Topic: as a political allegory, Lord of the Flies is highly dependent upon the use of symbols for its success. Discuss

Topic: as a political allegory, Lord of the Flies is highly dependent upon the use of symbols for its success. Discuss.

"Allegory is a form of extended metaphor, in which objects, persons, and actions in a narrative, are equated with the meanings that lie outside the narrative itself. The underlying meaning has moral, social, religious, or political significance" ("Allegory", 2002). William Golding wrote Lord of the Flies as a political allegory, the groups of boys represent humanity, the two tribes formed represent government and the mess on the island is like a war. Golden uses allegory and symbolism to elevate the adventure of the boys.  Lord of the Flies shows the world at the brink of atomic destruction. They were trying to escape from the atomic bombs threats but then landed on the island. This allegory struggle between good and evil human nature, by how easily the society can collapse and how self- destructive human nature is. This allegory is a warning to the leaders of the world. There are numerous instances of political allegory in the novel by different characters and symbols throughout the novel represent many political systems, techniques and devices. The political symbols related to Second World War (Cold War), which when William Golding is the soldier.  Throughout the novel, Golding implements two distinct politically related symbols by the conch represents law, order, equality and democracy, also Jack represents dictatorship in the society.

The conch represents law, order and equality as freedom to speak one’s mind. Ralph uses the conch to gather the boys for meeting and illustrate his power. Without the conch, it would be very difficult to get things organized and noticed for meetings. The boys use the conch to elect leader, Ralph is chosen with most votes. Therefore it stands for democracy. But compare with Jack, the leader of another choir, by absolute power. Piggy found the conch at the beginning of the novel, “S’right. It’s a shell! I seen one like that before. On someone’s back wall…it’s ever so valuable—“  (page 9) The person holding the conch is allowed to speak and nobody has the right to interrupt him. “Let him have the conch!” shouted Piggy. “Let him have it!” (Page 27) Piggy is admonishing the older boys to let the littluns have a chance to speak. Throughout the conch, Piggy has introduces the ideology of democracy, the littluns deserves the right to speak given by democratic belief same as the older boys do.  Also it uses to call an assembly, “ We can use this to call the others. Have a meeting. They’ll come when they hear us—“ (page 10) It is a platform to discuss something important such as maintaining the signal fire, the pigs and the terrifying beast. The conch also stands for justice and equality because everybody has a right to state his opinion by holding the conch. As the civilization deteriorates and the boys crumble into savagery, the conch loses its power and influence among them. When the conch is destroyed at Castle Rock, It symbolizes the end of civilized behavior on the island. And the boys spilt into two parties with Jack as leader as Ralph does. “Some littluns came from the shelters. Ralph sat down on the polished trunk and the three others stood before his, and Samneric sat down on the right.” (page 153) The assembly is totally unlike the ones’ before Jack and some littluns became savage. When Piggy and Ralph go to the castle rock all for assembly, “I’m calling an assembly.” Silence.” (page 158) none of the boys respond, they are all being silence. The boys ignore Ralph and throw stones at him when he attempts to blow the conch in their camp. Just is not satisfied with his position and wants to dominate all the boys. Ralph uses the conch to maintain order on the island, Roger rolls onto Piggy also crushes the conch, signifying the demise of the civilized instinct among almost all the boys on the island but when disorder consumes the boys, the conch is destroyed.  As the conch being destroyed, it represents that the tiny community of the boys are already in a dictatorship status, and the order in the society is already broken down. The justice and equality become blurred. As the novel is written to reflect the cold War as mention, it represents the hammer and sickle was the emblem on the Soviet Union’s flag, used to make the people feel that government worked for them.