In the year 1954, William Golding wrote an allegorical novel to parallel with World War II and the Cold War. In the novel, he displays a variety of themes that portray human activity that went on during the wars. Golding takes unexposed little boys and puts them in a situation where they have to fend for their lives, much like the soldiers that have to fend out in war. These soldiers were told what to do by the government and their political leaders. Some of these actions were organized, and some were a chaotic mess. This was due to a lack of leadership and sense of what would be for the better of the group. In Lord of the Flies, Golding uses political symbolism to illustrate that in order to maintain a civilization, there needs to be order …show more content…
One symbol that stands for democracy is the conch. When the conch is found in chapter one, Piggy exclaims to Ralph that if he blows into it, the other boys will gather. The idea doe not fail. “The children gave him the same obedience that they had given to men with megaphones” (Golding 11). Ralph uses the conch to call many more meetings, but it loses meaning rapidly. As the boys’ discipline fades, the color of the conch also fades, thus showing the fade of order and structure. When the conch breaks at the end of chapter 11, all order is gone and complete chaos arises. Piggy’s glasses are another crucial political symbol in Lord of the Flies. The glasses represent technology as they relate to starting the fire, but since they belong to Piggy, they tend to represent intellectualism as well. Piggy is almost completely blind and is not able to do or see without his glasses. To run an effective government, the leader must be intelligent, or else he or she is not qualified to lead. The glasses serve as Piggy which is what Ralph needs to be the chief of the boys. Without him, Ralph cannot see his thoughts clearly enough to communicate them to the boys to make everything run smooth. The glasses can represent power as well. At the end of chatper 10, Jack and his hunters attack Ralph’s side of the island to retrieve Piggy’s glasses to make another fire. Once he takes them, Piggy will never end up getting them back, and Jack receives ultimate power. The fire is a symbol that serves as good and bad. The good in it is that fire means rescue. If the signal fire stays alive on top of the mountain, a ship will see and come to take the boys home. However, when fire is put in the hands of Jack, it symbolizes destruction and savagery. After the largest pig is killed, it is roasted over a fire for the boys to eat. This is the first real meal the boys have gotten after countless months of minute meals. The boys
Sereno,Vernon: The significance of the glasses is that is symbolizes the inteligence of the group. In chapter 2, page 34 it reads: Piggy puts on his glasses. " Nobody knows where we are. " This shows that he thought long and hard about the situation and didn 't have a fun time. This quote supports my answer because since Piggy has asthma and wears glasses, he has a lot more time to think than the other kids.
Piggy’s glasses represent intellect and the reckless way the boys handle them show how little they value intelligence. From the beginning, intelligence is not valued. Ralph does not respect Piggy nor his intelligence, and the rest of the would rather follow Ralph with his charisma and power and Jack with his aggressive nature. The boys see power and aggression as a way to succeed and ignore how intelligence can improve their society. The boys choose Ralph as their leader because of the power the conch gives him and pay no mind to Piggy, who is going out of his way to be logical and kind.
Piggy’s Literary Connections Golding writes, “A great clamor rose among the savages. Piggy shouted again” (180). William Golding connects Piggy in the Lord of the Flies with symbolism, foreshadowing, and tragedy. To begin with, in the Lord of the flies, William Golding uses symbolism to describe the importance of Piggy and his glasses.
This shows that the symbol of piggy’s glasses representing knowledge and how it is a key factor of survival for the boys. At the end of the book when piggy’s lens is broken by Jack, one can see that the society starts to crumble. Piggy’s glasses are a symbol of
On the other hand, Piggy’s glasses symbolize the power and domination that Jack gains. When Jack forms his own tribe, they set out at night, under Jack’s command, to steal Piggy’s glasses from him. “I know. They didn’t come for the conch. They came for something else …
Symbols play a main role in the LOTF, each symbol has its own importance and significance. The Conch, which is used to call a meeting, represents law of order. This Conch helps Ralph get elected as a chief. This is also a
and then “Piggy held up the conch and the booing sagged a little, then came up again to strength.” These quotes show the difference from the beginning of the book, when all of the boys respected the conch’s power, to the end of the book when they were acting uncivilized and not following any of the rules. The second motif Golding uses is Piggy’s glasses. Piggy’s glasses show intelligence and they are used to make a signal fire, however, at the end of the story they are stolen from him, and broken. Golding writes: “He was a chief now in truth; and he made stabbing motions with his spear.
