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What Does The Mask Symbolize In Lord Of The Flies

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Symbolism is the door to an author’s mind, it opens up our deeper understanding of their ideas and beliefs. In the novel, “Lord of the Flies” written by William Golding, we can see where he stands on his point of view of society. Golding believes that everyone has evil within them, it just takes a certain match to light the fire, like Jack, who’s inner evil came forward when he painted on his clay mask. What also came across from the novel was that without rules, order, and agreement, people are forced to turn into savages blinded by hatred and their thirst for power. What kept this from escalating was the conch shell which signified order within the boys until it was destroyed, causing chaos and disorder throughout the island. Going to our final symbol, what does the ocean, the thing that surrounds the …show more content…

Well, the answer is it’s been embedded in us since the day we committed our first sin, and Jack’s clay mask is the perfect example. When Jack first painted on the mask, we began to see a drastic change occur in him, he began to behave rudely, “...the mask was a thing on its own, behind which Jack hid, liberated from shame and self-consciousness.”(58) And then he started to think of killing the pigs on the island, specifically how he would do it, “The mask compelled them.”(58) It can take something as small as a mask to create even more evil than there is already in us, and cause us to lash out in hatred and need for power, like Jack Merridew. When Jack’s evil had been painted on the boys, everything began to go downhill from there. Jack grew jealous of Ralph’s position as chief and wanted to take matters into his own hands. He left the group in a fit of rage and started his own tribe and declared himself chief. Jack became bloodthirsty and powerful. His main priority was to kill a pig ever since he was introduced to the idea, his obsession caused him to lose sight of the most important priority, which was to be

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