Goodness And Evilness In Lord Of The Flies Analysis

Goodness and evilness coexists within us all. Lord of the Flies, a classic novel by William Golding, discusses a group of boys - Ralph, Jack, Piggy, and Simon - who are stranded at an island without any resources and have to survive on their own abilities by maintaining stability and conquering their fears. In the novel, Lord of the Flies Golding uses the paint, spear, conch, and the fire as symbols to demonstrate that within every society, social order and rules along with conscience and logic, are factors that constrain and limit the evil urges that exists inside everyone.

· The fire and conch shell allows the tribe to maintain stability and remain civilized throughout their experience. Ralph and his group members continue to make

Hence, the strength of the fire serves as an indication to their civilized instinct remaining on the island that yearns to be rescued. In addition, the fire connects the boys as a tribe, allowing them to remain sane and keep their morality. However, the fire is also savagery because in the end of the novel, it destroys everything that arises in its path, but it’s the forest fire that signals the ship to ultimately rescue them. The changing of conch shell from “fading pink” to “near-white and transparency” symbolizes the boys’ decline into savagery (78). Throughout the boys’ experience in the forest, the conch is a symbol for the maintenance of law and order. It holds democratic power because it allows everyone to voice their opinions and prevent chaos from erupting. In contrast, the fading colors represents

Jack’s desire to become the chief over the tribe causes him to harm Ralph with his spear: “Viciously, with full intention, he hurled his spear at Ralph” (181). It represents a symbol of power for Jack, causing greed to overcome him, making him think that he’s capable of killing the beast, but in society, evil cannot kill evil, showing that corrupt politicians will always exist within our government. In addition, the spear symbolizes the evil does when the controls of civilization are released, ultimately resulting in the downfall of society. Although the savagery use of the spear is also established by Ralph during the pig hunt, Ralph is more repressed and despite his ideas towards the civilization, he also has an evil side. Jack’s complete savagery regarding the dominance of power through the spear replaces Ralph’s disciplined community on the island. While Ralph loses his ideas of morality and order due to his participation in the hunt, Ralph and Jack compete for power and position. This shows that the group is breaking apart and their idea of a utopian society can never be accomplished because there are always flaws that must be incorporated to have a prosperous community. The group denies Piggy’s contribution due to his physical appearance: “Only Piggy was no chief. But Piggy, for all his ludicrous body, had brains” (78). Piggy is a