Goldings Use of Symbolism in Lord of the Flies
Before the second world war Golding had the belief that the human race
was civilised. During WWII his mind was changed. He realised that,
while the majority of humans are civilised for the majority of the
time, they can also be evil, uncivilised, even savage-like at times.
When he decided to write the book he chose boys as the main characters
as he had taught them in the years between the writing of the book and
the second world war. The reason he chose the island as a backdrop for
the novel was because of the book, 'Coral Island' which thought
portrayed what would happen if a group of boys were stranded on a
deserted island falsely. Golding wanted to get his message that a
groups of young boys on an island wouldn't have great adventures and
all get along fine across to his audience subtly so he chose to use a
lot of symbolism.
From the very start of the book Golding uses symbolism. He describes
the mark left by the crash landed pod of the plane as a 'scar',
implying that the human race has immediately left an ugly mark on the
island paradise which they have been on for less than a few minutes.
This description of the dent is somewhat monkey harsh but Golding is
already showing how he feels about what people are capable of. The
second symbol is that of the 'conch', this throughout the book
represents the democracy and order that humans are capable of being
civilised but as the conch gets used less and less, civilisation gets
lower and lower on the agenda till the boys just stop caring.
The boys uniform is also present throughout the whole book,
corresponding to how urbane the boys are. The messier the uniform, the
more un-civilised the boys are, to the point where at the end of the
book many of the boys end up in the nude, wearing face paint and
bearing spears. At the beginning of the book the boys are constantly
In every novel, an object may represent something other than what it actually is. Lord of the Flies of by William Golding has several of these objects in it. An explanation for what objects hold symbolic meaning is would be like how snow may represent delight and happiness for a child. These objects also add side stories and add detail to the novel. Three objects that hold immense symbolic meaning in Lord of the Flies are the beast, the conch, and the signal fire.
D.H. Lawrence once said, “This is the very worst wickedness, that we refuse to acknowledge the passionate evil that is in us. This makes us secret and rotten.” Sir William Golding tells about the evil and sadistic things that can be expressed throughout humanity in his novel, Lord of the Flies. Lord of the flies is a translation of a Hebrew name for Satan, Beelzebub. In the novel, William Golding portrays the boys’ descent from civilization to savagery through the following symbols: the conch shell, Piggy’s glasses, and the Lord of the Flies.
The book “lord of the flies” is a well- known novel written by the acknowledged author, William Golding. The book indicates that it takes place in the midst of an unspecified nuclear war, when several British children, and specifically boys, are send away in order to survive. Based on real life events, William Golding deflects perfectly the sad consequences of war in contrast to the native spark of hope that’s flickering inside every human being through the eyes of the purest creatures in this world, children.
Symbols and characters play major roles in representing power in works of literature. Therefore, an author uses these ‘symbols of power’ to control the characters and the overall course of the work. In Lord of the Flies symbols are both used by the characters and stand on their own. Fire on the island is a dual blade and Lord of the Flies impedes on progression. While these two symbols stand on their own, the characters use and are used by them. Ralph leads the boys to advancement while Jack stands as his opposition, both using other symbols of power to assist them.
William Golding’s, ‘Lord of the Flies’, is a powerful piece of literature that teaches important perspectives on the human nature and mind. In the story, the boys plane is shot down by the the military in which it lands on a deserted island. After this event, the boys’ decide to create a civilization on the island until they’re rescued. Golding paints a realistic image of evil, hope, and order expressed through the three items: the Lord of the Flies, the fire, and the conch during World War 2. The boys believe these items will assist them, however, they end up all tearing them apart in the end: the symbols all appear to be beneficial to the situation but eventually lead to their demise. Golding effectively uses the literary device symbolism to develop the theme in the novel that chaos and destruction can occur in the most peaceful places.
The symbolical allegory “Lord of the Flies” written by William Golding, symbolizes through different characters of how humankind are evil from the core. The story of a group of schoolboys trapped on a deserted island takes more of a symbolizing story than it might seem. Each detail takes a position in the story to show the core of humanity. A group of young boys together without adult supervision causes the boys to slowly reveal their savage core. Being a part of the English society has taught them to make rules and follow them, but slowly as they realize that there are no grownups are there to stop them, the revealing of their nature begins. William Golding states in his interview concerning the theme of the book, “The theme is an attempt to trace the defects of society back to the defects of human nature.” (Golding 204). The human race has been evil ever since Adam and Eve sinned, but through the Bible, we try our best to cover the core of our hearts with rules and morality.
Perception of Symbols In the novel Lord of the Flies by William Golding, the British boys are deserted on an island and get in touch with many features that form symbols of different concepts. Using symbolism through the pig’s head, Piggy’s glasses, the rock, and the beast, William Golding exemplifies that human beings, when set free from communal regulations and prohibitions, enable their natural volume of immorality to control their existence. Arguably one of the most significant and apparent emblems of the book is the very item that gives the Lord of the Flies its name, the pig’s head. The way Golding illustrates the murder of the swine’s head on a javelin is quite visual and a bit macabre. The head of the pig is portrayed as a "dim-eyed, grinning faintly, blood blackening between the teeth," and the "obscene thing" is covered with a "black blob of flies" that "tickled under his nostrils"(137 & 138).
