More handpicked essays just for you.
The use of symbolism in Lord of the Flies
The use of symbolism in Lord of the Flies
The use of symbolism in Lord of the Flies
Don’t take our word for it - see why 10 million students trust us with their essay needs.
Additionally, in “Now he says it was a beastie”(Doc B) the text says,”He says the beastie came in the dark… He was dreaming… He must of had a nightmare…” Both of these quotes clearly show how the creature represents fear.
Golding clearly gives this novel a religious allegory. He uses biblical symbols and characters to add to the novel. He knew it would make the novel more interesting instead of just a few boys stranded on an island.
Throughout the book Lord of the Flies, William Golding makes many references to the Bible and the role of good and evil. During the children’s first meeting, a small boy questions Ralph on what he will “do about the snake-thing” (Golding 35). The boy then goes on to explain that the snake-thing, i.e. the beastie, wanted to eat him. Golding makes an allusion to the very beginning of the Bible, in Genesis, where Satan disguises himself as a serpent and tricks Adam and Eve. The beastie is also portrayed as a snake and represents evil like Satan.
Everyone will face evil at some point in their lives, but the way the evil is embraced or deflected will differ among every man. In William Golding’s Lord of the Flies, symbolism is used to communicate the theme of Understanding the Inhumanity/Inherent Evil of Man as represented through the double ended spear, the fire, and the Lord of the Flies. The spear represents the evil inside of humankind and the perception that killing and hurting each other out of anger is acceptable. Fire symbolizes the evil act of stealing to achieve a human wants. Lastly, the Lord of the Flies symbolizes the Inherent Evil of Man through demonstrating that a boy understood that the evil is within them instead of around them, and is not something that could be killed
William Golding’s Use of Rhetorical Strategies to Illustrate Society in “Lord of the Flies” Written in the 1950’s by William Golding, Lord of the Flies is a novel that follows a group of young boys,stranded on an island with no contact to an adult world. Throughout the novel Golding elicits how savage humans can be when there is no authority controlling them, and Golding’s use of thematic vocabulary conveys how power and corruption can lead to a dismantling of order. As a result, this disruption in society causes people to reveal their true savage human nature. In Chapter 9 of Lord of the Flies, William Golding employs repetition, diction and symbolism to convey the theme that civilization has become a shield that conceals humanity 's natural wildness and savagery.
The beast, the parachutist, the fire—all assume symbolic worth in this novel. With his proficiency of literary tools like structure, grammar, vocabulary and presentation of characters, Golding enables the reader to effortlessly relate to the characters and seek the novel's central theme, that inside a person both good and evil exists and one must know how to control evil to be a better person. This novel also depicts a well know saying that goes by: “GOOD ALWAYS TRIUMPHS OVER
Golding uses allusions to the Bible to help develop his theme, a deeper meaning that he is trying to make. For instance, when Golding first describes the island the boys land on, he is making an allusion to the Bible’s Garden of Eden. The island is perfect, abundant with food and resources, just like the Garden of Eden. Simon and Ralph have been working on huts all day while Jack has been hunting unsuccessfully. Ralph and Jack have an argument about importance of huts over hunting, Simon wanting to escape this goes to the forest.
In Lord of the Flies by William Golding, young boys get stranded on an island with no adults in the midst of a war. The boys were orderly and civilized in the beginning but then as they began killing pigs they slowly became savages and lost their civilization. The boys began turning on each other and the evil within them became present. Golding uses a variety of literary devices including personification, symbols, metaphors, and irony, to project the theme that pure and realistic people in the world can be unheard and destroyed by evil.
This reference is created from Moreau’s experiment thats gone wrong as Moreau says “it was a limbless creature that slithered on the ground” (pg 58). Moreau talks about all the fear it created and how it drove the natives from the island. This connects to the bible because it is reference to the serpent in the garden of eden. The serpent is evil and tempts eve to eat an apple causing adam to eat the apple which then they must leave the garden of eden as the islanders left their
However the beast truly is only within them, Golding uses the beast to symbolise and show the reader the evil within everyone including a pack of young boys, the concept the boys have of the beast begins to break down the order on the island.
• The fact that this beast has lamb-like horns imply that he is a religious leader, but ironically however, “he spake like a dragon”, meaning that although he has an outward form of godliness (of a religious leader), but the spirit inside him is that of a dragon. _______________________________________ This lamb-like beast then refers to none other than the false prophet or a religious leader of the World church! (Revelations 20:10) _______________________________________________ The False Prophet – A Supposed Leader of the World
Though you may think that the Lord of the Flies is far from having any religious meaning, there’s a lot more than one may think. William Golding is trying to say that human beings should have rules and some kind of authority in order to have some kind well equipped environment. The book Lord of the Flies can be seen as a religious allegory because of the the allusions that are made towards the bible. Such as, the garden of Eden, a christ like figure, satan, and many others.
Lord of the Allegory The novel Lord of the Flies is described as an allegory novel (Carter). An allegory is a text which contains many things which are symbols and have a deeper meaning. Some examples of items in the novel that represent a deeper meaning include the conch shell which represents law and order, the beast which represents the savage instinct within humans and the pig hunts which represent the need for power.
(Golding, 77). Although the boys laugh at Simon’s idea, his belief conforms Golding’s idea that inner evil exists. The boys develop into the beast when they kill Simon. Simon was desperate to explain the unidentified creature on the mountain but the boys weren’t in the mood for listening to him. With his brutal murder by the other boys, chaos takes over civilized order on the island.
The first beast in the Book of Revelation represents the Roman Empire. It is stated in the Book of Revelations that upon the heads of the beast were blasphemous names. According to many scholars, the blasphemous names represent the Roman emperors, who were called divus or sabastos, which are words used to refer to divinity. In other words, they exalted themselves to the level of God. For example, Nero, a Roman emperor known for his persecution of early Christians and personal debaucheries, called himself “The Savior of the World,” on the coins that were minted while he ruled.
