Another point showing this repulsive story is the creation of fear that lies within the boys.
William Golding uses symbolism throughout the story to represent some of the non-physical aspects of the boys’ fears on the island. “ If your hunting sometimes…you can feel as if you’re not hunting, but- being hunted, as if something’s behind you all the time in the jungle.”(p. ) This of course refers to the beast. The beast, although initially a physical symbol, actually represents the evil that resides within man. The children are all aware that such a beast exists, but none of them realise (except Simon) that lies within them. Manifested in various forms throughout the story, the beast constantly plagues the littluns- the least conditioned by society. At one point during the story, Piggy says, “I know there isn’t no beast- not with claws and all that, I mean- but I know there isn’t no fear either…Unless-…Unless we get frightened of people.”(p.105) This is one of the major turning points of the story, as it is the first mention of the fact that they only have themselves to fear, which is Golding’s main underlying message in the novel. Although this is the main idea of the story others exist underneath it. The most prominent of these, probably, is the fact that often times people single out another person, or another group of people to look down upon in order to feel secure. Piggy’s character personifies this societal flaw, as he is always shunned and made fun of.
Jack Merridrew’s murderous obsessions certainly scare some of the boys, especially piggy, who says, “ I’m scared of him… If you’re scared of someone you hate him but you can’t stop thinking about him…it’s like asthma an’ you can’t breath.”
Jack, who throughout the novel systematically removes the forces opposing him, is scornfully afraid of Piggy and eventually kills him to eliminate his moral influence on the group, which conflicts with his plan to rule with a tribalistic, survivalist morality.
Through this creation of fear brought by the beast and Jack abusing his authority has shown that this is a horrid narrative.
Fear is one of the major themes Golding uses to prove the extreme similarities between Lord of the Flies and human nature.
“Things are breaking up. I don’t know why. We began well; we were happy. And then… Then people started getting frightened.”(p.102)
This quote illustrates perfectly the underlying theme of the entire book. Society, just like the society on the island, is in constant danger of falling apart – not as a result of influencing events, but as a result of basic human nature. Fear is the strongest emotion that exists, and leads mankind into many difficulties, just as it does for the boys on the island. The references to WW2 strengthen this ‘decay’ of civilised society- a return to the underlying brutality that drives all humans, just as it does the animal kingdom, to whom we often consider ourselves superior.
When alone Simon hallucinates, during an imaginary conversation with ‘Lord of the flies’, this demonstrates how close to the truth he comes. “ You knew didn’t you? I’m apart of you… why are things what they are?”(p.177) By writing this Golding is showing us that, because we’re human, it’s only ourselves we have to fear, because of our natural instincts as human beings, we create what we fear; we alone destroy the world in which we live. All humans have the power to destruct, and we are the only ones who can stop it. An example of this would be the September 11th attacks, we as Australian’s created the fear that lies within us all by partaking in this war, and as a result of this Australia now has the fear of being attacked. Because we have the power to destruct this has now made our country a likely target and it will remain one until we as human being do something about it.
In the novel, “darkness” is used as symbolism for evil, savagery and cruelty with in mankind.
Evenings are “Menaced by the coming of the dark”(p. ), and it is at night time when the darkness of ignorance and superstition descends on the community, that the island becomes a frightening place, and when dreadful deeds occur such as the murder of Simon.
The first incident that shows the extent of savagery in the boys is the attack of the sow. This attack is more violent and shocking than the previous slaying of a pig. The boys show remarkable brutality in choosing, for mutilating the sow with piglets at her side- a picture of the serene motherhood and domesticity. The killing of the sow is the point at which the powers of destruction, embodied by Jack, triumph over restraints of civilisation represented by Ralph. Here, the boys irreversibly commit themselves to a savage way of life and there is no turning back after this.
