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The Lord Of The Flies Symbolism Essay

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The story “The Lord of the Flies” by William Golding tells of civilized boys turning into savages. It also shows just how easy it is to lose all control when a situation goes wrong. As the book goes on we see how hard it is for them to survive without rules. In this story there are many items that are used as symbols and hold a deeper meaning. Two symbols that really held a greater meaning were the conch shell and the fire.

The first symbol that is introduced in the story is the conch shell. The first thing the conch represents is power. Ralph and Piggy find the conch shell and Ralph uses it to call a meeting. When the boys hear this they all come running. Once everyone arrives, Ralph declares that they must elect a leader. Ralph and Jack …show more content…

The fire represents the boy's connection to human civilization and is their only hope of getting off the island. In the beginning of the story Ralph stressed the importance of tending to the fire in order to keep it burning. Jack and the hunters volunteer to be in charge of the fire. At first they do a good job. However, they start to only focus on hunting and the fire ends up burning out. When the fire burns out the hunters quickly try to rebuild it only to accidently light some trees on fire. Piggy then alludes to the idea that because of their recklessness that one of the boys is dead although, it is never said that he is dead just missing. As you can tell because the fire burned out, the boys lose sight of civilization, and a boy dies. When the fire is dead it is evident that there is more fighting in the book. Ironically at the end of the story the boys are saved by a fire. At the end of the story, Ralph hides from Jack in the forest and Jack decides to smoke him out. By doing this Jack sets the whole forest on fire which attracts the attention of a ship that is passing by. Even though the boys were saved by a fire it was a fire that was started with an evil intention, not the original fire. In the end, the boys do get saved and they return

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