Allegories In Lord Of The Flies

The novel Lord of the Flies by William Golding can be seen from multiple levels depending on how one looks at it. As the reader gains a deeper understanding of the book, they can start to look for these levels and figure out what each other means. The three levels from which the novel can be seen is the literal level or how it’s portrayed as an adventure story, how it’s an allegory and what Golding perceives to be the description of human nature.
Golding's novel Lord of the Flies takes place on a completely untouched island, where a plane evacuating a group of British boys from a war zone gets taken out of the sky and crash lands. None of the boys are harmed from the crash landing, but they are separated from each other with no adults.
One such item is the conch. In the novel, Ralph says that he will “...give the conch to the next person to speak” (Golding 33). This quote helps show how the conch represents the order within the boy’s civilization as well as serving the purpose as a representation of the rules. The conch also acts as a form of power and whoever has the conch is able to speak freely. This only last for a short time because when Piggy gets killed the conch shatters into thousands of pieces. This shows how the conch is an allegorical item because when it is destroyed, all rules and order are lost on the island. Another allegorical element within the story is the fire. Ralph talks about how “...the fire is the main thing. Now the fire must be out” (Golding, 69). When the boys let the fire go out after diligently keeping it lit, it shows how the boys are starting to fall into chaos and are starting to forget about being rescued. Not only does the signal fire portray how much the boys want to be rescued, but the fire can also be seen as a double-edged sword. This is due to the fact that the fire is the only chance the boys have for getting home, but it was also the cause of death for the little boy. At the end of the story, the fire that the boys set to kill Ralph also led to the arrival of a ship. A third element is in the story pertains to Piggy. Piggy is an allegorical element due to how he was the last person to have
One of the characters named Simon speaks up during the discussion about the beast that “...maybe it’s only us” (Golding 89). This quote displays how Golding believes that fear is caused by humans and the actions they do. It shows that Golding describes what he thinks of human nature and how it is in its nature to be wicked. Another example of what Golding thinks of human nature is when all the boys are talking about the beast and Piggy says, “I know there isn’t no beast… but I know there isn’t no fear, either” (Golding 84). This implies that due to the actions that people take, they begin to fear if those actions will happen to them and their kin. Furthermore, the island the boys are on can be viewed as a small scale of human society. This is due to how the boy’s descent into chaos and lack of order destroyed the island. William Golding was trying to show that without order, humans will fall into chaos and blow themselves up. This shows the reader that the fear of others doing someone wrong stems from the twisted nature of humans. William Golding’s novel Lord of the Flies can be seen from multiple levels when the reader looks at it from different perspectives. The three levels that can be viewed in this novel are how it is an adventure story, how it contains allegorical elements that make it an allegory and what the author’s description of what human nature is. By taking all these levels