William Golding’s novel Lord of the Flies contains several themes woven into the plot. The themes that he illustrates are the loss of innocence, man’s capacity for good and evil, the fear of the unknown, and the need for social order. Golding is able to successfully communicate these themes through the use of his characters. Each character and group of characters correspond to a specific theme. For example, Ralph the beacon of civilization is inexplicably linked to the need for social order. Due to Golding’s use of Ralph as an allegory for civilization, Ralph’s use of the conch, and Golding utilizing the fire as a smoke signal the audience can see how Golding utilizes Ralph to illustrate the theme the need for social order. One way Golding …show more content…
demonstrates the theme of the boy’s need for social order through Ralph is by making Ralph an allegory for civilization. Throughout the novel, there are various instances in which Ralph attempts to bring a sense of civility to the island. One example is when Ralph tells the littluns “‘[w]e can’t have everybody talking at once. We’ve got to have ‘Hands up’ like at school’” (Golding 33). This situation takes place shortly after Ralph had blown the conch and calls everyone to the beach. Here he is establishing the rules everyone is to follow. Ralph is not just displaying leadership qualities, but taking the crucial steps to building the foundation for their small civilized society. Ralph could have just as easily let everyone do as they pleased and let chaos ensue, however, he does not. Golding illustrates how Ralph displays the theme because, Ralph being an allegory for civilization, is making the steps to ensure that their mini-society does not fall into chaos. Throughout the novel, Ralph is always shown trying to combat anarchy. This is also depicted after the ship passes and Ralph calls a meeting saying “‘[w]e decide things. But they don’t get done’”(Golding 79). It is at this moment where Ralph discovers that instituting a society is more difficult than he originally thought. Even as people are not contributing to his civilization he keeps attempting to maintain a sense of order. This is only one example of how Ralph tries to keep everything civilized while the other islanders decide not to. Until this point in the story, the lack of action on the rest of the tribe’s part has only been a minor irritant. However, due to the breaking down of the social order, the ship passed the island. This causes Ralph to enforce civility and social order to a greater degree than he did in the past. Golding uses this instance to further illustrate the theme through the actions of Ralph and what he stands for. For these reasons, Golding uses Ralph as an allegory for civilization to show the theme the need for social order. In order to demonstrate how necessary social order is through Ralph, Golding utilizes the conch as a symbol of leadership. The conch is first symbolized as leadership when the littluns say “Let him be chief with the trumpet thing” (Golding 22). One of the most important scenes in the novel is when Ralph gathers all of the boys to the beach using the conch. The conch allows Ralph to become a leader and begin creating the foundation for his civilization. The conch is sacred in the beginning of the novel to most of the boys on the island. Most of the boys are in awe of it, therefore they are in awe of the main wielder of it, Ralph. Since the conch is not solely used by Ralph, it instead introduces the concept of democracy. When Ralph had the conch he could have been the only one to use it, but instead, he says “‘[t]his belongs to us’” (Golding 28). Here Ralph displays leadership abilities, as well as instituting the type of government he wants. In this scene, Ralph grants everyone the freedom of speech, as long as they have the conch. Ralph is establishing the type of government that the British had, which is the one he’s most used to, as the type of social order they will all follow. The way Ralph handles the situation is due to the leadership the conch gives him, as well as being an allegory for civilization. Ralph allows everyone the right to free speech in a controlled and civilized manner, which is handing the conch to whoever wishes to speak. Another way Ralph could have done this was to allow everyone to speak whenever they wanted to, but this goes against his nature as the personification of civility and civilization. All in all, Golding demonstrates the theme the need for social order through Ralph’s leadership, represented by the conch. The last symbol Golding decides to use to display the theme the need for social order through Ralph is his fire.
