Lord Of The Flies Quote Analysis

The Lord Of The Flies, though short, is an impressively deep book. It contains a heavy central theme, the inner evil of all men, that, still to this day, shines today as relevant and thought-provoking. However, this theme would be putrid if not for the author's use of symbolism and how it roots the words to the meaning as seamlessly as the ocean and its salt, impossible to really understand until you dive right in. With these deep blue symbolisms thoughtfully sprinkled into the book, like the travesty of war that initiates the entire conflict, the horrific beast that was truly just them or even the savage boys themselves, The Lord Of The Flies humbly evolves into something much more than the feeble pages it is laid on. Throughout this passage,

This descent is incredibly important to the book’s ideas and displays the theme of man’s inner savagery. For most of the novel, Jack is obsessed with the idea of killing a pig, saying, “If only I could get a pig!” (p. 55). His preoccupation with finding his prey has a deeper correlation with his descent into savagery. As he continuously hunts and obsesses, it represents how his freedom from humanity enables his inner savage. Eventually, Jack finally kills his so-wanted sow, and sacrifices it to the beast, which is a direct symbolism of his lust for death as the sacrifice that lures his own savage beast into his heart. Soon, as Jack descends into his blood-lust, he raises it in other boys around him, eventually leading a desire to hunt humans, or more specifically, Ralph. We see this when Sam and Eric warn Ralph of Jack and his savage antics, saying, “Roger sharpened a stick at both ends” (p. 190). Just as the sow had been laid on a stick before, the savages were in preparation to impale Ralph as well, finalizing their savage ways. As Jack ran through the pig-run of his own morality, he brought out this behavior in others, reminding them that there were no rules in sight. This symbolizes the inner evil secretly yearning for control, as it displays how, if one person falls into savagery, others see his freedom and its ease

At the beginning, war initiates the savagery and closes it off. In the book, war is truly one of the most important aspects, and a symbol. After Ralph and Piggy meet at the beginning of the book, they begin theorizing on their whereabouts and how they even got there. Piggy presented the idea that they were purposely put to crash, saying, “We were attacked!” (p. 8). In times of war, such as this, the inner evils of man are fully exposed. Whether it be brutal conflict, or harming innocence. In this case, war brought the children to the island, being the entire reason that they went haywire in their morals. As a result, war is a direct symbol of inner evil because it is how it was initiated. When wartime comes around, most of the people leading the conflict are focused on power or just simple bloodlust. It allows people to do things they can’t normally, and limits the restraints applied to them. Their freedom, just like the boy’s, leads them to dangerous ends in the darkness of their own hearts. In another instance, an overhead dogfight brought a defaced corpse to the island through the floating of a parachute. This is illustrated when it is stated, “There was a sudden bright explosion and a corkscrew trail across the sky; then darkness again and stars. There was a speck above the island, a figure dropping swiftly beneath a parachute, a figure that hung with dangling limbs” (p. 95). Eventually, this dead figure is