Golding chose these names as they show the actions, personalities and interactions between the characters.
Once the boys have landed on the island, Ralph and Piggy meet each other and become acquainted and decide to gather the other children from the incident, Ralph and Piggy do this with the conch. The conch signifies the attempt of establishing civilisation on the island and democracy. The conch’s appearance mesmerizes the children “Now the shell was no longer a thing seen but not to be touched, Ralph too became excited, Piggy babbled” The children know that the conch is very precious and has deep meaning “a conch; ever so expensive” The conch is used in an attempt to create a democracy by it being given to the person who wishes to speak, then while in their possession only they could talk, unfortunately, this fails after a while “The Rules! Shouted Ralph, you’re breaking the rules!” later on in the book the effect of the conch on Jack and the other older boys fades and they separate to form their own group under Jack’s leadership. Nearing the end of the book, the conch is destroyed along with Piggy “the conch exploded into a thousand white fragments and ceased to exist” as the conch ceased to exist, so did the existence of democracy, law, order and civilisation. Golding used the conch to symbolise the state of civilisation, at the start it thrived, later on its belief lowered dramatically and at the end, it ceased to exist along with civilisation.
Throughout the book Ralph has the hope and struggle of being rescued, yet this is only achieved by mans’ first discovery: fire. Golding uses fire as a symbol for hope and rescue, but of course Jack messes up Ralph’s hard work by ignoring the fire constantly and letting it go out while a ship passed by so Ralph enraged by not having a fire goes to confront Jack while he is hunting and letting the fire die out, Ralph finds Jack in his state of utmost pride after having killed a pig and has nothing to say but “you let the fire out” Ralph repeats this while Jack continues to boast about hunting. Jack doesn’t seem to care about getting rescued at all during the book and he doesn’t care about letting the fire out either “The fire’s only been out an hour or two. We can light up again”. In the end it is not Ralph that gets them rescued: it is Jack and Roger, during the last chapter of the book they light the forest that covers the island on fire while they hunt for Ralph but due to their ignorance and lack of foresight they get everyone saved. Golding used the fire as the only available way of getting rescued and made it a symbol of utmost importance as characters had hope in it.
Although it is not always clear, the smallest of objects could be at the height of importance and symbolism, the object that is being described is Piggy’s precious glasses. Golding uses Piggy’s glasses to symbolise the true perspective, Piggy is the most intelligent of the entire group on the island and acts as a campaign manager for Ralph. During the course of the novel, Piggy’s glasses are used to light the fire that Ralph desires so much, but Piggy is not as valued as the glasses “Piggy’s specs! Shouted Ralph, if the fire’s right out, we’ll need them”. Piggy’s glasses also reflect the current status of social order, at the start the glasses are in pristine condition as is social order, up until chapter four when Jack punches Piggy and one of the lenses breaks, at the same time as violence and hunting begins, when Piggy’s glasses are stolen by Jack and Roger social order fades on the island. Golding used one small object to symbolise important things of the book: Intelligence, Rescue, Priority and Civilisation and uses the glasses in conjunction with Piggy, a vital character in the book.
Roughly about half way through the novel the attempt of civilisation is crushed by a break off of Jack and the other hunters from the rest of the group and civilisation descends into savagery and tribal activity. The savagery in the book is used by Golding to symbolise chaos in society, the savages take a different look on priorities on the island, instead of being rescued, they desire to stay on the island and live there without adults as savages. The savagery and tribal activity begins when Jack first makes his hunting mask from face paints he believes that it gives him freedom, while he wears It he can do anything, “The mask was a thing on its own, behind which Jack hid, liberated from shame and self consciousness”, this mask allows Jack to do anything he desires while he is wearing it. As the descent into savagery continues further on the event of dancing begins to become more frequent, the dancing takes place whenever something chaotic will happen e.g. Simon’s death, the tribal dancing also includes the chant of “Kill the beast! Cut his throat! Spill his blood!” the chant is very powerful and was used the very first time the hunt took place, the chant was also used in the killing of Simon, in which every child took place including Ralph and Piggy. The chant makes the tribal dancing complete and invokes chaos. Such a dance can be used to turn any amount of people in to a chaotic mob of hunters who are driven against their own will, the dance and the chant entwine and signal the hunt. The hunt takes place as an event of social decline and the sole purpose of Jack: to provide. The hunt dominates the book and the characters of the book. The hunt is symbolic of the savagery within society. The hunt is what the book ends with as the hunt for Ralph takes place, it starts with the dance and chaos is struck into the minds of the hunters then the spears are taken and a line is formed the line marches across the island while a fire is lit to ensure the death of Ralph the line marches with the plan to make a noise like the tribal native Americans “Eric raised his mouth and achieved a faint ululation by beating on his open mouth”. At the sight of Ralph the noise was to be made and symbolises unity and teamwork within the tribe. The most important thing about the last chapter is the realisation of Roger, Roger becomes evil “You don’t know Roger. He’s a terror” Roger reveals his inner evil he holds prejudice for no reason against Piggy and Ralph and this is represented by a simple symbol that Golding uses for two things, the Lord Of The Flies and Ralph “Roger sharpened a stick at both ends”, this symbol is used to compare Ralph to a pig, as Roger desires for Ralph’s head to reside on the end of a stick as does the pig’s. Jack makes a symbol of himself by assuming the form of a tribal idol for his tribe to hail “A great log had been dragged into the centre of the lawn and Jack, painted and garlanded, sat there like an “idol” the noun “idol” in verb form is to idolise, Jack in his undying pride made himself the idol so that he would be idolised. Unfortunately for Jack: an idol is also a false god. Golding used the tribal themes to bring conflict and evil into the novel along with the symbols of chaos and savagery in society.
