“Lord of the Flies”, by William Golding, 1954
In William Golding’s novel “Lord of the Flies” from 1954, a group of British boys attempt to govern themselves on the island they have stranded on. But throughout the novel, the 6 to 13 year old boys turn more and more to savagery, and end up fighting each other. Even though they are kids and therefore innocent, they still do the most unforgivable thing our late modern society knows of. They murder. Through the allegorical characters, William Golding pictures different ways of running a society, and how good intentions can turn into disasters.
In the start of the novel Ralph and Piggy finds a conch shell and use it to summon the other boys. Through the rest of the novel the boys use the conch to
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But Simon intended to inform the boys of the imaginary beast as only being the instinctual savagery that exists within every human being. Throughout the novel, the boys’ believe in the beast grows stronger simultaneously with them growing more savage. The boys never get to know of Simons realizations.
Earlier in the novel, the hunters spear a pigs head as sacrifice to the beast. Simon ends up having an imaginary dialogue with the pig head. In the dialogue it tells Simon that it symbolizes the evil that lies within every human being. It also says that it, metaphorically speaking, will have fun with Simon, meaning that the evil in the hunters will end up killing Simon. This pig head is called lord of the flies, because of its allurement of flies. Just like the flies are allured towards the pig head, the boys are allured towards the evil. This might be the reason why the book is titled “Lord of the Flies”.
When the boys get rescued there is an irony in the way the officer reacts to the boys’ savagery. He shows his disgust by saying, “I should have thought that a pack of British boys - you’re all British aren’t you? - would have been able to put up a better show than that - I mean-“ . The fact that the officer that rescues the boys get disgusted by the way British boys can end up so savage in such a short period, is ironic because he himself lives in a world where violence and war goes hand in hand with