pig. Cut her throat. Bash her in” (Golding 75). Ralph refuses to join the boys and viciously murder pigs. The boys’ hygiene habits were also worsening, to the point that the boys were defecating in the wrong areas. Ralph tries to address it at a meeting, but the boys’ find their animal-like behavior amusing. Throughout the loss of civility and order, Ralph always keeps a persistent effort to keep the signal fire going and keep order within the group. Ralph’s attitude towards the entire situation drops, however he never completely lost hope.

Williams Golding experienced many horrors that haunt him, which bleed over into his writing as evident in his vivid descriptions of horrid and inhumane occurrences. Lord of the Flies is about a group of school boys that are stranded on an island without adults. The boys form their own leadership, in the latter part of Lord of the Flies a new tribe is formed and the boys descent to savagery. Chapter 9 is the turning point of the story, it is when the boys lose their innocence and they become savage. Simon is beaten to death in a circle of savages (death circle). Each word, adjective, and event was picked carefully by Golding to further emphasize his allegory. In chapter 9 of Lord of the Flies, William Golding employs diction, animal imagery, and foreshadowing to convey the that fear corrupts hope and converts civilization to savagery.

In the novel, Lord of the Flies by William Golding, a group of 90 boys are stranded on an uninhabitable island after their plane crashes. They must conquer the natural world together without the help of adults. The boys must face the reality that they may never get rescued unless they work together to survive the island. With the use of biblical allusions and symbols, Golding emphasizes the malevolence and corruption within the boys. It can be seen that the island is a symbol in itself; it symbolizes the Garden of Eden which connects back to the snake symbol.

Wherever structure has come across, a special someone always rebels against it; bringing followers with them. Reflecting on this, Ralph makes an astonishing remark: “What makes things break up like they do?” (Golding, Ralph page 139). In this scenario, Jack has become a contumacious being. And to extract more people from Ralph’s tribe, Jack invited everyone to a feast. Where he was able to manipulate many, and bribe them to join him. Due to his ability to provide meat on the day of his rebellion; caused the survivors to feel as though Jack was the answer to their prayers. This is the breaking point of Ralph’s ability to lead the group. Whence the boys were released from rules, something stirred within them.

During the initial stages of the stranding of the boys, Jack’s inherently violent nature and elation at the lack of the presence of authority turns out to be useful, with him and a group of other boys forming a group of ‘hunters’, with the intention of providing for the community established by Ralph (with the assistance of Piggy). Upon the destruction of the shell, the symbolism for the point at which the semblance of civilisation fell apart, Jack’s violent reign led to an unequal distribution of power amongst the boys and the consequent deaths of Simon and Piggy. The key difference between the sides is the motive for power: Ralph wants to restore order and plan ahead, keeping in mind what he sees as the best option for the boys under his leadership, whereas on the other hand Jack is primarily motivated by his savage desires, free to flourish without a ‘proper’ authority to reign him in (although it could be argued that this was perpetrated by fear). Whilst the setting of these events seems disconnected from out perspective, as modern-day readers, the staging and symbolism of the whole ‘civilisation vs. savagery’ concept is a very real issue.

Lord of The Flies is an allegory written by the author William Golding. The narrative is about a group of boys who are stranded on an island after a traumatic crash. The longer they are on the island their inner “beast” start to come out. As their small civilization slowly comes apart a show of true character becomes the basis of everyday life. An allegory is a story in which there are truly two stories each full of symbols. In an allegory the first story is full of literal elements. The second narrative is under the surface and told through symbolism with hidden meanings. There are multiple events of symbolism throughout the novel such as the beast, the conch, and the signal fire.

The characters start to think hunting and killing is better than order. “ Which is better to have law and agree; or to hunt and kill (Golding 164). When the boys start to think killing is better than law that shows that they getting further from civilization. Ralph looks back and realizes that they have lost all civilization and have turned on each other. “Ralph wept for the end of innocence, the darkness of man’s heart, and the fall through the air of the true, wise friend called Piggy” (Golding 202). Ralph is sad about what they have become and misses home. For instance if the boys are disobeying their own rules that shoes that they will become

Again we walk the blood-stained fields in an attempt to obliviate the enemy. Guns were aimed towards everyone now, even the innocent. No one has risen against this decision in destroying all we have and more. We hear the booms echoing throughout our entire figure. The last thing we all saw was a very bright light, encompassing us.

In Lord of the Flies there are many themes like civilization versus savagery and loss of innocence that throughout the novel are perceived through foreshadowing and irony. Most of the boys were lead to savagery at the cost of their innocence, but those who were still civilized had to fight against the savages. The boys struggled between being civilized and caving into savagery. Many boys followed after Jack but when the boys were put to vote they still had chosen Ralph as their leader. Not only did Jack lead the boys to savagery, he lead them to lose their innocence as children. The boys killed, and tortured both animals and their peers. Ralph wanted to be rescued from the island as quick as possible. Jack wanted power, he almost had power when he tried to kill Ralph but he ended up saving everybody on the island. Throughout the novel, the author established that two of the themes were power is the one thing both people from civilization and savagery wanted and being with the wrong group of people can lead to a huge influence to make bad decision.

To subliminally teach readers a lesson, authors sometimes make their story an allegory. This means that their characters and events represent more than what they seem. A good example of an allegory is Lord of the Flies by William Golding. On the surface, the story is just some children doing their best to survive in harsh conditions and eventually getting rescued. Deep down, it has much more meaning than that. There are many interpretations of what those meanings are, but when reading the book, most readers can see that a common underlying theme is present. Whether it be the boys themselves, their tools used for survival, or their own imaginations, it is clear that the problem of evil is in the majority of symbolism in the story.