Essay on lord of the flies

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Lord of the flies: The Symbolism That Shaped An Excellent Novel A symbol is something that stands for something else. Symbols can help lead you to the true meaning of the story. In, lord of the flies, Golding uses several symbols to convey the message of his book. These symbols include: the conch, the fire, sand castle, the beast and the shelter. In, lord of the flies, the symbols point out the theme of the breakdown of civilization. The conch calls the boys to unite together as one. It can be seen as a symbol of democracy, due to its definition of freedom in assembly. The conch is a symbol of power because, when “the conch exploded into a thousand white fragments and ceased to exist” (Golding ch.200). In, lord of flies, Jack respects the conch more than he respects anyone or anything, due to the fact that, “He laid the conch with great care in the grass at his feet” (Golding ch.140). He may not want to play by the rules, however he still respects them. The conch shows us that using something like a “conch” is make-believe. Crowns and flags are not meaningful, but people make them matter. Rules are only powerful if people agree on them. That is why Ralph refused to blow the conch saying, “If I blow the conch and they don’t come back, then we’ve had it. We shan’t keep the fire going. We’ll be like animals. We’ll never get rescued” (Golding). Since he did blow the conch it stills holds it power.

Fire is a good and bad in the novel, depending on weather it is kept controlled. The fire gave the boys hope that as long as the fire keeps going that they would be rescued. The boys try to build their first rescues fire on top of the mountain, when the fire gets out of control the boys start to also break down and get out of control. When they thought one of the small boys died in the fire, the boys learn that fire is power if used unwisely it can only lead to death and destruction. When Prometheus stole fire from Zeus to present it to mankind he gave them knowledge by giving them light to read, he gave them warmth, and he gave them a way to protect themselves from the animals. That’s similar to what Jack did, when he stole (the fire) piggy’s specs. He made them hopeful, Unfortunately Prometheus got punishment for this crime along with other offences, Zeus; the supreme god had him tied up. Their Prometheus experienced terrible suffering.

The sandcastle is a symbol of freedom. The sand castles represent that going back to innocence for the ‘littluns’ is to make the sandcastles its a very traditional little kid and innocent thing to do and having them do that is reminding them of being kids and forgetting that they are in an island. Roger and Maurice were going through a changing period from civil to savage. They did it because there would no longer be punishment for they’re wrongdoing and are starting to
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