William Golding's Lord Of The Flies

An allegory can refer to a character, setting, item or event that has a literal and figurative meaning often having a moral and where people can often draw connections to renowned figures, fables and ideas. Nobel prize winner William Golding’s Lord of the Flies displays various layers to its story by having its prominent characters and objects personify the most central allegory of the book which is his idea of human nature. Lord of the Flies stars many young boys who are stranded on a deserted island where they are off to fend for themselves without any grownups or rules. Taking place in times of war, this story reflects the author’s view on how humans no matter who they are have their deep primitive animalistic desires. And

Since the very start of the book with no presence of adults, Ralph is the one who leads the boys into functioning like a democratic well-mannered society. He does so with the conch, as whoever wields it has the right to speak and is used to conduct meetings. Though out the entire book Ralph tries to organize and maintain everyone by stating rules, giving out jobs and living in a civilized manner. These are all signs to show that Ralph is heavily attached to keeping a well-behaved society and maintaining a normal lifestyle even when there are no other boys around. Upon first being introduced Jack Merridew is described as “Inside the cloak he was tall thin and bony” (Golding 16) which is an allusion to the grim reaper, the most well-known personified representation of death. Jack starts out as a good person, respecting and following the rules that Ralph has established despite having desiring survival over civilization. This is shown his care with handling the conch, a symbol for law and order even when he was angry “he laid the conch with great care in the grass at his feet” (140). This was after Jack expressed his negative opinion on Ralph’s leadership and tried performing a mutiny but it still shows that he has reverence for a proper society. Jack however also was greatly unsatisfied with not being in power in the first chapter, and gradually started showing his inhumane animalistic personality. As he proceeds to “plan his new face” (66) with colored charcoal, it is foreshadowing how he is changing into a more violent person. The story also transitions with majority of the boys following Jack instead of Ralph at the end, depicting how inherit animalistic human nature eventually took over them despite having good intentions in the first place. Just as the conch represents civilization and is connected to Ralph, Jack has the knife to show his