Symbols are everywhere. Readers see symbols in all kinds of literary works. Symbols are used to represent ideas and concepts in literary works. Authors use symbols to help the readers understand themes. In Lord of the Flies by William Golding, the theme present is that societies need some kind of social order to live in peace.
Ralph finds the conch along the beach and is fascinated by its workings. The conch starts Ralph’s reign as he blows it, grabbing the island boys’ attention. As they gather together and speak their business of who they are they decide a need for a leader. The boys see Ralph as their new chief as they believe he is the fittest. Their prying eyes focus on Ralph as he commends them on how to survive.
The book revolves around the actions of Ralph, the boys elected leader, Jack, the controlling, and aggressive choir boy, and Piggy, the smartest of the group yet least respected. Throughout the course of the book we see the grip had Ralph has on the group and their humanity slip away from minor acts of rebellion, the progression of killing animals and their reasoning with the loss. With their struggle of adjusting to living on the island with no order, superior intelligence, or real authority we see without the control civilization imposes on us we revert to more savage beings.
The boys need fend for themselves and they all had to figure out how to survive. Eventually all of the boys soon turned into savages and went against one another by hurting the others. There are two main characters who took charge right away due to no supervision: Jack and Ralph. Jack was mainly in charge of hunting, and Ralph was in charge of shelters. Each of the boys are in competition for chief, which leads to lack of authority.
In Lord of the Flies, the signal fire symbolizes the boys’ desire to be rescued, their humanity, and their resistance of savagery. At first, all the boys agree the fire is important and pitch in to help. But in time, the fire dwindles, and the boys lose their desire to be rescued and stay civilized succumb to becoming completely savage. Things start to go south on the island, and the boys start to become savage the first time they neglect the fire. The first time they neglect the fire is when Jack and most of the other biguns go hunting and let the fire go out.
A symbol is a representation of an idea, concept, or object used to communicate a more profound meaning within a piece of literature or a work of art. In Lord of the Flies, William Golding uses symbolism to advance the novel's themes further. The book, published in 1954, follows a group of choir boys stranded on a deserted island. The boys establish rules and a system of organization. Still, it all turns to flames because without adults to serve as a civilizing impulse, the children turn to violence and brutality.
While walking, Ralph discovered a shell(the conch) which became quite useful early on. It gathered all the boys together and allowed for a society to be created. However,
The boys, now in contact with adults, society, understand their moral wrongdoing under the scrutiny of the adult naval officer and all begin to cry. Ralph begins to cry for their cumulative loss of innocence, the evil their hearts obtain, and the wrongful murder of Piggy whose sole purpose was to maintain social stability and order. Their expression of emotions through crying, makes the boys vulnerable as immature children, solidifying the idea that even as children, innate malice lives within all of man. Ralph further understands the cruelty within man’s heart as the naval officer ironically degrades the boy 's ability to maintain civilization as he continues to participate in the annihilation of his own enemies in the war.
This shows the human nature of children and men when they are away from society and order for a long time. If they do not get what they want, then they will drive themselves crazy trying to fight and in turn, become savages, who are focused on killing and hunting. They are blinded by their anger and illusions that they forget about the real point, which is trying to escape from the island and their new goal is to kill each other off so they alone can be the chief of the island, but eventually all the boys will have to end up dying from natural causes or battles if they are not saved by a ship. Their morals are ruined and this leads to further chaos on the island. Once the chaos starts to happen on the island, Ralph also starts to rethink his idea of being chief.
The boys vote on Ralph to be their chief in the beginning of this book. Ralph is very structured and works in a way that society would. Under the direction of Ralph, the boys make a fire on the top of a mountain on the island. Ralph explains to the boys that the fire will get them rescued. This quote shows how the boys are very enthusiastic about the fire, because they all want to be saved from the island.
In my opinion, symbols are very important. A significant symbol in my life is my grandma. She has taught me many wise things and has made quite an impact on my life. “You are the heart of the army”(Bradbury 171). The General says this to Joby.
In the Lord of the Flies, why is the ocean significant? What’s its use? How is it symbolic?
We’re going to hunt pigs to get meat for everybody” (Golding 44). From that moment forth, Jack starts to lose his young innocent British schoolboy image and slowly turns into a savage. He breaks the rules of good British propriety by hunting instead of helping carry out important tasks, kills a pig for the first time, breaks away from the original group of boys, paints his face like a savage, and instigates the murder of other boys on the island. Jack, once respectable leader of the
Then the boys find themselves on an island which has no supervision, and they have to figure out what they want to do. Ralph, the leader who uses a conch shell to call the group together, tries to set rules to keep
There are some older boys but the majority of them are younger. They will realize that they need some supervision, someone who will be in charge of them and who will be giving orders so that they do not become savages. By elections they put one boy named Ralph in charge and he proceeds to choose his “assistant” named Jack. We can see an attempt of creating a functioning society. Ralph’s main
