Lord Of The Flies Symbolism Analysis

Human’s innate behavior after the constraints and expectations of society disappear is the recurring theme centering the characters. William Golding’s Lord of the Flies uses the righteous Simon to highlight Jack and his evil role throughout the novel of savagery and civilization. The foil characters in Lord of the Flies exhibit the contrasting ideals and characteristics, the dissimilar symbolism of both characters, and the circumstances which lead both characters to follow one’s natural tendencies. To emphasize the message of Lord of the Flies, two young innocent boys will gradually begin to show their individualism.

In William Golding’s “Lord Of The Flies” Novel, symbolism is a very important element of the book, Many symbols show how the boys on the island are slowly becoming savage and losing their civility.

Throughout the realistic novel Lord of the Flies, William Golding has repeatedly used many of his characters as a representation of many abstract ideas that relate to the whole human society, as in how we form civilization, and how easy it is for us to turn away from it. These ideas are expressed through the characters´ descriptions, their conversations, and actions. Simon, one of the main characters in the book who still retains to his civilized way of thinking contrasts to many other boys who have subdued to their nature of savagery, is the representation of natural goodness, spiritual figure in a non-religious way, due to his spiritual vision, his awareness of the beast’s true identity, and the way he interacts toward other boys. Simon,

Humans live and develop in societies with rules, order and government, but humans are not perfect, they have many deficiencies so does the societies they live in. When a group of schoolboys land on a tropical island, Ralph takes on the role of leader by bringing all of the boys together and organizing them. He first explains “There aren’t any grownups. We shall have to look after ourselves.”(p.33), this brings up the question if the boys will have prosperity or will they succumb to the evil on the island. At first the young boys start being successful and civilized but chaos soon overruns them and evil starts to lurk over the island. William Golding’s effective use of symbolism helps emphasize and tie together the relationship between the evil in society and in human nature. The fictional story of the group of British schoolboys stranded on an island and the decisions they make, relate back to our society and the decisions we might make in a difficult situations. Lord of The Flies is Golding’s attempt to trace the defects of society back to the defects of human nature. The use of symbols in the novel to represent the flaws of human nature, helps create this theme. The conch is one of the main objects the boys use and has a very strong evolution throughout the novel. Likewise, painted faces are used as a method to show the change in human nature throughout a long period of time. Another object that is persistent throughout the novel are Piggy’s specs, they are principally used to start fires but have a more deeper significance.

The Lord of the Flies is a novel that contains multiple symbols that reflect the actions of human nature. Some of these symbols include Piggy and his glasses, the signal fire, the conch shell, and the Lord of the Flies. Each symbol shows a different flaw or mistake the boys encounter throughout the novel.

Being rescued from the island is seen to be most important from Ralph and Piggy. In order to be rescued they need to keep a fire going at all time for ships to see the smoke. Ralph keeps reminding people about the fire because it is the most important thing. No one listens to him and the fire goes out, and this causes Ralph his own sense of humanity as he starts to believe the beast and accidentally kills Simon with the others. The boys kill Simon by accident because he was bloody and dirty, so they thought he was the beast. The beast represents the evil inside the boys, and Simon’s evil speaks to him. “Fancy thinking the Beast was something you could hunt and kill! You knew, didn’t you? I’m part of you? Close, close, close! I’m the reason why it’s no go? Why things are what they are?” (Golding 143). The evil and immaturity of the boys is the the reason their civilization fails.

Lord of the Flies: William Golding has said that his novel Lord of the Flies was symbolic from the beginning until the end when the boys are rescued. During the course of the novel these symbols are constantly changing, giving us a new interpretation of the island society.

