In the Lord of the Flies, why is the ocean significant?
What’s its use? How is it symbolic?
The ocean is a powerful force of nature that lines the beaches of our most famous cities. But what would the majority of people do when trapped on a deserted island on the other side of those waters? In the fiction novel Lord of the Flies that's exactly the case. In this novel the ocean holds a great deal of symbolism. It is a key part of the storyline. It can represent grief, the loss of civilization and sanity, but to some of the boys it was a symbol of hope. It is viewed as a barrier between their normal day to day life in modern civilisation and their new life on the deserted island.
In this novel, Golding emphasizes how distant the boys are
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Eventually in chapter nine, Jack's group starts a ritualistic dance in a circle, meanwhile trampling and tearing Simon apart with their bare hands and teeth. Distracted by the excitement of the ritual, the boys kill Simon who ends up being dragged out to sea. A similar event unfolds in chapter eleven; “Piggy fell forty feet (...) His head opened” (Golding 201). In this chapter Roger launches a large boulder towards Piggy throwing him off a cliff to the beach below. Here Roger represents the savagery the boys have now adopted, and Piggy represents the intellectual and reasonable. The savagery has eliminated the civilized, and claimed the island. The ocean comes into play again where it is stated “Then the sea breathed again (...) sucking back again, the body of Piggy was gone.”( Golding 201). The ocean inhaling yet another body from the island represents the loss of control and innocence shown by the rest of the group. Most of the boys; who seem unbothered by the death of their peers; continue to live on the island as they did before, without having any funeral or ceremony, becoming more and more savage by the day. The brutal murder of two of their friends becomes indifferent to them. Consequently resulting in the loss of