Allegory In Lord Of The Flies Essay

Lord of the Allegory

The novel Lord of the Flies is described as an allegory novel (Carter). An allegory is a text which contains many things which are symbols and have a deeper meaning. Some examples of items in the novel that represent a deeper meaning include the conch shell which represents law and order, the beast which represents the savage instinct within humans and the pig hunts which represent the need for power.

The conch shell that Ralph and Piggy find on the beach represents law and order in a civilization. Ralph and Piggy know as soon as they see the shell that it is powerful. When Piggy sees the shell he says, "S 'right. It 's a shell! I seen one like that before. On someone 's back wall. A conch he called it. He used to blow it and then his mum would come. It 's ever so valuable. . ." (Golding 15). The conch shell is used to make the rules among the children. Ralph, who is elected the chief since he was the one to use the conch shell first, makes the rule that no one can speak unless they are holding the conch shell. The shell helps order the chaos at the beginning of the novel and keep everyone in

The Beast that the boys talk about in Lord of the Flies is also a symbolic element. The beast represents the savage instinct that is within all humans. The Beast starts out as a figment of the younger children’s imagination. Then it starts to be believed in more and more. At the beginning of the novel the younger kids on the island talk about a beast. During one of their meetings this is what Ralph had to say about the Beast, “Ralph laughed and the other boys laughed with him. The small boy twisted further into himself. ‘Tell us about the snake thing.’ ‘Now he says it was a beastie.’ ‘Beastie?’ ‘A snake-thing. Ever so big. He saw it.’ ‘Where?’ ‘In the woods’. . . ‘He says the beastie came in the dark.’” (Golding 73-80). The older kids on the island are laughing at the younger kids because they are believing in a make-believe monster or so they