By going beyond murder to suggest hint of a sexual attack, Golding is implying that the boys are loosing their innocence (sex is usually associated with adults). Jack and the boys are overthrowing civilisation’s inhibitions and giving way to their primitive urges. Also, Golding points out that the desire to dominate is present in even the most innocent of children. The boys want to exercise power, to impose their will over a victim (the sow) as this gives them a sense of satisfaction. The fact that the boys do not feel a single tinge of remorse or guilt and even re-enact the killing of the pigs, to the hilarious laughter of the boys, shows the extent of degeneration in the boys, and how aggressive they become.
Similarly, the murder of Simon brings out more expressively, the evil in the boys. Simon had meant to tell the truth about the beast in order to bring hope and salvation to the boys. Ironically, his courage and sense of obligation to others lead to his death when he crawls into the midst of their tribal dance, is mistaken for the beast and viciously killed. The boys are so blinded by the “thick, urgent”(p. ) desire to kill and hurt that they lose all their senses. Animal savagery seizes them and as Golding puts it, there are, “No words, and no movements but the tearing of teeth and claws.”(p.188)
The fact that the chant of the boys has changed to “Kill the beast! Cut his throat! Spill his blood!”(p.187) is a slight reminder that the boys have changed their target form being an animal (“it”) to a person, more specifically, a male (“He”). Golding could be suggesting that the boys have subconsciously replaced their desire to hurt an animal with an urge to actually kill a person. The fact that the beast has now become a person can also mean that the boys have tuned into beasts themselves! Simon’s death in the hands of his own companions, to whom he tries to reveal a fundamental truth, is tragically ironic. No longer content with killing pigs, the boys have moved on to killing human beings and the “tearing of teeth and claws”(p.188) show us how the boys are behaving like beast themselves. What is worse, even the ‘good’ boys like Ralph, Piggy, and Samneric who joined in the killing of Simon will not accept responsibility for the death of Simon. Piggy persists in thinking him “batty”(P.194) and Ralph, while he recognises that murder has been committed, speaks about it with a “kind of feverish excitement in his voice”(P.193), as if recognising the thrill of their deeds. This shows how evil is present in everyone, even the most well behaved and civilised.
Where the boys could have previously been blinded by the excitement of the chant in the dark and too overcome with mass hysteria that they killed Simon, the killing of Piggy was deliberate and what is worse is that it was committed in broad daylight.
In Piggy’s final speech he asks a series of questions: “Which is better – to be a pack of painted niggers like you are, or to be sensible like Ralph is?”…to have rules and agree, or to hunt and kill?”…(p.221-222) Here, Piggy makes a useless attempt to appeal to the sense of civility in the boys and to the moral sense of what is ‘right’ and wrong. However, he does not understand that this method will not work on Jack’s tribe who are no longer concerned with doing things ‘right’ and playing a fair ‘game’. Therefore, Piggy’s questions are unanswered indirectly when Roger, “with a sense of delirious abandonment”(p.222), topples that huge rock and kills Piggy. This is a final confirmation of the fact that evil now reigns on the island and the fact that evil has triumphed over good.
Piggy’s death symbolises the ‘death’ of intellect, logic and reason, which he has come to represent. Therefore, when the conch dies with Piggy (“exploded into a thousand fragments”)(p.222), Golding is suggesting that democracy cannot prevail over human beings. As such, the killing of Piggy can be viewed as the obliteration of intellect and reason from the island. After the higher ideals of religion and poetry are destroyed with Simon’s death, the intellectual form of society with its laws and democracy is killed with Piggy’s death.
With these three incidents, we see how the boys gradually become complete savages. Although children are traditionally thought to be innocent and that they become corrupt only because of society, Golding destroys this belief by showing how even the supposedly ‘pure’ and ‘untainted’ children are capable of evil and murder.
Lord of the Flies is primarily a parable, as the war between the boys echoes a real war going on as well. It is not just a story about boys on an island – the island is a microcosm of the real world.
The final theme is murder, showing the boys right out of control, but it’s not just in the book where murder takes place.
