Symbolism in Lord of the Flies

William Golding, winner of the 1983 Nobel Prize for Literature, argues in his 1954 book Lord of the Flies that humans are evil in nature. He uses multiple symbols to define what savagery really is and how it can affect even the youngest of society. Some symbols, such as painted faces or a pig's head on a stick are used as shocking narrative tools but are necessary in order to portray these children as ruthless monsters. Golding’s use of painted faces does symbolize that when there is anonymity, humans will commit atrocious acts, especially if they are in a position of power.

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.

Lord Of the Flies Novel by William Golding is a book about a bunch of boys that survive a plane crash on a deserted island. The older boys, Jack, and Ralph become the main characters of the story. Ralph starts out as the chief with the power of the conch. Into the story he loses his power to Jack. A red haired impulsive boy, leader of the choir boys. A civilized boy that takes further steps away from civility then Ralph.The transformation from civility into savagery turning point is most distinct in two main points. The boys’ action that lead to savagery is when they smeared paint over themselves and when Jack finally took a living animal’s life.

William Golding kills off everything important to survival and by this he means that the world is doomed. So many significant objects are broken by the end of the book, The Lord of the Flies by William Golding, which is a novel about a bunch of inexperienced boys being trapped together on an island and are forced to find means of survival. There are a lot of symbols in this book that all represent the only way they can survive. Each symbol represents a piece of the world and how it functions. Without all of these pieces, the world can’t function. William Golding clearly shows that the world is doomed by one by one killing off all of the objects and symbols that keep them sane and alive.

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.

In the “Lord of the Flies,” Piggy’s glasses are used to start the signal fire by magnetizing the sun’s UV rays, therefore creating heat. The first signal fire is started by the boys in this quotation, “There was pushing and pulling and officious cries. Ralph moved the lenses back and forth, this way and that, till a glossy white image of the declining sun lay on a piece of rotten wood. Almost at once a thin trickle of smoke rose up and made him cough.” Piggy is also the only boy on the island that has common sense and intelligence. Piggy is rational when thinking of what tasks are most important to perform on the island and what tasks are not necessary on the island in order to survive and be rescued. These glasses represent the partial intelligence of human nature. Many humans lack a sense of intelligence which is also exemplified in the “Lord of the Flies” because out of all the boys on the island, there is just one (Piggy) who has any sort of intelligence.

At first, the fire represents hope to escape the island but, as the story goes on, the fire represents destruction of the island. Making the fire is the main priority of the boys on the island. They are fascinated with the fire and what it does for their civilization. Right away, the boys believe that they “must make smoke on top of the mountain” so that someone could see the smoke and rescue them (39). The fire, created by Piggy’s glasses, is how they plan to get off of the island. When Jack takes Piggy’s glasses, Jack has control of the fire. Knowing this, Jack can control whether or not they get off the island. Under Jack’s power, the island looks like a ‘hell on Earth’. The island “burst into a great fan-shaped flame” (199). The large fire, created by Jack, causes destruction to the island, but it also saves the boys from Jack’s dictatorship. The war zone that the boys have created demolishes the foliage on the island. Smoke from this disastrous fire makes an officer come to the island and they get rescued. Jack did not make the fire to get rescued unlike the beginning, but to find Ralph, and kill him. Overall, the fire has a positive and negative effect to it that creates hope and destruction towards the island

Whenever the boys completed an effort to kill a pig or human, they always light a fire afterward and chanted (152). This showed how the fire destroyed some of the environment every time it was lit. Likewise, their internal sense innocence and morality was impaired every time they killed someone or something. This relates to how the island and the boys’ identity are degrading based on the boys’ actions as time passes. At the very end, the island’s plant and animal life are set aflame. “All at once the lights flickering ahead of him merged together, the roar of the forest rose to thunder and a tall bush directly in his path burst into a great fan-shaped flame”(199). When the fire destroys the island’s luscious greenery along with the animals living in the jungle, it symbolizes that Jack’s followers lost all

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 end of the novel, fire turns to a weapon that burns and destroys anything it touches. Jack sets the whole island on fire to kill Ralph. Fire, starting as a symbol of hope, knowledge and civilization, changes to a tribal weapon for destruction, uncontrollable; and switches once again to hope, when the sailor rescues the kids.

In William Golding’s, Lord of the Flies, is about a group of boys who get in a plane crash and have to find a way to survive. There are three boys on the island who all could be the leader. Jack, Piggy, and Ralph, can all be the leader. When one gets chose to be a leader, things start to happen. For the other boys, they want to be the leader sense only one got to, they get mad and spilt up. The boys who are stranded on the island go through many different things that symbolize ideas and thoughts and those symbols all have an influence on what happens while they are on the island.

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.

In William Golding’s Lord of the Flies, which is set during World War II, English school boys, escaping war in England, crash on a deserted tropical island. From the protected environment of boarding school, the boys are suddenly thrust into a situation where they must fend for themselves. In order to survive, the boys copy their country’s rule for a civilized life by electing a leader, Ralph. He promises order, discipline, and rules for the boys so that they form a small civilized society. This civilized society does not last. Struggling with Jack who wants to be the leader and the boys’ fears of the unknown, Ralph is unable to maintain control, and the boys fulfill Golding’s perspective that human