Allegory In Lord Of The Flies, By William Golding

Allegory: a story, poem, or picture that can be interpreted to reveal a hidden meaning. In the book Lord of the Flies, by William Golding, it gives allegorical references everywhere. From the conch shell, to Piggy’s glasses, the island, and to the characters themselves. Each have a meaning, or symbol, relating to our real lives. This book goes much deeper than any of us might expect. It shows the trueness of human nature, if left unchecked.

Now now, first thing first. The symbols in Lord of the Flies all represents...well...a symbol, that is connected to our society, humanity, civilization, and/or ourselves. Let us start with the conch in the middle of chapter 1. This conch is symbolizing democracy or a fair system of government, the way

every person gets a fair share of expressing their mind and voice on a topic. It is basically our Congress, the UN (United Nations), or NATO (North Atlantic Treaty Organization). Theses are all perfect representation of how the boys, in Lord of the Flies, reacted when they weren’t fully “savage” yet. The pressure of society forcing them to act a certain way and how to handle situations made them jump straight to having an equal chance for everyone when it came to speaking. In the first chapter, Ralph was elected up as chief through a vote. (William Golding 29).
Onto the next symbol! This symbol in the book was a huge give away to science, logic, and reasoning. Yes, that’s right. Piggy’s glasses. Piggy’s character is all about reason and logic, thus making his glasses all the more important. He is what humans always do. Using reason to solve problems whether they be your math homework or the test we are going to take in this class. You use all the time without you knowing, or you get those gears turning to figure out what is the solution. But, in all of this, you still use reason, no matter how big or small, to solve the problem. Which all makes the more sense when his glasses break, but that’s for another time.
Anyhow, our last symbol that I will break down for you is the characters, or actually just one.

It would be way too long if I had done every character in the book. Let us use good ‘ol Ralph, our fine-haired chap! Ralph is the symbol of leadership and order, I know, how cliche of the protagonist is all about order and leadership. Anyway, he, Ralph, always tries to make sure the group does not stray into the chaos that is “savagery”. ‘Cause in chapter 11, the twins, Sam and Eric, were told to bathe, by Ralph. Ralph wanted to look sensibly in front of Jack. (William Golding 247). Now, you may be thinking. “Why would Ralph want to look presentable in front of the guy who just basically launched a coup? Well, Ralph and the boys (Piggy, Sam, and Eric) are will look civil if they took a bath. They would be awfully neat and have no terrible odor coming off them. This is obviously applied to everyday life in everything we do in our daily lives. That’s right, I’m talking about showers/baths. I am betting that you take a shower at least once a day. Am I right? Of course I am, if I wasn’t then you are only just gross and need to rethink your hygiene. But you see what I mean, We have been embedded by our society norms that we think we need a shower everyday or every two days. When in all reality, we don’t. It’s just that if you were to hire an employee for your business you would pick the person who is more hygenic about themselves than the person who just took a shower two days ago. All in all, it is what makes a person want to look your best at parties, your job, school, and especially

events.
For his leadership, we will cover this on a different paragraph. This paragraph actually. Now for Ralph’s leadership, he was only put in power due to the fact that he was able to pick up a conch and call everybody together. They all see a sort of a leader inside him, as if he was an adult. Except for Jack, he was forcing his choir boys to vote him as leader by using fear. He wants power for his own agenda. In chapter 11, Jack was a bit too excited that the conch broke. He was hysterical when the conch shattered, so hysterical that he instantly plunged a spear straight at Ralph, thinking that he was no longer chief (William Golding 261). This is further proof that Jack has plans of his own and sees Ralph as a threat to him and his “tribe”. Ralph’s leadership going away and Jack losing, no, lost his mind is just to show that Ralph is a true heart leader. Now, the correlation between the novel and us is that, those who has a pure heart about the situation and want to do good, are the natural voted up leaders. At the same time, their are some who are willing to act the role and secure the position for themselves, with no regards on how they will get it done or who will they put down.
Although, Lord of the Flies ends in tragedy and may be a little bit dark. It shows and gives us idea on how the world works and what it can do to those unchecked. Those who might go and try to make, or break, the situation they have been given by those who entrust them.