On the island, Jack is the only boy with a knife. In relation to Golding’s pessimistic view of mankind, the knife represents evil, intimidation, violence, power and control. After the boys arrive on the island, they decide they need to find out if the island is in fact an island. Whilst trying to decide who is most suitable to go, Jack uses his knife to intimidate the others.
‘Jack snatched from behind him a sizable size sheath-knife and clouted into the trunk. The buzz rose and died away.’
Jack knows knife will intimidate the boys, and make them realise his strength. The use of the knife in this manner backs up Golding’s opinion that man is innately evil, as Jack’s first idea in an attempt to draw attention to him, is violence.
As the boys’ characters start to change, the signs of savagery start to become more obvious. Golding uses the face paint to represent savagery, as the savage side of the boys develops; they lose their clothes, and paint their faces, showing their detachment from society. After unsuccessfully trying to catch a pig, Jack decides the only reason he has not caught a pig yet is because they can see him, and he needs some sort of camouflage.
‘Jack planned his new face. He made one cheek and one eye-socket white, then rubbed red over the other half of his face and slashed a black bar of charcoal across from right ear to left jaw. . .He looked in astonishment, no longer himself but an awesome stranger.’
This quote shows that Jack has truly let go of his former, civilised identity, and fully embraced the savage that he sees in his reflection. The face paint seems to give Jack the idea that any bad thing he does, will be forgotten, as the face paint gives him a false identity. Towards the end of the novel, Jack and his tribe have turned to savagery completely, leaving Ralph, Piggy and Samneric on their own. They decide to go and confront Jack’s tribe, after they steal Piggy’s glasses for their fire.
‘”But they’ll be painted! You know how it is-“
The others nodded. They understood only too well the liberation into savagery the concealing paint brought.’
The other boys know all too well that the boys have turned savage, and how the face paint is a clear sign of this. Jack’s tribe’s painted faces intimidate them; they know what the others are capable of. They know Jack has given up on civilisation, and that savagery has taken over. However, they believe they can show that they are not savage yet, by showing up with their hair cut, and their clothes as intact as possible. This shows the significance that face paint has in their journey to savagery.
All through the novel, there is a rivalry between Jack and Ralph. At first Ralph has authority over Jack, because of the conch; the shell that symbolises civilisation on the island. However, by the end of the book, Jack has won authority over Ralph, and the conch is destroyed, backing up Golding’s opinion that evil will always win over good. When Jack decides to leave Ralph’s group and start his own tribe, Ralph tries to stop him.
‘”I’ll blow the conch,’ said Ralph breathlessly, ‘and call an assembly.”
“We shan’t hear it.”’
Jack has voiced the fact that he wants to start his own tribe, and live the way he wants to. The authority that Ralph and the conch have over him is forgotten; this shows Jack’s final detachment from civilisation and portrays how his descent into savagery is complete. The pinnacle of this journey, from civilisation to savagery is at the end of the book. Ralph is being hunted by Jack’s tribe. The fire that he tried so hard to keep alive is burning the island down. This proves Golding’s pessimistic view, as all signs of civilisation have been destroyed by savagery and evil.
Where Jack is savage and violent, and acts purely on impulse, never thinking of the consequences, Piggy, another of the main characters in ‘Lord of the Flies’ represents science, and logical thinking. From the first day on the island, Jack intimidates, and takes advantage of Piggy. During one of Jack and Piggy’s conflicts, Piggy is confronting Jack for letting the fire go out.
‘Jack smacked Piggy’s head. Piggy’s glasses flew off and tinkled on the rocks. Piggy cried out in terror . . . “One side’s broken.”’
This is the first time in the novel we see Jack really being violent.. This represents Golding’s pessimistic view as it tells us, that Jack’s actions towards Piggy represent the attitude most people in our society have towards science, and logic. Towards the end of the book, Jack has truly reached savagery. Jack and his hunters invade Ralph’s camp, and steal Piggy’s glasses.
‘“I know. They didn’t come for the conch. They came for something else. Ralph-what am I going to do?” . . . The chief led them, trotting steadily, exulting in his achievement. He was a chief now in truth; and he made stabbing motions with his spear. From his left hand dangled Piggy’s broken glasses.’
The glasses symbolise the peace on the island, which just like the glasses lens, is clearly very easy to break. When Piggy is killed at the end of the novel, his glasses are forgotten about. This tells us that when Piggy is killed, and his glasses are destroyed, the peace on the island is completely destroyed too.
In the final half of the novel, when Jack leaves Ralph’s group to start his own tribe, he resides on Castle Rock. Castle Rock symbolises savagery, almost a hell on Earth. It’s a place free of Ralph’s rules, and authority and Piggy’s logical thinking. After Jack and his tribe steal Piggy’s glasses, and Ralph confronts them, Jack and Ralph have a squabble.
‘Then they were apart once more, their positions reversed, Jack toward Castle Rock and Ralph on the inside towards the island.’
This moment in the novel is significant, as it shows the difference in the two boys who seemed similar when they first arrived on the island. Ralph, symbolising democracy, facing the beach, symbolising civilisation, and Jack, the dictator, facing Castle Rock, where he has made a home for savagery, and evil. Where Ralph has Piggy, Jack has Roger. Roger represents evil. He is different from Jack, in some ways; Jack loves power, and enjoys the thrill of hunting, whereas Roger simply enjoys causing others pain. At first, Roger keeps himself to himself, but as soon as he joins Jack’s tribe, he gives way to the savagery, eventually killing Piggy.
‘Roger, with a sense of delirious abandonment, leaned all his weight on the liver. . . The rock struck Piggy a glancing blow from chin to knee . . . This time the silence was complete. Ralph’s lips formed a word but no sound came. Suddenly Jack bounded out from the tribe and began screaming wildly.
“See? See? That’s what you’ll get! I meant that! There isn’t a tribe for you anymore! The conch is gone-“’
This quote shows us that Jack would never have thought of murder, but after Roger pushed the boulder down, he saw it as a way to gain more power over them, and took the blame. This shows how Roger is the only truly evil boy on the island.
One of the boys Simon is different from the rest. Golding uses Simon to represent the minority of society that are good. Simon is seen as weak by the rest of the boys. Although he was originally part of the choir, Simon always stayed with Ralph, until his death. Simon leaves the group for some time to himself, he sees the Lord of the Flies in the form of a pig’s head on a stick. He crawls back to the beach where the boys are chanting and dancing about killing the beast. As Simon reaches the beach, he is mistaken for the beast; the boys advance on him and murder him. Simon’s death backs up Golding’s pessimistic view as it symbolises the good in society being destroyed by evil.
At the end of the novel, the fire is destroying the island. Ralph is running down the mountain towards the beach, trying to escape from Jack and his gang, and the fire that is quickly swallowing the island. Golding uses this to portray how savagery had well and truly taken over and there was no escape. Then, Ralphbumps into a naval officer. After explaining what has happened on the island, Ralph turns round to see Jack’s tribe crying, and the island demolished.
‘For a moment he had a fleeting picture of the strange glamour that has once invested the beached. But the island was scorched up like dead wood.’
The boys crying, and the island destroyed symbolises the loss of the boys innocence. This backs up Golding’s pessimistic view of mankind and tells us that although the good in our society is overpowered by evil, those who carry out injustices, probably will not be punished.
To conclude, ‘Lord of the Flies’ is a novel, written to convey the author, William Golding’s pessimistic view of mankind, using symbolism in the main characters to do this. In this essay, I revealed how Golding used symbolism to convey the character Jack as a power hungry dictator, and how he, was one of the main reasons the boys all turned to savagery.