Symbolism in william Goldin’s lord of the flies

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The story begins with a group of British boys who are marooned on a desert island after their plane crashed. Ralph, a blond and handsome boy, finds himself in this situation and meets a fat boy called Piggy. Together, they find a conch, and Piggy suggests to Ralph blowing on it to know if there are any other survivals. Many young boys come out of the forest and join Ralph and Piggy. At last, a choir, headed by a red-head boy called Jack, appears and joins the other boys. The boys decide that they must have a chief, and they choose Ralph in preference to Jack. Being chief, Ralph set rules for the boys and gives tasks. Ralph chooses Jack to be responsible for the hunters, while the others should start building shelters. Ralph’s first decision was to explore the island with Jack and another shy boy called Simon. Together they discover that they are on an island which has no inhabitants and has a lot of food. Returning from that trip, Ralph makes an assembly to tell the boys what he has found. The most important thing to the boys is to be rescued, so Ralph comes up with a good idea and suggests that they should build a fire to draw attention from passing ships. The boys agree and collect a lot of woods and dry branches, and the go to the mountain to set the fire there. In an unpredictable way, the fire goes out of control and burns a huge area of the forest. Piggy, irritated of this irrational behavior of the boys, discovers the disappearance of a small boy with a birth mark on his face and knows that the boy is dead. As time passes, Ralph continues to worry about the signal fire, while Jack becomes more obsessed about pig hunting. As a result, a strong malignance grows between the two boys. On one day, Ralph di... ... middle of paper ... ...ng ships. Ralph and his group decide to talk to Jack to return Piggy’s spec but fail because the language of reason and logic is not useful with those primitive boys. Ralph feels angry and fights with Jack and while Piggy is watching them, a hunter called Roger drops a huge boulder over him which kills him. Over the sight of his friend’s body, Ralph runs away from Jack and his group. Jack starts a new hunting not for a pig but for Ralph’s head. The hunters chase Ralph and burn all the forest to make him come out from his hiding place. Suddenly, While Ralph is running from the hunters, he finds a British officer standing on the beach. The officer tells the boys that his ship saw the signal fire. Ralph sees the man and weeps" for the end of innocence, the darkness of man’s heart, and the fall through the air of his true, wise friend called Piggy"(238; ch.12).

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