Golding's use of repellent descriptive details adds a mood of tension. This is evident when Golding described the "white nasal bones, the teeth, the colours of corruption". If this description is considered symbolically, Golding may be portraying a message about the boys' civilization. When Golding used the abstract noun 'corruption', it may imply that Golding tried to describe the loss of order and loss of civilisation within the boys. At this point in the novel, we can see the battle between good and evil and the boys' losing themselves as well as the lives they were accustomed to living; and as corruption is associated with the loss of order- it can make us think that Golding could have used these graphic descriptions to portray this and
William Golding said that his novel “Lord of the Flies was symbolic from exposition to conclusion. Golding’s symbols vary and change throughout the novel to convey a greater moral representation of the story. The boy’s learn a lot, as well does the reader. One gets a greater understanding of Golding’s integrity in the symbols he places in the novel. In “Lord of the Flies” by William Golding there is a multitude of symbols with various meanings during the novel; such as: the conch, the pig’s head/Lord of the flies, and Piggy’s spectacles.
1. Given that Piggy represents society and its rules, he must have found his situation on the island disturbing at the least. At first, there is no organized social structure of any kind; no position of leadership existed. There was an absence of rules. This must have been very disturbing to Piggy. Then, as the story progresses, a sort of chain of leadership emerges with Ralph being voted as “chief.” “Ralph raised his hand for silence. ‘All right. Who wants Jack for chief?’ With dreary obedience the choir raised their hands. ‘Who wants me?’ Every hand outside the choir except Piggy’s was raised immediately. Then, Piggy too, raised his hand grudgingly into the air. Ralph counted. ‘I’m chief then.’”(LoF p21). Then, a little bit later, Ralph brings up the idea of rules: “Jack was on his feet. ‘We’ll have rules!’ he cried excitedly. Lots of rules! Then when anyone breaks them-’”(LoF p33). When the “hunters” kill their first pig is when we start to see signs of a more primal society, or lack thereof. They repeat the chant, “Kill the pig. Cut her throat. Spill her blood.” Piggy obviously if fed up with Jack and his hunters, asking, “What are we? Humans? Or animals? Or savages? What’s grownups going to think?’”(LoF p.91). And then, Ralph’s authority is challenged by Jack. Jack first disregards the rule of letting the person with conch speak without interruption. Then he directly challenges Ralph, saying, “And you shut up! Who are you, anyway? Sitting there, telling people what to do. You can’t hunt, you can’t sing-’”(LoF p91). From this confrontation is goes downhill on the island. On pg. 114, a “game” gets a little out of hand, when Robert pretends to be the pig, and the others pretend to hunt him, but then they become more serious and actually hurt him. He is not killed, however. Eventually, Jack and some of the other boys split apart from Ralph and his “group.” Jack and his hunting band kill another pig savagely, reveling in its agony. The “peak of their decline” was when they killed Simon, calling him a beast, during the storm. Then Piggy is killed, and the conch is shattered, and that is when I consider them to be at the absolute lowest in society: nothing more than savages.
In the novel, Lord of the Flies, William Golding writes about a group of boys stranded on an uninhabited island during the time of World War II. He uses many symbols to show how we all can resort to savagery. Shown through the natural instincts of the boys and the turn of events on the island, Golding uses a psychological allegory to illustrate the savagery built into human nature.
Lord of the Flies by William Golding is a story about boys losing their civilization. When their are not any guardians around and laws in effect, the boys in this story lose their civilization. The boys lose their civilization slowly, in the beginning of the story they are civilized and smart. Towards the end of the story they are savages and killing each other. William Golding illustrates the growing savagery in the condition of the conch, the chants in the mock killings, and the growing physicality in the mock killings.
at the time I read this, I still got much from the reading. Haught, in this book, did the
William Golding’s Lord of the Flies is a sordid tale about a group of kids who are stranded on a deserted island after their plane crashes. The story is set during the Atomic War and plenty of references are made to the fact. However, the real key to the story lies in the role of Beelzebub, Lord of the Flies. Beelzebub has a central role in the story as he represents the Beast, or evil, that dwells within all humans. The Beast cannot be hunted and since it dwells within all humans, humans are all guilty because mankind is sick. The destruction of mankind is a point that Golding makes apparent often in this novel. He establishes early on that Beelzebub is a force within all humans that drives them to destroy and maim. In the story the central emblem of the story lies in the dead airman. The boys mistake him for Beelzebub and basically begin to worship him.
is left with the decision of whether or not to drop the rock. Roger is