Piggy's glasses play a really important part of survival on the island one being starting the signal fire. For example, Golding shows an instance where piggy's glasses made the fire light,”Ralph moved the lenses back and forth, this way and that, till a glossy white image of the declining sun lay on a piece of rotten wood.” In this quote golding is showing that there is hope and they keep getting more and more advanced, but Piggy's glasses don't always show hope they also symbolize lose for hope. For instance, the following quote states how by piggy damaging his glasses it's also diminishing their hope for survival on the island,”Piggy’s glasses flew off and tinkled on the rocks”. In other words since the glasses represent hope, this quote represents the loss of hope and basically losing all the hope they had.
Piggy’s glasses symbolize intelligence and power. In the book, Lord of the Flies by William Golding, the owner of the glasses is a boy named Piggy. Piggy is a non-athletic fat boy that has asthma with poor eyesight. Piggy’s cleverness shows when he tells ralph how to use the conch to bring together many children into a single area. Ralph blew on the conch since Piggy couldn’t blow because of his asthma “ A deep harsh note boomed under the palms, spread through the intricacies of the forest and echoed back ” (Golding 15).
Lastly, Piggy's broken glasses represent the helplessness of Ralph's group and show how Jack and his hunters are gaining strength against them. In the novel Jack and his savages succeed at taking piggy's glasses at the end of chapter 10 Folding says “From his left hand dangled piggy's broken glasses” This shows that Jack and his group have a one up on Ralph and the other boys now being that they have lost the power to start fires and get rescued, which symbolizes the fact that their link to civilization is totally
Piggy and his glasses play very vital roles in the book. For example, without Piggy Ralph wouldn't have known how to blow the conch. Another way Piggy is vital is that his glasses are used to start the fires. The glasses can symbolize law and order which is what Piggy represents as well. Piggy is more of an intellectual person that is outcasted by the other boys because he can not do much of any physical work.
Realizing Ralph's reliance on the fire and in otherways Piggy, Piggy begins to trust Ralph to protect him from Jack. His insecurities cause him to obsess over the idea of the fire to show that he does have some importance, while the savages are focused on power and hunting. Golding uses the struggle of power to demonstrate how destructive it can be. The desire for power causes the boys' civilization the crumble, discord and rivalries, and ends up destroying their island.
There are different perceptions of objects to different people, and the glasses in Lord of the Flies are a prime example of that statement. The glasses, to Ralph, gave him a sense of reassurance of being rescued as the glasses were the only way the boys could create a smoke signal to oncoming ships and planes. Jack used them to hold and obtain power over the boys on the island and the glasses kept Piggy feeling safe and secure. This symbol is important to the succession of the story line in a way that portrays human nature. The boys were thrown out into the wild forcing them to mature and a majority turned into savages to survive.
In Lord of the Flies, William Golding uses items and people to symbolize many different things. These symbolic things include Piggy’s glasses, Simon’s epilepsy, the Lord of the Flies, and arguably the most important symbol, the conch shell. The conch shell was first found in the water by Piggy, who then comes up with the idea of using the conch as a blow horn to call for meetings. Throughout Lord of the Flies, the conch shell becomes not only associated with Ralph and his leadership, but with Piggy and his intuitive and wise ideas and Jack and his dictator-like, irresponsible authority. The conch shell, representing law and order, assisted in the election of Ralph as chief and ultimately determines the future of the island.
The conch and the sow’s head both wield a specific type of power over the juvenile boys in Lord of the Flies. The conch, used to call assemblies, represents progress and civilization while the sow’s head represents terror, barbarity, and malevolence and is partly to blame for Simon’s demise. Lord of the Flies is a novel about power because throughout the book Jack and Ralph quarrel over who should be the chieftain of the children and the novel uses the conch and the sow’s head to represent divergent forms of power and authority. Also, the book shows the reader the power of symbols such as the conch and the pig’s head and even the island that the children remain inevitably imprisoned on until their liberation at the conclusion of the novel. Just about everything within this novel is a representation of something that is considerably greater.