Symbolism In Lord Of The Flies

Symbolism is significant because it can turn a boring novel into a world’s best seller. Symbolism establishes meaning in a piece of writing. William Golding, the author of The Lord of The Flies uses symbolism in his writing to create a theme. The novel centers on a group of boys that have crash landed on an island. They must do whatever it takes to survive, so they create a type of civilization. However, this society doesn’t last long, as the boys tend to savagery. Golding incorporates symbolism throughout his text to advance that although it may be unclear to the surface, savagery is within mankind. During the novel, Golding symbolizes the state of the conch shell to advance that mankind always has savagery within itself. When the

The survivors had somewhat of a government. They decided on one leader, Ralph and one co-leader, Jack and the rest of the boys would follow what they imposed. Ralph dictated that they should have meetings. For example, when talking to the other boys on the island, he says, “This meeting must not be fun but business” (Golding 76). Since the conch is intact the survivors use the shell to call ‘meetings’, like Ralph was talking about. The boys have created a type of civilization on the island by having gatherings. The boys keep organized and focused because of these meetings. But they need to focus on one thing and one thing only, which is to get rescued. So, when Ralph says that the meeting needs to be about business, it is so the boys will concentrate on getting rescued which is a civilized thing to do. But, when the conch gets shattered, the civilization goes along with it. Although it is irrational, Jack and his tribe hunt down Ralph, a kid who was once their friend. In fear, Sam and Eric

In the start of the novel, the kids are innocent, british, school boys who have not killed anything. When the three boys, Jack, Ralph and Simon go on an expedition up to the mountain, they see a pig and Jack, “Raised his arm in the air, there came a pause, a hiatus, the pig continued to scream and the creepers to jerk and the blade continued to flash at the end of a bony arm. The pause was only long enough for them to understand the enormity the downward stroke would be,” (Golding 31). This was before the boys turned savage so they were civilized and understood the ‘enormity the downward stroke’ could do. They knew that they would be taking the life away from a breathing creature. The boys are not used to killing their food, or killing in general, so they do not know what the loss of innocence could result in. Furthermore, as the boy further into savagery, they become insane and create the idea of a beast on the island which drove them crazy. Simon, a friend of the boys was the first to understand that there was so beast and that it was all in their head. However, when he tried to express that to the rest of the boys, they thought he was the beast, so they began to attack him. Simon or, “The beast struggled forward, broke the ring and fell over the steep edge of the rock to the sand by the water. At once the crowd surged after it, poured down the rock lept on to the beast, screamed struck bit