Preview

Lord of the Flies Allegories

Good Essays
Open Document
Open Document
1448 Words
Grammar
Grammar
Plagiarism
Plagiarism
Writing
Writing
Score
Score
Lord of the Flies Allegories
The State of Nature In One Big Picture
Lord of the Flies by William Golding is a book of tragedy, realization, life lessons, and triumph. The novel illustrates the flaws of humanity, as well as the assets. Lord of the Flies offers a remarkable amount of insight just from a first glance read, but when you understand the book and comprehend it from a larger perspective you grasp and appreciate the true messages, morals, and allegories of this profound novel. Lord of the Flies can be interpreted as a political, psychological, and religious allegory. Lord of the Flies can be exposed as a political allegory to the Second World War, as well as a psychological allegory to Sigmund Freud’s theory of the id, superego, and ego, and furthermore the novel is a religious allegory relating to the Christian faith, and the bible.
The novel Lord of the Flies can be interpreted as a political allegory to the Second World War. The characters of this novel as well as certain situations, symbolize the holocaust. Jack is a representation of Hitler as he rules by fear, and as noticed throughout the book Jack is sadistic. He waited until things were at an all time low when the boys had essentially lost all hope, and tried to use his power and persuasiveness to gain the respect and trust of the group and remove them from Ralph’s possession.
“ “Who’s going to join my tribe?” Ralph made a sudden movement that became a stumble. Some of the boys turned toward him. “I gave you food,” said Jack, “and my hunters will protect you from the beast. Who will join my tribe?”” - (page 150)
This passage from the book takes place after Jack holds a feast and invites Ralph’s tribe to join them. Jack has taken advantage of the hungry and desperate boy’s, and has manipulated negatives on the island such as food, and the beast to appear to the boys as no longer a worry or threat if they join Jack’s tribe. Piggy symbolizes a Jewish person in the allegory to the holocaust.

You May Also Find These Documents Helpful

  • Good Essays

    Ralph blows the conch and calls another meeting. By now, thank goodness, the choir boys have removed their cloaks.…

    • 614 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Jack’s pressure on the boys triggers a domino effect that eventually transforms the “boys” to “savages”. He offers bribes of meat from his hunts and the whole idea of no order seems like fun to the young ones. The thought of the “beastie” also contributes to the chaos in there operation. It is one of the primary reasons Simon is trampled to death. Its scares the younger boys and Jack saying he will defeat it provides a sense of protection when he says “[it is] a hunter’s job” (102), drawing them…

    • 559 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    One night, an aerial battle occurs above the island, and a casualty of the battle floats down with his opened parachute, ultimately coming to rest on the mountaintop. Breezes occasionally inflate the parachute, making the body appear to sit up and then sink forward again. This sight panics the boys as they mistake the dead body for the beast they fear. In a reaction to this panic, Jack forms a splinter group that is eventually joined by all but a few of the boys. The boys who join Jack are enticed by the protection Jack's ferocity seems to provide, as well as by the prospect of playing the role of savages: putting on camouflaging face paint, hunting, and performing ritualistic tribal dances. Eventually, Jack's group actually slaughters a sow and, as an offering to the beast, puts the sow's head on a stick.…

    • 892 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    After a while on the island under Ralph’s rule, the boys get tired of working all day long and decide to join Jack’s tribe. Jack has a contrasting view of life on the island and his tribe just hunts and feasts. They do not even have shelters. Ralph and Piggy are the last to switch over to Jack’s tribe and when they do, all of the boys start chanting the hunting song they made up. “The beast struggled forward, broke the ring and fell over the steep edge of the rock to the sand by the water. At once the crowd surged after it, poured down the rock, leapt on to the beast, screamed, struck, bit, tore” (Goulding 213). After the boys killed Simon, Ralph realized what he did was wrong and he left Jack’s tribe. This shows that bad people can get good people to do evil things, but the person will always be good at heart.…

    • 602 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Finally free from the shackles of civilization, Jack is only governed by the incessant presence of the id in his own mind. Jack appeared to merely be a strong-willed young boy when the plane first crashed on the island, but by the time the British navy arrives to rescue the boys Jack proves to be the epitome of savagery and violence viciously seeking to fulfill his own aspirations. For example, when electing a leader at the first meeting of all the boys, Jack states: “I ought to be chief…because I’m chapter chorister and head boy.” (Golding 22) Here Jack demonstrates his longing for power by pursuing a position of authority among the boys, yet he clearly has no concern for their well-being. Furthermore, when Jack is denied the position of power, he becomes increasingly obsessed with hunting pigs. For example, Jack suggests that the hunters wear dazzle paint, and he chants: “Kill the beast! Cut his throat! Spill his blood!” (Golding 152) Jack blatantly ignores the rules of civilization, and pursues his selfish quest for power and totally disregards the well-being of the rest of the boys. In addition, Jack establishes his own tribe that is based upon savage rituals such as hunting…

