Lord Of The Flies Themes

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All fictional books need a theme to help build onto the plot of the book. William Golding’s Lord of the Flies has many themes that help grow the plot and make the book more interesting. From themes such as loss of innocence to civilization versus savagery, Lord of the Flies contains a numerous amounts of themes that are shown throughout the book by the various symbolic characters and objects.
One of the major themes of Lord of the Flies is civilization versus savagery. Jack represents savagery while Ralph and Piggy represent civilization and order. “He took a step, and able at last to hit someone, struck his fist into Piggy’s stomach.” (71) Jack went savage and started to attack Piggy. “Let him be chief with the trumpet thing.” (22) When …show more content…
All throughout the book, the boys lose their childish innocence and grow up. “Samneric were savages like the rest; Piggy was dead, and the conch smashed to powder.” (186) The boys on the island went from playing in a pool of water to murdering each other. In the beginning, Ralph realized the need to be able to take care of himself and others by collecting food, and building shelters. ““You wouldn’t care to help with the shelters, I suppose?”” (51) Eventually Jack’s greed takes over and his self-interest takes over.
Another theme in Lord of the Flies is self-interest over community interest. All Jack wants to do is have fun and fulfill his bloodlust and he doesn’t want to help out with making shelters or getting rescued. “The madness came into his eyes. “I thought I might kill.”” (51) Ralph on the other hand thinks about everyone and knows that they need to get rescued and be safe in the meantime. He tries to keep a fire going for ships to see and he builds shelters for him and the rest of the boys to live in. ““We want to be rescued; and of course we shall be rescued.”” (37)
Themes are really important to books. William Golding’s Lord of the Flies uses symbolic characters and objects to show themes throughout the book. Those themes are used to strengthen the plot of the book and make it more interesting. Many authors use themes to make the book’s plot better and give meaning to the
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