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Lord Of The Flies Symbolism

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Symbolism in “Lord of the Flies”, William Golding

In “Lord of the Flies” William Golding reflects abstract ideas or concepts via characters, objects, figures or colours. These are known as symbols. Some of the symbols in this book refer to positive thoughts or ideas; others reflect the inner darkness of the boys. Each symbol represents different concepts. This does not mean that the symbol can’t refer to more than one idea or concept. The boys are left stranded on an island without any supplies or adults. Therefore, from the beginning of the book the boys know they will have to learn to live as a society or community together. Though at the beginning everything seems to go well, soon the boys’ start to lose their common sense and start to …show more content…

Ralph, Piggy, Simon, Roger and Jack were, in my opinion, the most effective and remarkable symbols of all of the boys. Ralph represents order, leadership, democracy and civilization. Piggy, like his glasses, represents common sense, maturity and the intelligence within civilization. Simon represents goodness, kindness, and sometimes his behaviour links him to Christ. Jack represents savagery and dictatorship, in his point of view, only he should lead. Roger represents Satan as throughout the book his character is based on an evil behaviour. The characters are the key to the civilization they build and destroy. Piggy and Ralph try to find a stable position for everyone to be in to be able to create the political environment they think is needed to survive until they are rescued. Jack and Roger, try to build a dictatorship using the littler kids to serve them. They use their power to fulfil their desires. As the boys fight their way into building a society, they end up destroying the island and transforming a possible civilization into a total …show more content…

The symbols that represented good, hope or order were all destroyed. At the end of the book the only representative of common sense was Ralph, who would have also been destroyed if the infernal fire hadn’t been seen by the marines that rescued them. Once they were rescued, they all ended up crying, noticing, slowly what they had done and who they had become. No longer recognized as English boys, the boys were taken towards the ship, the ship that saved their

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Ralph represents order within society. He decides to use the conch as an object to hold meetings and attempt to maintain order. Ralph is athletic and organized. He makes most of the calls in terms of what to do next. Although Piggy is intelligent, Ralph’s looks surpass his intelligence when the group of boys voted for a leader.

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After this he picks up handfuls of rocks and throws them at Henry and still misses. That shows how Roger had the idea to harm somebody and also shows the defects of human nature. Piggy himself is symbolic. He is symbolic because if he hadn’t been murdered then civilization probably could have won. The fire on the mountain is foreshadowing the end of the book when all of the boys including Samneric, against their will, chase Ralph to the shore.

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The book revolves around the actions of Ralph, the boys elected leader, Jack, the controlling, and aggressive choir boy, and Piggy, the smartest of the group yet least respected. Throughout the course of the book we see the grip had Ralph has on the group and their humanity slip away from minor acts of rebellion, the progression of killing animals and their reasoning with the loss. With their struggle of adjusting to living on the island with no order, superior intelligence, or real authority we see without the control civilization imposes on us we revert to more savage beings.

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The very same people in the novel reflect society. In society, everyone seeks approval. Ralph seeks approval with the crowd of boys, Piggy seeks approval with Ralph, Simon seeks approval with his deeds, Jack seeks approval of his choir and of Ralph, Sam and Eric seek approval from Ralph. And all the boys seek the approval of Ralph, and then Jack. This seeking of approval is what drives the boys to initially work together, but ultimately fall apart.

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There are three main characters of the book: Jack, Ralph, and Piggy. Jack is where the immorality on the island originates from, and it spreads to the other boys. Jack is very reckless and careless in his decisions. Ralph was the leader of the island, until Jack took control of the tribe and turned all of them into savages. Ralph was an image for the boys to follow but spoke Piggy’s words.

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In the beginning, the boys all follow the rules, but as they start feeling at ‘home’ on the island, some of the boys turn into wild savages. Everyone in Jack’s tribe develops an obsession

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Everyone will face evil at some point in their lives, but the way the evil is embraced or deflected will differ among every man. In William Golding’s Lord of the Flies, symbolism is used to communicate the theme of Understanding the Inhumanity/Inherent Evil of Man as represented through the double ended spear, the fire, and the Lord of the Flies. The spear represents the evil inside of humankind and the perception that killing and hurting each other out of anger is acceptable. Fire symbolizes the evil act of stealing to achieve a human wants. Lastly, the Lord of the Flies symbolizes the Inherent Evil of Man through demonstrating that a boy understood that the evil is within them instead of around them, and is not something that could be killed

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Lord of the Flies remains Golding’s most accredited piece of work. It is an apparently simple but densely layered novel that has been categorized as fiction, fable, a myth, and a tale. Generous use of symbolism in Golding’s work is what distinguishes him with other authors of the same genre. For example, the conch shell, that represents a vulnerable hold of authority which was finally shattered to pieces with Piggy’s death. Secondly, for the other boys, Piggy’s eyeglasses represented the lack of intelligence which was later defeated by superstition and savagery.

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Ralph was the leader of the civilized group, and Jack was the leader of the savage and bloodthirsty hunting group. Important arguments between the civilized boys and savage boys come up in three important moments throughout the book: when the signal fire is allowed to go out and a boat passes by the island, when Jack leaves the civilized group to create his group of savages, and when the savages steal Piggy’s glasses to make their own fire. The first key moment near the beginning of the book shows the growing tension between civilization and savagery. It comes up when

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Government organizations often use symbols to portray their power or military strength. Writers also use symbols to convey a message to the reader. In his novel Lord of the Flies, William Golding uses symbols to help readers track the loss of civility of the boys. The fire is both a symbol of hope and the reckless behavior of the boys.

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Don't argue." (Golding 155) This shows that Ralph is the leader of the group and decided who goes and who doesn’t. This affects humanity because Ralph’s power as chief is going to decide what's gonna happen to the boys. In addition, another powerful impact on humanity was when Piggy’s glasses “His specs—use them as burning glasses!”

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Golding says “The boys broke into shrill, exciting cheering” (41) in the beginning of the novel, then at the end of the novel says, “A great clamor rose among the savages” (164). William Golding who wrote The Lord of the Flies changes his word choice from “boys” to “savages” to emphasize the fact that the boys change into savage creatures. Three symbols represent civilization and change into chaos over the course of the novel. The three symbols representing change are Piggy’s glasses, The fire, and the conch. These figures demonstrate the important theme that the calm civilization will soon break out into disorder.

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A group of boys from Britain are stranded on an island in the middle of the Pacific Ocean. The group of boys chooses Ralph as their leader, and they use a conch shell as a symbol of power and tranquility. Ralph decides a signal fire is a must have if they are to be rescued, so he decides to post boys at the top of the mountain at all times in case a ship comes by. Another boy, Jack decides he does not like what Ralph is doing, and he decides to go off and create his own tribe. Jack is obsessed with hunting, and his tribe ends up eventually killing Ralph’s two best friends on the island, Simon and Piggy.

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Man is Inherently Evil In Lord of the Flies, a novel by William Golding, there are several themes expressed through the boys from the beginning to the end. The main theme conveys that man is inherently evil. This can be understood from most aspects of the book. Golding conveys that man is inherently evil through the boys need to undermine each other and the loss of morality in their decent to chaos.

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