Figurative Language In Lord Of The Flies

Bad situations can turn even the most civilized person into a savage. The plot of Lord of the Flies by William Golding shows this perfectly. In the book, a group of kids get stranded on a deserted island and are left to fend for themselves. They started off well but eventually are plunged into chaos. In the poem Innocence, there is a kid who starts off innocent, but then goes on to commit horrible atrocities as a Nazi during WWII. Both Lord of the Flies by William Golding and Innocence by Thom Gunn show that anyone can turn savage under certain conditions. Lord of the Flies uses figurative language, allusions, and symbolism to show the transition from civilization to savagery. When Roger dropped that rock on Piggy, Golding said, “The rock struck Piggy a glancing blow from chin to knee; the conch exploded into a thousand white fragments and failed to exist” (181). The conch was a symbol for civilization, it was what Piggy instructed Ralph to use to bring everyone together in the first place, and when it broke it represented the total breakdown of society. The beast was an allusion to Satan and
They both start out with innocent little kids, but as they go on those kids break down due to their conditions and do things they normally wouldn’t. In Lord of the Flies, those conditions are due to the beast inside of themselves, and in Innocence those conditions are due to the rise of Hitler and everyone following him. The important thing to learn from these texts is that people should help others and do everything they can to make sure no one is put in these conditions. Everyone will eventually give in if they are in bad conditions and someone offers them a way to fix it. However, if society worked to ensure no one was put in these dire conditions, people wouldn’t have any reason to resort to killing others, which would make the world a better