Allegory In Lord Of The Flies Symbolism Essay

Imagine that you have been stranded alone on an island. With no parents, rules, or chores. While many kids may desire this, they fail to realize that being stranded can cause chaos, survival situations, and even death. Lord of the Flies, by William Golding is about a group of English boys crash landing onto a deserted island. They not only have to deal with a mysterious and frightening beast, but the beast inside themselves in a desperate attempt to survive nature. When you read this story it becomes clear that while it isn’t necessarily a complete allegory, but it contains much of the symbolism you would find in one. In the novel Lord of the Flies the three most important symbols are the conch that represents the foundations of every government type, the fire on the mountain that represents perceived hope, and the beast which symbolizes the ugly inner

The fire on top of the mountain symbolizes perceived hope. Perceived hope, unlike regular hope, is when it is the only hope you have. For the boys, it is the hope that a ship will rescue them. While it seems unlikely to the boys, it is the only hope they have for rescue. When Ralph notices the boys are losing hope of being rescued, to keep the fire going he says, “The fire is the most important thing on the island. How can we ever be rescued except by luck, if we don’t keep a fire going? Is a fire too much for us to make?...We’ve got to make smoke up there-or die”(Golding 80-81). Ralph makes a great point in his opening assembly speech. The fire is the only hope that they have at living a normal life. When the fire is first made, it fills the boys with hope; however, like in the modern world today, the boys soon lose hope in being rescued. You can see the boys stop tending the fire, building shelters, and working together. This is because the boys have condoned themselves to being stranded forever. It is also here where conflicts spring up among the