Duality In Lord Of The Flies Analysis

Rivers can provide a village with water and fish for survival allowing life to prosper. Conversely, a river can sweep a land with disease and leave a trail of death along its flowing course. The opposing forces of good and evil are inescapable elements that can be found in all parts of life. In Lord of the Flies, William Golding uses duality to demonstrate the contrast between the light of good and the darkness of evil on the island. Although the boys and the island hold innocence and purity, their darkness breaks though and struggle between the two erupts.
While seemingly sweet and innocent, the boys also show an evil parallel to their goodness and innocence. The contrast can be subtle, such as how Ralph and Jack treat Piggy. Jack destroys

The water is connected around the island as a single body but what it brings to each side is different. At the lagoon water brings unity amongst the boys and cleanses the boys. When the boys first crash, Ralph swims in the lagoon as if to wash off the dark reality that their plane crashed and created a burning scar on the island. As time progresses, Ralph realizes that he isn’t the only dirty, but everyone, even the littluns, are covered in filth both physically and mannerisms. His solution is for the boys to wash themselves in the bathing pool area of the lagoon. Even when Ralph and Jack were disagreeing over hunting and building shelters, bathing in the pool brought them together. “They looked at each other baffled in love and hate. All the warm salt water of the bathing pool and the shouting and splashing and laughing were only just sufficient to bring them together again.” (46) On the opposite end of the island, the waters only bring death and evil. The water has sharp, jagged rocks sticking out, inviting death to those who fall into it. At Castle Rock, both Piggy and Simon die and dilute the water with their blood as their bodies are taken away by the hands of the waves. Golding refers to the waters as the “sucking sea” (159) and when it took Piggy’s lifeless body, “the water boiled white and pink over the rock; and when it went, sucking back, Piggy was gone.” (163) While the waters of the lagoon brings the boys together and cleans them, the water of the rocky side sweeps away and hides murder and is contaminated by filthy blood. The island also holds a miniature paradise that Simon finds and confides in. His private utopia is filled with fluttering butterflies, rays of light the pierce the trees, and roosting gulls and is the only spot unscathed by the evil of the other boys until Jack and the hunters come. The peace, light, and