There are 4 main characters in this book Jack, Ralph, Simon and Piggy.
Jack is the main source of evil in the novel but at the start Jack has respect and authority from the other boys in his choir:
“Choir! Stand still!”
In the beginning of the story Jack, still conditioned by the previous society he had been apart of, he could not bear to kill a pig that was caught in the brush. But Jack then quickly descents into evil as he hunts starts to kill pigs.
As he descends he uses animal imagery such as the war paint smeared on his face. Jack is a symbol of savagery and anarchy in the novel and is a ‘Satan’ like character. Jack becomes the leader of anarchy on the island. From the start of the novel he does not like abiding by rules of any kind. He simply wants to hunt and have a good time. Not seeming to care about being rescued, Jack and his tribe are examples of the Beast running rampant. Jack is the kind of person which Golding believed everyone would eventually become if left alone to set ones own standards and live the way one natuarally wanted.
Ralph is somewhat charismatic and is chosen for chief, who makes it his job to lay down rules and try to organize a society. Throughout the novel he is always in conflict with Jack, who wants to be chief himself.
Ralph tries to stay good but occasionally strays into bad behaviour as at the beginning of the book he bully’s Piggy about his name. Ralph and Piggy agree with each other’s ideas, but Ralph doesn’t realize how important Piggy really is to him until the very end of the novel. Ralph has a sense of justice and symbolises democracy and order especially when he discovers the conch and orders a meeting:
“No. we’re having a meeting.”
Ralph is more of a protagonist and His fiercest antagonist is Jack, the redheaded leader of the pig hunters, who manages to lure away many of the boys to join his band of painted savages
Simon is the ‘christ’ like character and he is the innocence on the island and he is not affected by the evil. He is the only boy which confronts ‘lord of the flies’ he is unique as he can hear the voice of the beast.
Simon knows what is going on and tries explaining this to the other boys:
“What I mean is…maybe it’s only us’…Simon became inarticulate in his efforts to express mankind’s essential illness”
Simon is alienated from the rest of the group. He takes life much more seriously than the others, being plagued with a certain moral consciousness which the other boys don’t understand. Simon makes the connection with the dead parachutist as well as lord of the flies. He understands that with the death of the man in the parachute which symbolises the death of reason, the chaos of the lord of the flies is free to reign supreme. Simon means "listener" in Hebrew, and is also the name of one of Jesus' apostles, Simon Peter. He is the spiritual one, and is very perceptive. Simon sees beyond the surface of things. Simon is a loner, and often goes off on his own. He is the kindest of the boys, but is very nervous, and whenever he's in front of the assembly, he's always mumbling and gets scared.
Piggy litterally and metaphorically sees what is going on and he is intelligant despite the lack of education. Piggys glasses symbolises clear sightness and he represents the law and order of the adult world. Piggy is obsessed with the signal-fire; this is because he wants to return to England where adults are, but also because the fire is one of the only symbols of order on the island. When the fire goes out piggy mentally collapses.
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Piggy is the smart and logical one, though not quite as perceptive and biblical as Simon is. The name Piggy connects him to the pigs that the boys want to kill and eat, and shows how much he is disliked by the boys. He is set apart from the others because of his glasses, and his "ass-mar," and his weight. Piggy is Ralph's advisor, and is the one to suggest blowing into the conch. Piggy is smart, but has no place in the land of the wild. He is not fit to live with the new-born savages. In the end, his death brings a symbolic end to civilization on the island.
The setting of the novel is on a deserted tropical island which ends up as a battle field. The idea of the paradise island relates to the religious ‘Garden of Eden’. The island is symbolic as it is a microcosm of the world. Golding used this idea as there is two sides to the island representing good and evil. The side in which the beach was represented the good side and the rocky mountain side represented the evil side. The boys started of on the beach side but moved over to the rocky side following Jacks lead. This shows how the boys descented into evil. The scar seperates the two sides and the scar symbolises mans destruction. The island is only described in chapter 1: the sound of the shell:
“It was roughly boat-shaped: humped near this end with behind them the jumbled descent to the shore. On either side rocks, cliffs, treetops and a steep slope: forward there. the length of the boat, a tamer descent, tree-clad, with hints of pink: and then the jungly flat of the island, dense green, but drawn at the end to a pink tail. There, where the island petered out in the water, was another island; a rock, almost detached, standing like a fort, facing them across the green with one bold, pink bastion.”
