What Does Piggy's Glasses Symbolize The Power In Lord Of The Flies

Imagine this. A group of boys crash land on a deserted tropical island and are now stranded with no supervision or adults. In William Golding's novel, Lord of the Flies, he shows just what might happen in this situation. The boys are alone and must find a way to survive until they are rescued. In an attempt to govern themselves, they choose Ralph, one of the main characters, as the chief and the intellectual Piggy as his assistant. However, Jack, the leader of the choir, is furious, because he is not chosen. This creates tension between the boys as they begin to take sides and fight for power. As the novel progresses, the characters continue to change and start to take on new personalities, some that have a profound effect on their lives,

In the beginning of the novel, the boys use Piggy’s glasses to create a fire, but unfortunately it goes out. As the boys argue over the situation, Jack smacks Piggy’s glasses off, breaking one of the lenses. Piggy proclaims, “I got to have them specs. Now I only got one eye,” (72). When one side of the glasses break, so does the balance on the island. On the other hand, Piggy’s glasses symbolize the power and domination that Jack gains. When Jack forms his own tribe, they set out at night, under Jack’s command, to steal Piggy’s glasses from him. “I know. They didn’t come for the conch. They came for something else … From his left hand dangled Piggy’s glasses,” (168). The taking of his glasses represents Jack’s way of dominating Ralph’s tribe. In other words, to have piggy’s glasses is to have control over the island. Also, it shows the boys entering a stage of savagery and “…the competition for scarce resources can betray humans into revealing their fundamentally animal nature in the space of a few short months,” (Williams). The boys start to loose sight of who they are and forget about their original idea of being rescued. So, as a result, they do anything in their will to gain power over each

At first, the boys believe that the beast is an animal on the island after seeing a snake-like figure in the jungle. However, when Simon meets the “Lord of the Flies”, he realizes that the beast is, in fact, roaming the island but not in the form the boys imagine. Simon, a young boy in Ralph’s tribe, wanders off discovering a pig’s head on a stake and starts to hallucinate that the head is talking to him. “Fancy thinking the Beast was something you could hunt and kill!” said the head. For a moment or two the forest and all the other dimly appreciated places echoed with the parody of laughter,” (143). The beast represents mankind’s essential illness that man cannot remain good and pure, because of human natures’ natural incline to resort to evil and violence. “After fear drives most of the boys into the hunter tribe, they lose all capacity for dialectic and begin sadistic persecution of those who stand outside their power,” (226). Golding also wants to portray that the beast is everywhere and is part of every member of mankind. While Simon is hallucinating, the beast says, “You knew, didn’t you? ”I’m part of you? Close, close, close! I’m the reason why it’s no go? Why things are what they are?” (143). It is not the mission to eradicate the evil in mankind but to abstain it from taking over