Lord of the Flies Symbolism

Topics: God, Epilepsy, William Golding Pages: 3 (1244 words) Published: December 18, 2012
Lord of the Flies, anyone can write a book about being stranded on an island, but William Golding did something more than just marooned on an island. William Golding had no women and only boys to simulate civilization at its lowest. His book has more than just one meaning, and symbolism. Symbols include such as the Lord of the Flies, Simon, the beast, and some not so recognizable ones like Piggy, the conch, or the island.

The island, when Ralph and the boys hold their first session of an assembly he announces that this place is a great island, that they are going to have lots of fun, he says “But this is a good island. We-jack, Simon, and me-we climbed the mountain. Its wizard. There’s food and drink, and-“(p. 34).Although throughout the story it gets trampled over, fires are started, the natural resources are getting killed and picked, and more bathroom related incidents all over this once great island. In fact Ralph holds another meeting claiming that this island is just plain dirty, it does get dirty though not just by waste of all kinds by sin. The island is represented by Golding as the Garden of Eden, the birth place of humanity. Yes it is the Garden of Eden, but with all the sin forming that’s destroying the island.

Throughout the book Ralph uses a creamy looking shell that he blows in the call everyone together for an assembly, the conch. The conch is used in the story for order and a way to get power, this beautiful shell is one of the boy’s last hopes for a civilized way of living. Jack hates the conch so much because he doesn’t want civilization in his group, he want to be savage. The conch is a symbol for the rules, for civilization, for power, it works too, as Ralph waves the conch he says “Shut up! Wait! Listen. He went on in silence, borne on his triumph” (p. 38). That is why whenever someone blows that conch everyone comes together and forms a meeting, like if someone rang a bell in school and all the students came out of class for lunch or...
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