Symbolism in The Lord Of The Flies.

William Golding was a British writer. He has written several novels, and has won

the Nobel Prize in Literature. His best known novel is The Lord of The Flies, published

in 1954. In The Lord of the Flies, William Golding uses different themes and symbols

to get the point of the novel across. These symbols include the pigs head, the

conch, and even the boys themselves. The author uses symbols to show societys’ rules

and faults.

The first symbol is the conch. Ralph and Piggy discover the conch in the

beginning of the novel on the beach. They use it as a horn to call any other survivors

there may be on the island after the plane crash separates them all. The conch indicates

order and civilization in The Lord of the Flies. The shell efficiently governs the boys’

daily assembly; whichever boy has the shell in his hands has the right to speak with no

disturbance. In this sense, the conch is less a symbol and more of an actual vessel of self-

governing authority. In the novel, as the boys’ self-made civilization diminishes and the

boys slowly turn to savagery, the conch loses its “power” and influence amongst the boys.

Ralph frantically holds onto the shell when he speaks of his role in slaying Simon.

Afterwards, the other boys pay no attention to Ralph and throw rocks at him while he

tries to blow the conch in the camp Jack has basically taken over.

The boulder that Roger pushes onto Piggy also smashes the conch, this signifies that the

boys have fully turned into savages as both Piggy and the conch shell were the some of

the last few symbols of civilization left on the island.

The boys on the island make a signal fire on top of the mountain in order to catch

...

... middle of paper ...

...he one that gave the novel its name. The

Lord of the Flies is a severed pigs head that Jack uses as a sacrifice to the beast. The

author description of the head is vivid and even scary. Simon finds the head and begins to

talk to it. The head tells Simon that evil lies within all humans. It promises to have some

“fun” with Simon, this is foreshadowing of his death. The Lord of The Flies becomes a

physical sign of the beast, the symbol of evil, power and death. It also becomes a satanic

figure who brings out the beast in humans.

The boys on the island faced many obstacles and though they tried their best to

remain calm and collected, they couldn’t take it anymore. They eventually became

savage monster, a far crawl from the innocent plane crash victims they once were.

Works Cited

Golding, William, 1954, Lord Of The Flies, Faber and Faber