-
Essay / Symbolism in Lord of the Flies - 1984
It was 48 years ago when a man named William Golding put pen to paper and composed a literary masterpiece called Lord of the Flies . The book brings together each boy's fantasy of being isolated on a desert island and the harsh reality of human nature. Without authority, evil, hatred, and outright savagery will undoubtedly wreak havoc. During World War II, a plane full of English schoolchildren crashes and the surviving boys swim to the shore of a nearby island. At first, the boys have good intentions. They decided to keep a fire going so someone could see the smoke and save them, but due to lack of interest, some boys' good intentions were quickly put aside for more exciting things. Pig hunting has slowly begun to take over the boys' lives, and the first sign of a major change in the boys' minds comes from Jack, the chosen leader of the hunters, after he can no longer live with himself, because he couldn't bring himself to slaughter the first pig he came across. Soon, the leader of the entire group, Ralph, is forced to split everyone into separate groups because one ship fails to spot the signal light that Jack and his hunters neglected to piece together as they made their first bet to death. This causes the first separation of powers in the book, as Ralph finds that no one is willing to stick to the tasks he has assigned them. The first symbolic sign in the book is when one of the little boys, also known as the little ones, tells the group that he saw "A snake thing. Still so big" (p 35). This puts the group into an uproar over how some sort of beast is lurking on the island. As leader, Ralph tries to calm everyone down by saying "he must have had a nightmare" (p. 36), but Jack only has to intervene by stating that "if there was a snake, we hunt him down and kill him. I'll make sure of it when we go hunting" (p 37). The beast ends up playing a major role in the novel. It's as if the idea that some sort of beast was on the island had taken control of the boy's mind They are so overwhelmed by fear and uncertainty that older boys turn their fears into hatred towards other boys, especially smaller ones...