The fire in the novel symbolizes Ralph’s power on the island. As depicted throughout the novel Ralph’s main priority is the fire and the smoke it gives off, especially when he says “‘But I tell you the smoke is more important than the pig, however often you kill one’” (Golding 81). One of the main external conflicts in the novel is the power struggle between Ralph and Jack. As shown in the quote above, Jack thinks the pig is more important than the fire and Ralph believes the fire is much more important. Due to Golding symbolizing Ralph’s power through the fire, it makes sense that Ralph’s main goal, outside of being rescued, is to keep the fire going. Ralph can only enforce civility and social order when he’s in leadership and in power. While Ralph has both of these things, in the beginning, he loses them at the end when he also loses all of his influence. The most prominent example of this is right after the ship has passed the island and Ralph says “‘You said you’d keep the fire going and you let it out’” (Golding 70). Because the fire symbolizes Ralph’s power, Golding is actually communicating that the tribe elected Ralph as chief, but they do not want him anymore. After this moment the fire does not get relit because of the beastie and so does Ralph’s power. After the fire goes out things go downhill for Ralph and the civilization he attempted to establish. During this time anarchy and chaos take over and Jack becomes the new chief. When Ralph creates a new fire, he is trying to salvage what little civilization and social order they have left. Without Ralph’s civilization and maintaining of the social order, people died as a result. Due to Ralph not having his fire and his power, he can not enforce civilization and keep the boys safe. Because of these reasons Ralph’s fire, which symbolizes his power, showcases how Golding utilizes Ralph to
illustrate the theme the need for social order. Due to Ralph being an allegory for civilization, the conch as a symbol of leadership, and Ralph’s power represented by the fire Golding created Ralph to encapsulate the theme of the need for social order. In the novel, Lord of the Flies Ralph utilizes all of these things in order to get the theme across. Throughout every decision that Ralph made it never went against his core, which further helps the audience understand this theme specifically. This was Golding’s main purpose in creating Ralph, so the audience could gain a better understanding of his commentary on his views of society and human nature.
However, as the plot progresses, Ralph faces both internal and external conflicts; from those conflicts he greatly matures. Ralph always has the strong belief that all the children will be saved from the island sooner or later; he is so sure that he even insists that they should have fire at all times to signal. However, when the boys abandon the fire which is symbolic of Ralph’s hope of getting saved, Ralph faces an internal conflict that makes him fear about their future; perhaps they will not be rescued at all. By insisting that the children should keep the fire going, he creates an external conflict with Jack whose values are different. Jack is enjoying life as a leader of the savages, and he fears that fire will possibly end his authoritarian rule over the savages. Both conflicts are resolved when Ralph finally meets the naval officer.
Ralphs scolding of the boys for not maintaining the fire reveals how while the rules on the island are essential to their survival, the boys still ignore them, showing their early descent into savagery. In the novel Ralph addresses the boys about the fire they were supposed to keep going: “How can we ever be rescued except by luck, if we don’t keep a fire going? Is a fire too much for us to make?”(80). Ralph is
Society The novel Lord of the Flies by William Golding is about a group of boys that were in a plane crash in the 1940’s during a nuclear War. The plane is shot down and lands on a tropical island. Some boys try to function as a whole group, but see obstacles as time goes on. The novel is about civilization and social order.
Lord of the Flies has several themes that are the key to understanding of literature. Three of the themes of this novel are the fear, courage and lastly survival. Fear has been surrounded throughout the entire novel. With the amount of fear because of an apparent beast, many of the people on the island have changed. Most of the boys have become more violent throughout the novel and have no sense of direction as what to do next. Jack was one of those people who had changed majorly throughout the novel. Courage is one of the most important things to have mentally and physically when you’re stuck in an unknown island. Ralph’s courage in the book became strong when he had lost two of his close companions in Simon and Piggy. Survival is the best theme in this novel simply because of the lack of tools and the laziness of the people throughout the book. These themes show how great and wonderful this book is, and if you read it thoroughly, you will understand the perils and the adventure of Ralph, Jack and the rest of the boys in Lord of the Flies.
In literature, as in life, people struggle with the principles and beliefs they hold. In the novel, Lord of the Flies, by William Golding, Ralph represents order, civilization, and leadership. On the island, Ralph is conflicted with his principles and beliefs that he has acquired over the years of living in a civilized and humane world and is caught between holding on to them or submitting to the barbarism that seems to have taken over the other boys.
This fire, their only hope of getting off the island, escaping this world, was out and there was no way for Ralph to start it. He was the only one who was sound enough to use the fire to get off, and the tribe had stolen it from him. While all this built up and eventually turned into a war, the anarchy of the world actually freed them from what they had been living. When rebellion and chaos had tried to catch order and destroy it, they started a fire, a new hope, that saved them from the island.