The most powerful use of symbolism that Golding uses for the Sow’s head is what the boys call it. The Lord of the Flies. Not only is it the title of the book, but a nickname for Beelzebub, the devil. Now what is happening to the boys as their time on the island continues? They succumb to immorality which is what the devil stands for. When Golding writes on page 144 “Simon found he was looking into a vast mouth. There was blackness within, a blackness that spread.”. Simon is not literally looking at a dark mouth full of blackness but instead the dark and tarnished soul of humanity. Golding enlightens the character of Simon but he times it so that the poor boy is killed before he can reveal his discovery. This furthers Simon’s point that humans

Lord of the Flies is a story on the lives of a group of school boys who have crashed on a deserted island during World War II. The story centers around how, Ralph, Piggy, Simon, Jack, and the littluns’ struggle to survive as they are faced with the challenge of sustaining life by figuring ways to be rescued. When we first meet Jack’s character, he has a bit of kindness towards the rest of the characters, “Jack and Ralph smiled at each other with shy liking” (23). Then, throughout the book we can see that evil expands inside Jack. At the feast that Jack arranged, he created the chant “kill the beast! Cut his throat! Spill his blood!” (152). this expression shows how evil evolves in Jack’s character, and turns him from intimidating to animalistic. This book is purely shows the evil in humanity. Therefore, the description of the characters towards the conclusion of the book reveals how monstrous and bestial they have become and how they reflect the real

Human nature, innocence, civilization, security, and sanity. Each is a common idea in both literature and everyday life but despite how regular these concepts may occur, they are more delicate than they appear. William Golding presents such ideas in the novel Lord of the Flies, which tells the tale of a group of English schoolboys whose plane has been shot down in the middle of an unnamed nuclear war and crashed on an uninhabited island. Upon crashing, the boys discover that they must govern themselves and work together towards survival ultimately causing their own war of adolescence on the once serene island, destroying both the land and the last shred of innocence and civilization left in the group. Percival Wemys Madison, the conch, the fire, the island, and the beast are all utilized throughout the entirety of the novel to symbolize the deeper meanings behind the actions and interactions of the boys.

In order to keep civilization within a community one would have to make rules and laws to keep things in check. If one were to put young boys on a stranded island, all alone and away from society, one might guess that even though they have each other, the human nature in each of them will soon deteriorate and cause them to do absurd things. In the book Lord of the Flies, William Golding uses symbolism to demonstrate the deterioration of civilization on the island. When a group of young British School boys crash on a deserted island their first attempt is to keep things in line, this will soon fail as the boys are isolated and away from home, which will then lead them to savagery and eventually the destruction of their whole island. Golding uses symbols such as the conch, the fire and characters such as Jack as examples to show the downturns of civilization on the island.

In Lord of the Flies the major characters symbolize an abstract idea in relation to the potrayment of the boy's psyche; William’s story is a fable, because there are allusions when major characters To fully comprehend, the abstract ideas and symbols of the major characters, one must construe the novel, by identifying the major characters temperament linked to the symbols for abstract ideas.

evil. William Golding poses this question in his realistic novel Lord of the Flies. Set on a

Two main forces rule society. A destructive force and a beneficial force. The destructive force causes pandemonium while the beneficial one maintains order and a humane mindset. The forces keep a community under control while also allowing for some tension. In the novel, The Lord of the Flies by William Golding, two objects represent these dominating forces. They are the conch and the beast.

Towards the end of the novel, the symbolic demise of mankind and its civilization is truly kick started, all involving Piggy’s specs, the symbol of intellectualism. In chapter ten, on pages 166 through 168, the group of boys that call themselves the savages storm the original home shelters in the dead of night, roughing up Ralph, Piggy, Sam, and Eric, and stealing Piggy’s specs in the process (Golding). The stealing of the glasses officially marks the loss of intelligence and reason on the island, leaving no barriers between the children and their demise. From the symbolism of the glasses being stolen, to the immediately following murder of Piggy, the rapid dilapidation of the island community coincides with the loss of intellect and reason. Wilson also discusses within his literary analysis the results of Piggy; comparing his death to a political assassination taking down a party (162). This comparison is quite reasonable, seeing as the savages are truly the dominant group on the island, over the civil boys. This further develops Golding’s theme, showing that with the loss of intellect and reason, presented by Piggy’s specs, barbarism and savagery would be triumphant in any society.