The Lord of the Flies Research Paper "Maybe there is a beast... maybe it's only us." In William Golding's post-war novel, The Lord of the Flies, he illustrates how darkness is within everyone by portraying the island as a replica of World War II. The island symbolizes life in the real world by allowing people to view the war through these young boys. The background of the book and the outside world are shown to correlate through the symbols. The archetypal symbols, characters, and setting relay the idea that the beast is within. There are many symbols in The Lord of the Flies that show a connection to World War II. In the beginning of the story, Ralph and Piggy found a conch shell. This conch shell was used to display civilization. Whoever had possession of the shell could speak. Towards the end of the story, the shell was smashed into pieces. This showed the end of civilization and rule of law which also happened in World War II when Hitler became a dictator. The scar which was made from the plane crash symbolizes how man and their savage nature destroy paradise. In World War II many fights broke out with bombs that ruined the land which was illustrated through the young boys on the island. Evil within man is symbolized by the Beast. The Beast was a severed pig head staked into the ground. The young boys had evil within them as well as the dictators in World War II. Characters in The Lord of the Flies also show correlation to the war. Jack is a dictator like Hitler. He refused to work with the other boys and wanted to be the only one in charge. Piggy represents reasoning through problems. He gets killed because of thinking intelligently. Jack did not want anyone else to speak against him and influence the other boys. Hitl... ... middle of paper ... ...omb dropped on Hiroshima which is like the huge fire in The Lord of the Flies. The paradise was ruined by the savage instincts of man and technology. The war was shown to be full of savages. Many people did not know men were capable of such destruction. The technology had a huge impact on the war as well as on the island with young boys. William Golding illustrates World War II through young boys in this novel. Technology is one of the major destructors of a civilization. Jealousy is another destructor that ruins the good nature between men and brings out the beast from within. The author has chosen to show the evil in man though young boys to allow the world to understand how unethical the war was. The symbols, character, and setting are shown to correlate with the outside world. The novel just reinforces the idea of the savage within each and every human being.
Title Sir William Golding has constantly been a man who sees nothing good in anything. He examined the world to be a dreadful place due to the people who has populated the Earth. In order to display how he observes the world which was around the period of the second world war, he came to the decision of producing a novel. His novel was titled “Lord of the flies”. In the novel, William Golding familiarized his audience with three groups of boys; the hunters, the younger children and the gentle boys.
during the war. This novel is able to portray the overwhelming effects and power war has
In Lord of the Flies, there are many forms of symbolism that change throughout the novel from the beginning to the end. There are three symbols that give new meaning. The symbols were the conch, fire, and the beast. They all focus around the theme, a beast within when the darkness comes out. This is the evil within the characters in the
The most influential saying in the lord of the flies is the fact that the symbolism represents the many statistics in the communal world which is relatively amazing for a book to possibly recreate. The way that William Golding showed his audience in this book how the negativity of the world and the wickedness in a man’s heart is beyond belief. This can be shown through the development of the children who progressively become more and more malevolence as the days pass. It can be made known through the items that represent the civilized world or ‘the adult’ society. It’s reasonably scary when we are exposed to the evilness sinfulness people have, even those that we perceive as innocent can be deceiving.
Lord of the Flies, a suggestive name for the Devil, a devil whose name proposes that he is devoted to decay, destruction, demoralization and panic, exactly what William Golding had in mind when using symbolism in this novel. The Lord of the Flies (1954), is a novel in which interpretating the symbols are a main key to not only understanding, but also enjoying the novel. After tying many of the symbols together, you can figure out more about what the author is trying to depict, the overall scene.
In Lord of the Flies, Golding extensively uses of analogy and symbolism like the dead parachutist in Beast from Air to convey the theme of intrinsic human evil through the decay of the character’s innocence and the island itself. In this essay, I will view and explain Golding’s use of specific symbolism to explain the novel’s main themes.
In the Lord of the Flies, William Golding uses characters to convey the main idea of his novel. The story begins with a war, and a plane carrying several young boys, who are being evacuated, is shot down from the sky. There are no adult survivors; however; the boys were brought together by Ralph blowing on the conch shell. They formed a tribe to stay alive. Slowly the stability and the sense of safety in the group started to deteriorate, similar to the downfall of societies during World War II. They are not only hunting animals now, but they are killing each other like savages in order to stay alive. This action of killing is like Hitler during World War II and his persecution of Jews during the Holocaust.