Lord of the Flies is a novel written by William Golding in 1954 about a group of young British boys who have been stranded alone together on an island with no adults. During the novel the diverse group of boys struggle to create structure within a society that they constructed by themselves. Golding uses many unique literary devices including characterization, imagery, symbolism and many more. The three main characters, Ralph, Piggy, and Jack are each representative of the three main literary devices, ethos, logos, and pathos. Beyond the characterization the novel stands out because of Golding’s dramatic use of objective symbolism, throughout the novel he uses symbols like the conch, fire, and Piggy’s glasses to represent how power has evolved and to show how civilized or uncivilized the boys are acting. It is almost inarguable that the entire novel is one big allegory in itself, the way that Golding portrays the development of savagery among the boys is a clear representation of how society was changing during the time the novel was published. Golding is writing during
Much of history’s most renown literature have real-world connections hidden in them, although they may be taxing uncover. William Golding’s classic, Lord of the Flies, is no exception. In this work of art, Golding uses the three main characters, Piggy, Jack, and Ralph, to symbolize various aspects of human nature through their behaviors, actions, and responses.
In the Lord of the Flies, William Golding uses characters to convey the main idea of his novel. The story begins with a war, and a plane carrying several young boys, who are being evacuated, is shot down from the sky. There are no adult survivors; however; the boys were brought together by Ralph blowing on the conch shell. They formed a tribe to stay alive. Slowly the stability and the sense of safety in the group started to deteriorate, similar to the downfall of societies during World War II. They are not only hunting animals now, but they are killing each other like savages in order to stay alive. This action of killing is like Hitler during World War II and his persecution of Jews during the Holocaust.
Imagine a group of young boys who have just crash-landed on a deserted tropical island with no adults or supervision. William Golding showed in his ground breaking novel Lord of the Flies, what may happen in just those circumstances. In his very complicated and diverse novel Golding brings out many ideas and uses many literary devices. Above all others though comes symbolism of three main important objects being the conch, fire, and "Piggy's" eyeglasses. Through each of these three symbols Golding shows how the boys adapt and change throughout the novel. These symbols also help to show each of the boy's ideals on a variety of elements from human nature to society and its controls. All three of these symbols also change and are one of the most important elements of the story.
One of the main themes in William Golding's 1954 novel Lord of the Flies is that without civilization, there is no law and order. The expression of Golding's unorthodox and complex views are embodied in the many varied characters in the novel. One of Golding's unorthodox views is that only one aspect of the modern world keeps people from reverting back to savagery and that is society. Golding shows the extreme situations of what could possibly happen in a society composed of people taken from a structured society then put into a structureless society in the blink of an eye. First there is a need for order until the people on the island realize that there are no rules to dictate their lives and take Daveers into their own hands. Golding is also a master of contrasting characterization. This can be seen in the conflicts between the characters of Jack, the savage; Simon, the savior; and Piggy, the one with all the ideas.
The Lord of the Flies depicts a human race through its dynamic characters, which embody a combination of logic, goodness, violence, and anarchy. Ralph, the protagonist of the novel, is the “public face of civilization” (Anjum 4). In the beginning of the novel, naïve, young Ralph hopes to construct some form of civilization into the boys to attain rescue. However, as the novel progresses, Ralph becomes vulnerable to the savagery and anarchy of the other boys on the island. In The Lord of the Flies, Golding demonstrates this struggle between savagery and civilization through the characterization of Ralph, an innocent child who is forced into maturity by his experiences on the island.
One of the most important themes running through the whole story in Lord of the Flies by William Golding is the power of different symbols. Golding frequently uses symbolism, which is the practice of using symbols, especially by investing in things with a symbolic meaning. The main point of each symbol is its use and its effect on each of the characters. They help shape who the characters are and what they will be. The symbols weave their way throughout the story and are more powerful than they first seem.
Lord of the Flies provides one with a clear understanding of Golding's view of human nature. Whether this view is right or wrong is a point to be debated. This image Golding paints for the reader, that of humans being inherently bad, is a perspective not all people share. Lord of the Flies is but an abstract tool of Golding's to construct the idea of the inherent evil of human nature in the minds of his readers. To construct this idea of the inherent evil, Golding employs the symbolism of Simon, Ralph, the hunt and the island.
In the novel Lord of the Flies by William Golding, symbolism and allegories were used to show how the children who are stranded on an island have a huge struggle with civilization and savagery. Ralph, Piggy, Jack, and Simon are the ones in the novel that struggle with this the most.