Many people argue that Lord of the Flies is a fable or allegory. This was William Golding's intention. What do you think is the novels message and how successful is the writer is conveying it?

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Ellie Slee 4.1        Page         Final draft – R3 (Prose)

Lord of the flies- Extended Response

Many people argue that Lord of the Flies is a fable or allegory. This was William Golding’s intention.  What do you think is the novels message and how successful is the writer is conveying it?

William Golding has successfully conveyed the message of Lord of the Flies to the reader.    The novel portrays the malicious nature of mankind, through the use of symbolism, where the author makes use of details with second meanings.  Throughout the novel, symbolism, which is of both characters and other significant objects, is used, in order to stress the novels message.

Lord of the Flies is a story that begins in the aftermath of a plane crash in the Pacific Ocean during a war, in which a group of English schoolboys are isolated on an island.  They are under no adult supervision and are left to fend for themselves, create their own friendships and fight their own battles.  As the story unfolds the boys develop a miniature society in which they try to include rules and order, but each with their own ideas of right and wrong, and sometimes totally different priorities, difficulties arise, and their little community collapses.  Changes occur as the boys gradually adapt to the isolated freedom from society.

 The boys’ lives on the island represents a worldwide society, with the purpose of conveying the message better if the characters were isolated, where laws could not reach them.  We are told in the story that “no boy could reach even the reef over the stretch of water”.  This shows the reader that the reef is like a boundary that cannot be crossed by any inhabitant on the island. Golding’s use of the setting and circumstances help to illustrate the story’s main message, the malevolent ways of man.  It is possible the author used children in the novel as ignorance, evolving the circumstances, can be tolerated, and also it allows the characters to be guided by instinct and what is inherent within them.  The main characters also depict the effects that arise between dissimilar types of individuals when put under the same circumstances, which is also facilitated by the symbolism of characters.

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Throughout the novel Golding relates the life of the boys to the real world as an allegory.  The changes experienced by one character differ from those endured by another, and this is attributable to the physical and mental differences between them.  Although all the characterisation helps to convey the novel’s message, it is the three main characters that appear to have been well symbolised to represent different aspects of society, such as dictators, the public and academia of the world.

Ralph acts as the democratic politics in society, representing law, order, organized society and moral integrity.  He looks ...

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