In everyday life, many objects that are used often are usually overlooked, and even uncommon actions, and also ideas, are often taken for granted. William Golding uses common, ordinary, everyday objects but also adds in uncommon and unique elements to symbolize ideas or concepts that help to emphasize the main theme of Lord of the Flies. In Lord of the Flies, William Golding manipulates several elements to show lack of humanity and savagery throughout the novel to reveal more feelings and emotions.
One of the most meaningful and most recognizable objects that is symbolized in Lord of the Flies is the item that basically gives the whole novel its name, which is the pig's head. How Golding describes the pig’s head on the top of a sharp wooden spear is extremely violent and visual. The pig's head is portrayed as, "dim-eyed, grinning faintly, blood blackening between the teeth," and is also stated to be capped with, "black blob of flies" (Golding 137-138). The usage of these words to describe the pigs head gives a gloomy vibe and reveals to the reader that the pigs head isn’t something that should bring joy throughout the novel. Simon starts to have talks with the pig’s head, and then things start to get weirder and weirder and the reality that the pig head is a hallucination is revealed. Simon finds out that the “beast”, which had scared all the other boys with him on the island, isn’t a real thing that they did not know of. The pigs head tells Simon in the book, "O You knew,
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 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.
Fear and Symbolism make up a big part of the Lord of the Flies book. They co-exist amazingly in this book. Symbols appear everywhere in the book, from the conch to the beast, they all symbolize a part of our life today.
The novel Lord of the Flies, written by William Golding is a very iconic book in my opinion. This novel consists mostly of symbolism. Lord of the Flies talked about the relationship of teenage boys who survived a plane crash together. The boys are all on their own and struggling. They encounter many incidences that comply symbolism. A couple of the acts of symbolism are the beast the boys kept imagining, Piggy’s glasses, and the conch. The boys are all afraid of the beast, Piggy’s glasses demonstrate the fact that he saw everything more clear then the boys and how he started the fire. Lastly, the last of the most important symbolisms in the novel is the conch, showing the civilization and order.
The symbols in the Lord of the Flies all change meaning throughout the novel. As the boys change and develop, the symbols change with them. Some may become more positive or more negative and some may change meaning completely. Ralph, Piggy, and Jack all adjust to being stranded on the island differently and therefore react to and treat the objects on the island differently. With Jack’s development into savagery throughout the novel, his carelessness is evident in his lack of acknowledgement of symbols that are important to Ralph and Piggy who look at this experience more logically and optimistically. One symbol that changed dramatically throughout the novel is the fire. The fire in the Lord of the Flies is introduced as a symbol for hope, develops into destruction and is finalized as a representation of salvation.
Doo doo! Doo doo! The conch shell blares through the day, Ralph calls a meeting on the beach to establish the current situation of the island, and what needs to be done. In the forest, lying on the point of a spear is a rotting sow’s head, surrounded by the buzzing of flies. They both vary in whether they are passive or active, and long-term or short-term, but in Lord of the Flies, they both hold a certain level of power over the island that is hard to break.
In the novel Lord of the flies, William Golding uses different sorts of symbols to express different ideas about human life and it’s struggles. Symbols are used in the literature, when one thing represents another thing to give it a totally different meaning that is much deeper than the original meaning. The novel Lord of the flies is about a group of british young boys who survived from a plane crush and landed on an island, they were alone on the island without adult’s supervision. William Golding uses a lot of different elements of symbolism to help give the readers a better understanding of the whole concept of the novel. Even the book itself is named after an important symbol, The Lord of the Flies “the pig’s head on the stick” which represents evil. The most significant symbols that William Golding uses in his novel are the conch shell, piggy’s glasses, and the fire.
The Lord of the Flies is a novel full of powerful symbolism, as illustrated by the scene in chapter 8 where Simon encounters the “beast” as he roams free through the forest glade. When he sees it, the Lord of The Flies begins to speak. It taunts him and frightens him, saying, “Fancy thinking the Beast was something you could hunt and kill! . . . You knew, didn’t you? I’m part of you?”
In the novel Lord of the Flies by William Golding, the British boys are deserted on an island and get in touch with many features that form symbols of different concepts. Using symbolism through the pig’s head, Piggy’s glasses, the rock, and the beast, William Golding exemplifies that human beings, when set free from communal regulations and prohibitions, enable their natural volume for immorality to control their existence.
Throughout the novel Lord of the Flies, there are many characters that show symbolic traits. Jack, Simon, and Piggy are examples of characters that possess symbolic traits. Jack represents a savage humanity. On the other hand, Simon represents the goodness inside of humans and a civilized humanity. The last character that will be discussed, Piggy, represents science and intellect. These three characters will be analyzed throughout this paper.
Lord of the Flies has symbols throughout the story, each character brings a different point of view. Piggy, Ralph, and Jack take a leading role with all the boys, although they vote Ralph in charge both of the other boys take a leadership position. Goulding uses the boys to show the faults of mankind and the roots of all evil. Four symbols Goulding used in the novel were: Piggy’s glasses, the Conch Shell, The Beast, and Simon’s hiding place. Therefore, the symbols show the true character of the boys who are stranded on an island.
In “The Lord of the Flies “by William Golding there are many important symbols including the couch, the signal of fire, and the character piggy. During this book the story explain how organized they are on the island while they are waiting on their rescue. The most things they use were couch shell, signal of fire. The couch symbolizes authority order. The couch is use to call assembly and the right to speaks. “Maybe it just us” the boys really think there was a beast. However, the boys started to act like they weren’t scared of anything so the beast actually came to life they are just ready to get rescue off the island , the fire is there way of getting save. The author stated that the boys said they “wont meat “if they won’t meant they
The savages on the island, including Jack, spent most their time killing and hunting. The ignorant boys decided to put one sow’s head on a stick in an opening in the jungle known as the Lord of the Flies. The pig’s head was originally intended as an offering to the beast the boys feared. Later on, Simon learns that the Lord of the Flies is the beast itself. By looking into the beast’s eyes Simon sees “Lord of the Flies hung on his stick… the white teeth and dim eyes, the blood--and his gaze was held by that ancient, inescapable recognition.” (Golding 107). This figure symbolizes evil in a devil-like form. According to the
The novel, “Lord of the Flies” by William Golding, is symbolic from start to finish. Many of these symbols change their meaning as the novel takes a darker turn. At the beginning of the novel, the symbols have a sense of innocence and democracy. However, as the novel progresses, the symbols change and begin to carry a much darker and more savage tone. Three of the main symbols in the novel are: the conch shell, the beast, and the island itself. The symbols of the conch shell, the beast, and the island are impacted by the savagery that begins to run rampant and help the reader to see how easily the evil inside of man can grow into utter destruction.
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.