Symbolism In Lord Of The Flies Essay

, Research Paper

Symbolism in Lord of the Fliess

Piggy, Jack, Simon, and Ralph can all be seen as symbolic characters in William Golding & # 8217 ; s

fresh Lord of the Flies. Golding utilizations symbolism to expose his belief of the nature of

world. He believes that the alteration from good to evil, from civilisation to crudeness

is ineluctable if there is non any direct authorization over people. Piggy, an corpulence

wheezing male child about 8 old ages in age, who can non see without his spectacless represents physical

failing and mental strength. His hapless vision and fleshiness instantly set up to the

reader his traits of physical frailty and incompetency. The spectacless, nevertheless, aid

exemplify his rational strength, his ability to believe state of affairss over logically and

usage ground, instead than emotions to make up one’s mind upon of import quandary. Piggy does non allow his

emotions guide him. Through the class of the novel, we observe how the allegorical society

on this uninhabited tropical island in the Pacific ocean makes the passage from

carefully organized democratic logical thinking to feeling-driven lawlessness. The flood tide of this

passage is marked by the decease of Piggy and the devastation of the conch shell, which

has really similar symbolism to Piggy. The gradual displacement is besides measured by assorted

incidents that hinder Piggy & # 8217 ; s mental logical thinking, such as the breakage of his eyeglassess, and

the loss of the boys & # 8217 ; faith in him. Piggy & # 8217 ; s character is used by William Golding to demo

how even the best solution to a job can easy be overlooked because of the deficiency of

regard, pre-established biass, and the deficiency of mature thought processes. Jack & # 8217 ; s function

in Lord of the Flies is to demo the passage from the opposite position. Jack

Merridew first appears in the novel taking his choir in a purely organized manner. He

is the prototype of subject. Then, for some ground, he becomes bit by bit obsessed with

the violent death of hogs, stealing from the other male childs, and contending the & # 8216 ; beast & # 8217 ; . The most

significant point in this transmutation is the first clip he kills a hog. Shortly after

the male childs have by chance landed on the island, Jack is loath to kill the hog. He is

frightened to pull blood from a living thing. A citation from Jack himself describes this

absolutely: & # 8220 ; I was traveling to [ stick the hog ] . I was taking a topographic point. Following clip & # 8212 ; ! & # 8221 ; Jack

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was non merely afraid of the outrageousness of his knife cutting into populating flesh, but he was besides

greatly concerned of what the other male childs thought of him. Then, for some ground, Jack

overcomes his fright and is able to butcher the hog ferociously and viciously. This is a

consequence of his changed individuality due his painted face, and the fact that he has adapted to

the island. Jack farther evolves into a grim dictator who additions followings by

assuring to carry through the kids & # 8217 ; s desire for a reversion to crudeness. His character

unfolds even beyond this point into the violent death of people, when his & # 8216 ; pack & # 8217 ; putting to deaths Piggy and

when he gives orders to his followings to track down Ralph and to kill him. Jack transforms

from good to evil at the same time as Piggy alterations from power to decease. Simon is the most

mature of the male childs because he does non fear the fanciful animal and he realizes that it is

merely in the male childs & # 8217 ; heads. His symbol is that of a Christ-like figure who sees the truth,

but is killed because of ignorance. He has the solution for lasting on the island, but is

unable to go through it on to the male childs when he is killed in a mob-like manner. His function is

similar to Piggy & # 8217 ; s in this mode. This merely shows how once more, the emotions of the male childs

prevail in a life endangering state of affairs, even if the & # 8216 ; life threatener & # 8217 ; is merely imagined.

Simon & # 8217 ; s hallucinations symbolize messages from God, to be passed on to the people. Ralph is

the best leader of the male childs, even though they can non see it. He runs a democratic

authorities, is wholly just, has the right precedences. The alteration from good to evil is

shown in Lord of the Fliess by the displacement from Ralph to Jack as the boys & # 8217 ; pick of leaders.

The male childs start off by taking Ralph as the leader, but over clip all the male childs except Piggy

decide to follow Jack. Ralph is the evenhanded, honest, thoughtful leader, while Jack is

the exact antonym, an unfair, indurate dictator. When Ralph is hunted for in the terminal, this

symbolizes a entire revert to crudeness and immorality. Therefore, it is easy to see that the

four chief characters in Lord of the Fliess are used by William Golding to typify

different facets of the inevitable alteration from civilisation and felicity to crudeness

and inherent aptitude that occurs when people are placed in an environment without direct authorization.

Lord of the Flies Essay 1 Ron Friedman