Jack has an obsession with the castle rock from the first time he explores it “Jack was excited. ‘What a place for a fort!’” and then later assumes possession of it after the separation of the two groups, he uses it as the fort that he desires. On Ralph and Piggy’s last visit to the castle rock to discuss the situation peacefully, the “Red Pinnacles” are mentioned, the word “pinnacle” is defined as the highest point or centre of, these “Red Pinnacles” serve as both they are at the highest point of the castle rock but they are the centre of destructive power, Jack and Roger knew the potential of these Pinnacles the second they saw them, Roger harnesses their power to destroy Piggy and the conch later on in the novel. Golding used the castle rock as a fort that civilisation could not be established on, only savagery, evil and chaos.
The Lord Of The Flies is the centre of evil on the island it has the power of foresight and can communicate with the children dwelling on the island. The Lord Of The Flies it’s self is a symbol of death, being made from a spare scrap from the hunt, and is a symbol of sacrifice or a silent treaty between Jack and what he thinks is a beast. The Lord Of The Flies communicates with Simon before he has an epileptic fit and makes a prophecy: he starts off with “There isn’t anyone to help you. Only me. And I’m the Beast.” Then “You knew, didn’t you? I’m part of you?” this means that Simon must be part beast if the Lord Of The Flies is the beast and is a part of Simon then The Lord Of The Flies says “we shall do you. See? Jack and Roger and Maurice and Robert and Bill and Piggy and Ralph. Do you. See?” Simon then has the epileptic fit when he awakens, he goes to visit the “beast” and untangles the parachute suspending the pilot freeing him, he then hurries to tell the others about what he has just discovered when he finally reaches there The Lord Of The Flies’ prophecy comes true, Simon is killed by the others. The Lord Of The Flies is used by Golding to illustrate chaos and evil and how chaos and evil spread across the island “There was blackness within, a blackness that spread.” The “blackness” within is a symbol for evil and it spreads as the Lord Of The Flies gains dominance over Simon, as he is about to die the pure goodness of Simon dies off and Evil is the only thing that is left to exist.
Simon was a symbol in himself, he was the symbol of all that is good, Simon did nothing wrong. He did nothing of any bad nature and is Golding’s symbol of pure goodness. Simon was the Christ figure. When Simon was killed and washed away by the sea and taken away from this world, Jack and Roger were allowed to thrive and become ultimately evil causing chaos on the island. Golding used Simon to bring equilibrium to the group. While The Lord Of The Flies was communicating with Simon the equilibrium disappeared and the groups separated for good, when Simon was killed it was impossible for that equilibrium to exist again.
The symbol of evil that Golding used was the most important of all: The Beast. The beast symbolises the evil residing within us all. It was the beast that made conflict between Jack and Ralph, it was the beast that struck fear into the minds of the “litlun’s”, it was the beast that killed the pure goodness that was Simon, it was the beast that destroyed the conch and it was the beast that killed Piggy. The beast is the reason for all bad things as all bad things are a consequence of evil hence if the beast is the evil residing in us all, all bad actions must be of the beast’s doing. Golding used the symbolism of the beast to bring to life the evil within us all and to make us realise our actions as people with evil dwelling within us all.
A symbol is something concrete that represents another thing or idea. In Lord Of The Flies a lot of things we encounter are given symbolic meaning by the way the author William Golding uses them, the symbolism used is truly magnificent as it gives an incite into how civilisation was formed and how it was prevented or destroyed by savagery, chaos and anarchy, it also gives us a view about chaos and evil against law and order. The symbolism used also gives us a view of pure goodness and the evil residing within us all. In conclusion the symbolism used in The Lord Of The Flies symbolises the Earth and everything on it.
