There are many hidden symbols in Lord of the Flies that change drastically throughout the book. Symbolism is when an object or a person has meaning in a story but stands for another idea. Lord of the Flies is about British boys who are a part of the British Evacuation Program from World War Two. The plane they are in crashes on an island, leaving them without adult supervision. It is now a battle of savagery versus civility. In the Lord of the Flies by William Golding, there are three symbols that changed throughout the book, the conch which acts as the order in the group, the beast which stands for the fear in the boys, and the dance and chants which shows the boys’ fall into savagery.
In the novel, the conch represents the order within the group. At their first group meeting, Jack suggests they must hold the conch to talk, “We ought to have more rules. Where
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Before they kill their pig, they practice, and “Maurice pretended to be the pig and ran squealing into the center, and the hunters, circling still, pretended to beat him. As they danced, they sang. ‘Kill the pig. Cut her throat. Bash her in’” (Golding, 75). All the boys begin to get crazy when they kill a pig; they are having fun. They turn savage when they see the pig’s blood, which makes them scream and run around. Jack’s group takes over Castle Rock and Ralph can hear them in the distance: “‘Kill the beast! Cut his throat! Spill his blood!’ The tribe was dancing. Somewhere on the other side of this rocky wall there would be a dark circle, a glowing fire, and meat. They would be savoring food and the comfort of safety” (Golding, 186). The boys seem to be having the time of their lives, but they are turning into lunatics. The killing of the pigs just makes the boys more deranged; the dances and chants may seem innocent at first, but they lead to killings. They are losing their minds while being stuck on the