One of the ideas about man and evil that Golding tries to get across is that it is present in us as a result of our intelligence and knowledge, which give use the potential to do evil. The first time we come across this idea is on page 57. After accidentally causing a forest fire, it is said, “The knowledge and the awe made him savage.” (Referring to Ralph as he looked down on the fire bellow him). The knowledge is the realisation of the destruction they have caused, and that it came about as a result of their actions.
Although it was an accident, it was still the boys that caused it through their knowledge of science (Piggy’s glasses to magnify the sun and start fire.)
A link to the above quote is how man currently often uses his intelligence to do evil. It seems that for every invention or concept, a way for it to kill or destroy is also discovered. For example, take the development of nuclear fission and fusion, which had great potential for the creation of power. It was used as a weapon of mass destruction, the likes of which had never been seen before. And to this day, research is still trying to find cheaper and more efficient ways of killing as many people as possible.
William Golding presents the reader with such a horrific and violent picture of the deaths on the island that we forget that we are dealing with little boys.
We question what the motives were to do the things the boys do, “The desire to squeeze and hurt was overmastering”(p.142). This simple quote could explain why these appalling things take place. It is because human beings are drawn into the sheer excitement of the moment and seem to be pulled along with what everyone else is doing; much like what occurs in gang attacks in today’s society. There is a lot of doubt surrounding whether people in the gang would have attacked their same victim if they had been alone. This also applies to the boys, even the nicest of the group – Ralph is pulled in and feels the need to join in with the game, despite his original hesitant attitude. This displays to us human beings natural instincts to explore and also the weakness within us and our lack of ability to ‘stand alone’, and that everyone of us have this desire to search and explore as well as lack of mental strength but alone the desire to hurt, and how we would pursue this desire, if given the opportunity. We see the boys thrill in killing the sow, in the blood on their hands, and the total exhilaration, “He giggled and flinked them, while the boys laughed at his reeking palms”(p.168) This is not how human beings are meant to act but Golding tries to show us the disturbing truth. Golding is showing us the results of this terrible disease that we all suffer from, which is being human. He is trying to demonstrate what awful things we are capable of. We see it displayed in every day life, in a psychopathic killer for example, who’s actions often have sexual links to what he or she does. Even though we see it in every day life, people are made to see it in this miniature version of the real world more clearly, and a question asked on the island, one that society does not often ask, perhaps because we are to afraid of what the answer might be.
“ What makes things break up like they do?”(p.173) Piggy does ask this question, because he starts to realise things on the island are beginning to deteriorate. Through this small-scale model of the universe we are reminded of what is going on in the outside world, and that is war, it is clear that when the Naval officer comes to rescue them, that human beings are so blind to what is happening around us, we don’t recognise what we are doing, “I should have thought that a pack of British boys…would have been able to put on a better show than that….”(p.248) The Naval officer says this as well as ignorantly, jokingly asks whether people have died, unaware that people have actually died. So the horror starts to emerge. It is ironic that the officer says this, as he does not see that he himself, as a British adult in the same position as these boys and that he too is fighting a war. That the ship that he has come to rescue them in is a battle ship and the reason that these boys were stranded on this island is because their plane was shot down and the maimed remains of their pilot lie on top of the hill, because of the war that he is partaking in.
This is why the novel is seen as a parable, because Golding is trying to illustrate to the reader how we don’t see what we are doing to fellow human beings, as well as the world that we live in, and this is because we are human, and sadly we cannot help it.
The themes Golding has used in this story, we as humans can relate to because destruction, fear and murder are all relevant in today’s society.
William Golding has used this spiteful story, Lord of the Files to show us what we as human beings are capable of and also to illustrate how everyone suffers merely as a result of themselves, we only have ourselves to blame that there is evil, which possesses every human being. Although it sometimes helps to hide behind face paints and darkness, evil will always find its way through. In our so-called civilised world, training and conditioning from birth are all we can manage to just about keep away extensive chaos and rebellion and have an orderly life. Even then things go wrong but without these continuous safeguards what sort of world would we live in? Simon was right- “…it’s only us”(p.111) we are the infection on this planet, the source of all evil.