One of the most important themes running through the whole story in Lord of the Flies by William Golding is the power of different symbols. Golding frequently uses symbolism, which is the practice of using symbols especially by investing things with a symbolic meaning. The main point of each symbol is its use and its effect on each of the characters. They help shape who the characters are and what they will be. The symbols weave their way throughout the story and are more powerful than they first seem. Two boys from similar upbringings can both be so drastically different when put in difficult situations and given things to make them wield power among others. Spitz says, “But his desire for many controls did not, of course, extend to controls
“Lord of the Flies” tells the story of a group of English schoolboys marooned on a island after their plane is shot down during war. In his work, William Golding’s dramatizes in his novel a human condition in which the aggressive instincts are unleashed. Although the novel is fictional, its exploration of the evil side of human beings is partly based on Golding’s experience with the real-life violence and brutality of World War II. The novel is full with animal ferocity that results in bloodshed, savagery and in the end destruction. Golding succeeds to match up the aggressive part of human nature
William Golding's Lord of the Flies is a novel about a group of English school boys who are stranded on a tropical island after their plane has been attacked and crashes during World War II. In the beginning, the boys like being on their own without adults. The boys separate into two groups, led by Jack and Ralph. Jack is obsessed with hunting, and he and his group pay do not pay attention. Ralph is concerned about keeping a rescue fire lit so they will have a chance to be rescued, but no one else seems too concerned about it. At least one ship passes by without noticing the boys on the island. Things on the island deteriorate into chaos and savagery. Jack and his tribe are consumed with hunting and violence; Ralph and his few followers are unable to defend themselves against the savagery. Things begin to change when Jack starts painting his face to be a more successful hunter. Without the restraints of society (shame) of authority (in the form of adults), or his own conscience, Jack is free to pursue whatever evil he has in his heart--and he does. Several boys are murdered and Jack soon controls every boy on the island but Ralph. Jack and his savages light a fire to flush Ralph out of hiding so they could kill him. A naval commander rescues them just in time, because the savagery would escalate and none of the boys would have survived. As a child about the same age of the boys in Lord of The Flies, Golding read R.M. Ballantyne’s Coral Island. According to Reynolds, Ballantyne’s Coral Island is an adventure novel about shipwrecked boys that provided Golding with similar plot ideas that he used in Lord of the Flies. Golding’s use of the names Jack and Ralph are both from Ballantyne’s Coral Island (Re...
Symbolism is defined as the representation; treatment or interpretation of things as symbolic. In society and in particular, literature, symbolism is a prominent component that helps to illustrate a deeper meaning then perceived by the reader. Symbolism can be anything, a person, place or thing, used to portray something beyond itself. It is used to represent or foreshadow the conclusion of the story. In William Golding’s, Lord of the Flies symbolism of the main characters Ralph, Jack and Simon plays a very important role in helping to show how our society functions and the different types of personalities that exist. An examination of Simon as a symbol of good, Ralph as a symbol of the common man, and Jack as a symbol of evil, clearly illustrates that William Golding uses characters as a symbol of what is really happening in the outside world throughout the novel.
Golding has a rather pessimistic view of humanity having selfishness, impulsiveness and violence within, shown in his dark yet allegorical novel Lord of the Flies. Throughout the novel, the boys show great self-concern, act rashly, and pummel beasts, boys and bacon. The delicate facade of society is easily toppled by man's true beastly nature.
Imagine a group of young boys who have just crash-landed on a deserted tropical island with no adults or supervision. William Golding showed in his ground breaking novel Lord of the Flies, what may happen in just those circumstances. In his very complicated and diverse novel Golding brings out many ideas and uses many literary devices. Above all others though comes symbolism of three main important objects being the conch, fire, and "Piggy's" eyeglasses. Through each of these three symbols Golding shows how the boys adapt and change throughout the novel. These symbols also help to show each of the boy's ideals on a variety of elements from human nature to society and its controls. All three of these symbols also change and are one of the most important elements of the story.
Lord of the Flies, a novel by William Golding, took place on an isolated tropical island. There were many symbolic items within the story, and their meanings changed as the story developed. The fire was the symbol of hope and civilization at the beginning of the novel, but at the end it had become a fire of destruction. Ralph, in the beginning of the book, stood for leadership and almost perfection, however as the story progresses, he was nothing more than a normal human. The beast, upon its first appearance, symbolized fear, but soon, it represented the savagery within them. The different symbolic figures within the book, such as the fire, Ralph, and the beast, shifted in meaning as the story develops.
Lord of the Flies teaches many valuable lessons about evil and its impact on human behavior. Golding uses allegory effectively to remind us of this potential hazard. Recent events in Afghanistan and New York City painfully remind us of this flaw in human nature. Hopefully, this powerful novel will open people's eyes to the evil inside of them so they will not make the mistakes made by the characters in this book.