Similes In Lord Of The Flies

“Ralph wept for the end of innocence, the darkness of man’s heart, and the fall through the air of the true, wise friend called Piggy,”(202). This is when Ralph, one of the main characters in Lord of the Flies by William Golding, finally realizes all of the terrible things loss of civilization and innocence have done to him and his friends. Written during World War II, Lord of the Flies tells the story of a group of young boys whose plane crashes on an island. Without adult supervision or the shelter of civilization, the boys have to fend for themselves, as they regress towards savagery. Their innocence is taken from them when two of their own are brutally murdered by the boys themselves, and their loss of humanhood causes them to spiral out

On the scene of his death, “Piggy fell forty feet and landed on his back across the square red rock in the sea. His head opened and stuff came out and turned red. Piggy’s arms and legs twitched a bit, like a pig’s after it has been killed,”(181). Here, Golding uses a simile to compare the twitching of Piggy’s dead body to a pig’s. Using this simile adds to the morbid and horrific description of Piggy’s tragic death. This shows loss of civilization and innocence because Piggy was killed by his own peers of the island. Murder destroys innocence, and the fact that the boys purposefully killed him using the boulder shows how far from civilization they have become. Another example of Golding’s use of similes is when Ralph sees the “Lord of the flies”. “He walked slowly into the middle of the clearing and looked steadily at the skull that gleamed as white as ever the conch had done and seemed to jeer at him cynically,”(185). Here, the conch’s power and authority over the boys is compared to the power and authority the “Lord of the Flies” now possesses. The skull, as was previously stated, is a symbol for the savagery and evilness inside every man, and is now compared to the conch, which was also previously stated to symbolize civilization and democracy. The boys practically worshipped the conch, and now it’s being compared to the pig’s skull, which shows that the

Their lack of control and and their lack of obedience for rules brings them to savagery and loss of innocence, leading to the tragic deaths of a few of their own. William Golding uses symbolism, similes, and repetition to brilliantly and powerfully illustrate loss of civilization and innocence in the novel. Using these literary devices, Golding makes the read much more descriptive and meaningful. The novel really shows the darkness deep inside every man, and under the right conditions, this darkness can arise, resulting in a loss of innocence and civilization. Golding’s uses of symbolism, similes, and repetition help convey that theme even