Essay on William Golding

Nathan Lorett Ms. Vis Monday,June 1, 2015 ENG 2D1

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Symbolism in
Lord of the Flies Symbols are used to describe mean things. It helps convey deeper meanings in objects.
In William Golding’s very complicated and diverse novel Golding brings out

many ideas and uses many literary devices. In Lord of the Flies, boys are stranded on an island surrounded by many unique and deep symbols. Deep meanings were through the use of such as the pig’s head, the beast, and Piggy’s specs. First, the most important symbol and the most obvious is the pig’s head. It gives the title of the story. William Golding using a very graphic description of the killing of the pig. A description such as “dimeyed, grinning faintly, blood blackening between the teeth,” (p. 137). The gruesome description of the killing of the pig brings out a dark and terrifying meaning. It shows the there is a darkevil lingering around the boys on the island. There is also a sense of wickedness revealed and this frightens many boys on the island. Unfortunately, Simon falls victim to this darkevil side of the boys. Therefore, the pig’s head is a big symbol in the
Lord of the Flies
.

Another important symbol in the novel is represented by the beastie. There are

many young boys stranded on the island. In the imagination of the young boys, they Lorett
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believe the beast is an evil presence that lingers around them. However, the truth is the only evil presence that lingers around them is within each other. Simon begins to realize this before he even encounters the Lord of the Flies. In an argument, Simon says "Maybe, Ö maybe there is a beast Ö What I mean is Ö maybe it's only us" (p. 189). Without supervision, society rules begin to fall and a lot of the boys like Jack, want to hunt and kill the beast. In the inory, the boys are not fearing a creature but fearing each other. Therefore, the beastie is a major symbol in the novel. Finally, when there is many evil around the boys, Piggy’s specs represents the fall in society and humanity on the island. Throughout the novel, Piggy represents the civilization and the rules from which the boys have been separated, and interestingly, as Piggy loses his ability to see, so do the other boys lose their vision of that civilization. In the novel it says, "can't have everybody talking at once… have to have ëHands up' like at school" (p. 33).

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