How Does Golding Use Conflict In Lord Of The Flies

War has been an element of mankind’s interaction with one another for as long as they have found cause for conflict with each other. Whether these conflicts are over food, land, animals, or other possessions or ideas, people most often resort to blood and violence in order to try and obtain what is wanted or needed. Though, in the opinion of some, war is not the only answer to humanity’s disputes, and therefore it should never even be considered a potential way to solve a conflict. One such person who shares these ideals is literary author William Golding. In his novel, Lord of the Flies, Golding presents an anti-war viewpoint throughout the novel, while giving clear imagery that leaves the reader convinced that war is never a solution to humanity's various disputes with one another.

One example of this is in chapter eight when Jack orders Roger to “ sharpen a stick at both ends” (Golding 136) in order to leave a gruesome and twisted offering of a pig’s head for the beast that they believe roams the island. The double ended stick that Roger sharpens is symbolic of the pain and suffering caused when humanity takes of its deadly tools of war. This taking up of arms results in man not only harming and killing his fellow man, but he harms himself as well. He does not do so in the physical sense, but more so in the mental sense, for he now has to carry the weight of the fact that he has caused pain and suffering with him until he dies. Another symbol that Golding uses is the clean and authoritative Naval Officer that finds the boys at the end of the book and the uniform that the author depicts him