William Goldings Use Of Symbolism In The Novel "Lord Of The Flies".

William Goldings Use Of Symbolism In The Novel

“Lord Of The Flies”

Lord of the flies has a simple story line with increasing meaning around that a central core. As a fable it is uncomplicated, but it covers many deeper issues. The story contains, for instance, a number of symbolic objects. The conch is more than just a shell, useful for attracting attention and summoning the boys to meetings. It is like a church bell calling the faithful, and embodies some of the ritual of religious ceremonies. For the boys on the island it also imposes a sense of order.

Before the boys reached the island, they had come from a place where democracy was standard. They had tried to keep democracy on the island when they first arrived.

The conch is than discovered and is made to symbolise law and order, it symbolises democracy on the island. The boys are told that they cannot talk in assemblies unless they are holding the conch, and are also told to treat the person, holding the conch, with respect. Piggy is able to give his intelligent ideas in these meetings, which lead to improvements in the boys’ lives. Intelligent thoughts like moving away the toilets from the shelters, to try to keep a fire burning at all times, so that a passing ship may see it.

The importance of the conch is straightaway declared when it is introduced into the novel. Golding describes the conch as “deep cream touched here and there with fading pink”. As soon as this description is entered it creates an impact because it gives the conch a sense of fragility and importance this is done by the writer’s use of language because he uses such words as “touched” and “fading” to portray the conch’s frailty. This gives insight into the future plot because we know that this object is straight away very important.

Piggy’s glasses also symbolises many things, they picture a different side of law and order on the island. They strictly belong to Piggy because they aid his disability of sight but they are also used to start fires so that they can cook their food, and it gives a signal for passing ships. Jack does not see that the glasses rightfully belong to Piggy and because of this he first punches Piggy, whilst doing so he breaks one of the lens and later Jack steals them. In doing so he challenges the law and order that have kept life ...

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Piggy’s glasses are more than support to his poor eyesight. To everyone else on the island the glasses symbolise life, in a way because they are used to start fires, in which Ralph repeatedly proclaims, they cannot be rescued, or cook the food, which jack provides. Fire than is representative of life, but sadly and ironically, it is also the element, which causes the death of the boy with the birthmark and very nearly leads Ralph to the same fate, at the end of the novel. By association, the glasses symbolise life and death, knowledge, power and control.

Another symbolic feature in the novel, weather real or imaginary, is the beast. It represents what Ralph calls “the darkness of man’s heart”. “The beast” is inside each and every one of us; it is the ability of evil and wrongdoing. The sacrifice that the boys make is like thanks to evil, or the devil. The recognition is alive in the boy’s sacrifices.

The pig’s head symbolises all of this to Simon, and also the suspicion of adults and the emptiness and tastelessness of their world. It is Simon who sees the parachutist as an example of the capability of adults for death and destruction. He symbolically frees this when he realises the suspension lines of the parachute.

You may think that symbolism is linked to objects but in some situations, actions are also symbolic, for example, when the hunters baptise themselves with the blood of the pig.

In Lord of the flies the battle between good and evil is a central theme. It appears in many conflicts. It happens between, between the boys and the terrifying beast, the conch group and the savages and between rescue from a passing ship and imprisonment on the increasingly insane island.

Early in the novel, good is in the upper hand. The conch provides a symbol of the decency and order of the society that the boys have come from. Ralph organises the construction of shelters – mostly, in fact, the selfless work of himself and Simon – and a fire to signal the ships with. The boys spend the majority of the time playing and there are a few accidents, such as the fire that kills the birth-marked boy, but with Ralph’s caring government, good is always leading.

This is not the case though, all the way through the novel, as jack tries to take over the conch group. This does not work and so he makes his own group of hunters. From then on, evil takes control. Everyone joins the new tribe because they can have fun, and get to hunt pigs. Representing the forces of good, Ralph does not no what to do, he is paralysed with uncertainty. Jack’s tribe grows and his evil with it. Piggy’s glasses are violently stolen, leaving him sightless. When the remainder of the conch group go to retrieve the spectacles, Sam and Eric are captured and piggy slain. Only the naval officer’s intervention prevents the complete triumph of evil over good.

Golding is telling us about the power of evil, he is warning us about it, that if the good in people is not fostered than evil will triumph. In this sense, lord of the flies can be seen as a cautionary tale, telling us to change before it is too late.

In the lord of the flies, all the characters are symbolic, an author does not choose characters or setting purely by chance – they all have a deliberate function.

Ralph is portrayed as the epitome of British boyhood – handsome, sporting, decent, and honourable but not possessed of any great intelligence or imagination. Ralph symbolises democracy.

Piggy is probably the most intelligent boy on the island. He has the foresight and good sense of an older person; he exhibits a degree of caution and some organising ability. He displays moral and physical courage in upholding the supremacy of the conch but most important of all, he is a thinker. Piggy symbolises intelligence.

Jack is a character Golding has clearly intended you dislike. He provides little basis for empathy in either his words or his actions. Even from his dramatic entrance – the procession of capped and gowned choirboys along the beach, in itself anachronistic and sinister – he is arrogant and aggravating. Jack Merridew is supposed to symbolise evil in the novel.

Simon exhibits a number of contradictory characteristics. He is helpful and community-spirited – helping with the shelters – yet is, on occasions, reclusive and solitary. He is as Ralph says, “always about” but spends time alone in the forest. Although he is shy and timid during the assemblies – not being able to speak his deepest thoughts honestly – he shows great courage in other respects; he walks alone through the jungle at night and even climbs the mountain to face the beast. In the novel Simon has been given a Christ-like figure, he represents good. There are many examples of how Simon has done a similar thing to what Jesus has done. For example Simon was a martyr, as Christ was, trying to help others whilst dying. Also Simon resisted the temptations of the lord of the flies, just as Jesus resisted the temptations of Satan.

The island itself is symbolic of many things. The novel was written post world war two, so there is a war in the outside world as well as one inside the island, between the boys. The island has been split into two by the scar – the friendly and unfriendly side, the good side and the evil side. The island is also symbolic in another way. It symbolises the Garden of Eden, A beautiful place where man was tempted by Satan to do wrong and to commit sin. Just like what was happening in the island,

Symbolism plays a key part in the novel, lord of the flies, as it has been used in many areas. William Golding has used it in the characters, the setting, in objects, in the actions of the boys; even the island itself is symbolic. Golding has used symbolism in many other areas, and it is very effective.

Hammad Naveed