    • 810 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Controlling a group of boys is like the weather, you never know what’s going to happen. Ralph got to experience this first hand when he was…

    • 975 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Ralph represents order in this book. In the beginning, he is known as the leader. He uses the conch to bring everyone together and the conch is what made him the leader in the first place. In page 39 it says, “Then, with the martyred expression of a parent who has to keep up with the senseless ebullience of the children, he picked up the conch, turned toward the forest, and began to pick his way over the tumbled scar.” This quote tells that Ralph represents order because it says “...with the martyred expression of a parent” and…

    • 645 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Better Essays

    Ralph?s stration of his hunting prowess leads to the group beating Robert. Initially, the boys were reenacting Ralph?s successful hunting attempt, with Robert…

    • 999 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Better Essays
  • Good Essays

    Lord of the Flies by William Golding has a plethora of literary techniques and strengths integrated within itself that separates it from other novels and work in tandem with the plot to form an enjoyable novel. A significant technique used in Lord of the flies is its multitude of motifs. Two of these many motifs include power and savagery and are brought up many times in the novel. The use of these literary techniques are to emphasize the insanity the boys on the island go through. In our pastiche we wrote an alternate ending to Lord of the flies if there was an adult figure arbitrarily inserted to temporarily offset the balance of power and insanity.…

    • 261 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    From the very beginning of the book Lord of the Flies Jack wants power and control over the other boys on the island. “I ought to be chief-because I'm chapter chorister and head boy. I can sing C sharp.” (Golding 22) This shows the pride within Jack and how views himself higher than the other boys. Also when Jack lets the fire go out to kill a pig for meat that the group really didn't need and the boys missed a ship because of this. “that was a ship. Out there. You said you'd keep the fire going and you let it out! - We needed meat.” (Golding 70) It is at this moment that the reader and the group of boys realize that Jack thinks as an individual and only cares for his wants and not the needs of the group. Unlike Jack who only cares for himself, Ralph does his best to look after and care for the boys of the…

    • 883 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    • As the tribes begin to split, Ralph begins to obsess over ‘popularity’ between him and Jack. He begins to bully Piggy in-order to gain favor from the other boys. Ralph begin to fall into the savage ways as the other boys have, he even went as far as to participate in the murder of Simon.…

    • 484 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Satisfactory Essays

    Lord of the Flies by William Golding is the story of a group of children who crash land on a tropical island during the time period of World War II. Throughout the novel, Golding uses Biblical allusions and irony to show the disintegration, loss of society and humanity. Some of the Biblical allusions that Golding uses alludes Simon to Jesus, the Lord of the Flies to Satan, and the island itself to the Garden of Eden. Golding’s use of irony appears several times; first when the fire destroys the boys civility but then ends up being what allows them to be rescued; again when they feared an imagined beast; and lastly in the way Piggy is widely disliked and mistreated, even though his spectacles are crucial to the group's survival.…

    • 130 Words
    • 1 Page
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Good Essays

    The initial order of the boys is all a result of Piggy realizing the value of the conch shell, which marks Ralph out as the leader and is the symbol of democracy throughout the book. Piggy sets the boys on a clear course back to civilization, and the glasses he wears start the fire that should deliver the boys safely home. However, the islanders' auspicious beginning comes crashing down when Jack and his choir discover the exhilaration of the hunt. Jack's dedication to killing a pig leads the hunters to abandon Ralph's fire, which goes out to soon to alert a passing boat. This initial victory begins the rift between Ralph and Jack over the direction of the islanders. Golding's next prominent symbol is the beast; an evil presence that stirs infectious fear among all the islanders, which becomes more intense as the hunters' behavior deteriorates. After failing to kill the beast, Jack takes his followers away from Ralph's civilization and proclaims himself chief of his own tribe, with absolute authority and no law or order. “'When we kill we'll leave some of the kill for [the beast]”, he assures his new tribe, so “then it won't bother [them], maybe'” (133). Every 'bigun' except for Ralph, Piggy, the twins, and shy, kind, Simon joins Jack for the savages' first hunt, during which their lust for blood causes them to not only kill a…

    • 866 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    "Jack signaled the rest of the hunt to be quiet and went forward by himself. He was happy and wore the damp darkness of the forest like his old clothes. He crept down a slope to rocks and scattered trees by the sea." (133, 134)…

    • 400 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    The story Lord of the Flies is a masterfully crafted novel that revolves around the concept of original sin and inherent evil. The story occurs during an unnamed time of war. A plane carrying a group of British schoolboys is shot down over the Pacific. The pilot of the plane is killed, but many of the boys survive the crash and find themselves deserted on an uninhabited island, where they are alone without adult supervision. A psychological theory that helps to explain important and significant events within the novel is Freud’s Psychoanalytic Theory: Id, Ego, Superego.…

    • 1829 Words
    • 8 Pages
    Good Essays