When we examine Ralph’s opponent we can see that the strong-willed, egomaniacal Jack is the novel's primary model of the instinct of savagery, violence, and the desire for power —the antithesis of Ralph. From the beginning of the novel he desired the power above all other things. When he lost the election to Ralph he got pretty furious and did not want to accept subordinate role in the group. Earlier Jack retained the moral behaviour that society implanted in him — actually, back in school he was the leader of the choirboys. The first time when he encountered a pig he was unable to kill it. But Jack very soon became obsessed with hunting, he painted his face like as it was usual in a barbarian tribe and gave himself over to the thirst of blood. The more Jack became a savage, the more he was able to get control over the rest of the group. Indeed, except Ralph, Simon, and Piggy, the group mostly followed Jack in violence and savagery. By the end of the novel Jack learned how to use the boys' fear of the beast, he was able to control their behaviour. —a reminder of how religion and superstition can be manipulated as instruments of power.
While Ralph and Jack stood at opposite ends of the territory between civilization and savagery, Simon stood on a totally different place from all the other boys. Simon embodied spiritual human goodness which is connected with nature and in its own way with the evil part of Jack’s personality. All the other boys abandoned moral behaviour as civilization was no longer there and did not force them. They were controlled by the adult world before the events — the threat of punishment for their dirty deeds — conditioned them to act morally. Even the seemingly civilized Ralph and Piggy were products of social conditioning when we see them participate in the hunt-dance. The human impulse toward savagery was much stronger then the human impulse toward civilization. In contrasted to the others on the island Simon acted morally not out of guilt or shame but because he believed in the value of morality. He behaved kindly with the younger children and he was the first who realized that the monster on the island was not a real physical beast but much more a savagery that hides within each human being. This idea was symbolized by the sow's head on the pole speaking to Simon in his vision. The idea of the inherent evil within every human being occurred as the moral conclusion and central problem of the novel. Against the evil Simon represented the human goodness. When he was brutally murdered by other boys, it shows us that goodness, in general, was defeated by evil.
The main idea of ‘The Lord of the Flies’ is the conflict between the two competing forces that exist within every human being. From one side there is the instinct of living our lives by rules, following moral commands, living up the expectations of the society. On the other hand there is the instinct of satisfying our instant desires, acting violently in order to obtain supremacy over the other people and enforcing our will. This conflict can be expressed in many ways - civilization vs. savagery, law vs. anarchy, order vs. chaos, or in fact good vs. evil.
This conflict between the two instincts is the leading line of the novel: the boys’ brought education, their disciplined and civilized behaviour as they adjust themselves to the brutally wild, barbaric life in the jungle. ‘The Lord of the Flies’ is an allegorical novel, where symbolic characters and objects help the author to convey many of his ideas. The conflict between civilization and savagery is represented in the conflict between the two main characters: Ralph, who represents the law and order and leadership and Jack, who represents wilderness and savagery and desire for power.
However, Golding does not make any direct allusion to Christian symbolism, in the novel we can find parallels to the episodes of the Bible. The basic situation of the boys – alone in the deserted island symbolizes the Garden of Eden where the chance for the original sin is predictable. The appearance of the Lord of the Flies as a representation of the Devil which means the end for the early Paradise-like period and leads to the sin of first human kills another human. Simon’s role is a kind of Jesus allegory as he finds out the moral truth of the novel and his sacrificial killing but his death does not bring salvation to the island – on the contrary, his death pushes the boys’ society into a deeper savagery.
Throughout the novel Golding uses different symbols to enhance the expression of what he desired. One of the first symbols of the story is the conch shell, discovered on the beach by Ralph and Piggy at the start of the novel. By blowing it as a kind of trumpet it is used to gather the boys together after the crash. In this capacity, the conch shell becomes a strong symbol of the order and civilization. The shell becomes the means to govern the boys' gatherings: the boy who has it has the right to speak, which is very similar to our today’s parlamentary democracy. As the island’s civilization collapses and the boys turn into savagery the conch shell loses its power function.
In the novel Piggy seems to be the most intelligent boy in the group. His glasses symbolize the science and intellectuality in society. This symbolic significance is clearly led from the beginning of the book, when the boys use the lenses of Piggy's glasses to start a fire focusing the sunlight. When Jack's hunters hit Ralph's camp and successfully steal the glasses, they have the chance to make fire and leave Ralph's group without a fire-instrument.
The signal fire lit by Piggy’s glasses burns on the top of the mountain then later on the beach in the hope of attracting the notice of ships passing by with a chance to rescue the boys. The signal fire becomes a hope of the boys' re-connection to civilization. In the early parts of the story the boys take care of the fire because they want to be rescued and return to their previous society. When the fire lowers or goes out we can see the boys losing their desire to be rescued and reconcile themselves to the life on the island. The signal fire measures the strength of the instinct upon the civilized life remaining on the island. At the end of the novel there is a fire which is finally noticed by a ship, but this is not the signal fire. Unfortunately, this is the fire of savagery —a forest fire which was started by Jack's gang in order to hunt and kill Ralph.
The beast that frightens the boys represents the main instinct of savagery. The boys are frightened of the beast but only Simon realizes that they are afraid of the beast because that exists within every one of them. By the end of the book, the boys are treating it as a totemic idol. The beast’s existence is started because of the boys' attitude, the more wildly they act, the more realistic the beast becomes.
The Lord of the Flies is a sow's head which was cut after the boys captured and killed it and Jack put it on a pole in the woods as a kind of sacrifice to the beast. This intricate symbol – which was given as the title of the novel - becomes one the most important images in the book. When Simon meets the sow's head ‘face to face’ in the forest and he thought that it speaks to him about the evil, which lies within every human being. It also speaks about to have some ‘fun’ with him. Simon's death, which occurs rather soon, is the example of the ‘fun’ the head was talking about. So the Lord of the Flies becomes also a physical entity - as the beast, and it also symbolizes the power of evil. If we think about the upper mentioned Simon – Jesus parallel, now we can see the Lord of the Flies – Satan parallel. If we literally translate the biblical name Beelzebub, who is often mentioned as the devil himself, we can get the words: ‘The Lord of The flies’
William Golding’s ‘The Lord of The flies’, which is seemingly a Robinson – like juvenile novel, in fact it is the anatomy of savagery, brutality and violence which takes shape in the human society. His parable is about the tense situation, where fear and anxiety can mop up the moral standards, the human attitudes, no matter how deeply they are embedded in the personality of a human being. Golding by telling his dramatic parable through the story of a bunch of ‘littluns’ and using a long series of complicated symbols he achieves his aims: his novel is a warning of barbarism hidden in the human nature which can be released to surface at any time.
Written by:
Nagy Zsolt
MA - English