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Symbolism in Lord of the Flies
Symbolism of the novel Lord of the flies
Lord of the flies symbolism essay introduction
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Karen Wong
Period 3
10.8.14
LOTF Essay #1
There are many things in the world that can gain power. However, many people have different points of views on the attainment of power.
In Lord of the Flies, William Golding portrays how people, ideas, and objects can gain power when people acknowledge to their having power.
An object that had power over social organization, communication, and authority in Lord of the Flies was the conch. From the start, the conch had been an important tool in bringing the boys together. The second that Ralph had successfully blown the shell, a community had been slowly developed on the island. Later on, when Jack and Ralph were against each other for the role of chief, it was conch that decided it for the
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boys. “The being that had blown that, had sat waiting for them on the platform with the delicate thing balanced on his knees, was set apart” (Golding 59). Immediately after the boys saw Ralph sitting there with the conch, they were drawn to him, sensing some sense of authority vibes off of him. Ralph was the one who was chosen chief because of his handling with the delicate shell. In this moment, we see how the conch has distinguished Raph from Jack; Jack was not the one who had the shell. As the story progresses, Ralph and the conch becomes important to the “littluns” as well. The littluns (the smaller boys), needed an adult figure, and they looked up to Ralph. “They obeyed the summons of conch, partly because Ralph blew it, and he was big enough to be a link with the adult world of authority” (Golding 59). This event shows how, to the smaller boys, Ralph create the impression of an adult; he had the appearance and size about him, with the support of the conch to give him authority. The beast in the story had gained power because of the boys’ ignorance and their willingness to believe that there was actually a beast.
The boys had been unable to think clearly and their imagination was led astray, eventually leading them to consciously acknowledge that the “beast” was real. Early in the book, after the small community was developed on the island, a claim that a “snake-thing,” or beastie, was roaming around the island. Ralph tries to explain to the boys that there are no such thing, but they wouldn’t have it. A boy cries out, “He still says he saw the beastie. It came and went away again an’ came back and wanted to eat him--” (Golding 36). Despite Ralph’s insistence that he was dreaming, the littluns were doubtful. Eventually, this little claim leads to a whole new beginning of the beast’s power. As the story continues, Jack, Ralph, and Roger goes up the mountain to see the “beast” for themselves. Without confirming that the bowing figure they had seen was an actual beast, they went back down, called an assembly, and had discussed how to deal with the situation. Even Ralph had decided for himself and told Piggy that there was an actual beast, and it is very likely that this was because Jack insisted that there was a beast and Ralph was afraid so he had went along with it. A long while after this, Jack and his hunters march into the forest and hunt for a pig, hoping for a feast. After the hunters’ brutal killing of the sow, Jack declares “This head is for …show more content…
the beast. It’s a gift” (Golding 137). In this moment we see that the head is meant to be a gift for the beast, but later the head becomes the appearance of the beast itself (seen by Simon)—which means that the violence and savagery of the boys ends up making the beast exist physically. The fact that Jack is offering the head for the beast means that the boys have believed that the beast had power, and the sow’s head is being used as a sacrifice. Later on, after Simon’s mistakened death, the hunters group up together on a cliff. The new chief of the hunters, Jack, concludes that the beast was still alive. ‘"Stanley: I expect the beast disguised himself.’ ‘Perhaps,’ said the chief. [...] ‘We'd better keep on the right side of him, anyhow. You can't tell what he might do"’ (Golding 161). Fear, says Golding, is powerful. In this quote, we see how the beast has released fear and caution onto the boys, controlling them and giving them a scare. “The tribe considered this; and then were shaken, as if by a flow of wind. The chief saw the effect of his words and stood abruptly.” Jack has used the fear off the beast to control his hunters. This shows how the beast has developed in power. Golding had also brought forth the idea of painted faces to give people the adaptation of power.
He describes how, once after Jack had masked his face, he became a whole new person. Early in the book, Jack had wanted to camouflage himself to blend with the forest. But when Jack had just finished painting his new face, he had looked at his reflection and was troubled by what he found, or what he couldn’t find. “He looked in the pool for his reflection, but his breathing troubled in the mirror” (Golding 63). This statement shows how Jack will soon come to realize that he can gain power by changing his face. It doesn’t just make Jack look like something else, it actually makes him into something else. It creates a savage. Jack isn’t the choir leader anymore with the paint on his face, he is looking to be the new chief in power. A few moments later, Jack looked at no longer himself but as an “awesome” stranger. He was awakened to his power at this moment, and the power progresses throughout the book. He begins to laugh excitedly, and we can see that his actions have changed. “He began to dance and his laughter became a bloodthirsty snarling. He capered toward Bill, and the mask was a thing of its own, behind which Jack hid, liberated from shame and self-consciousness” (Golding 64). The old Jack we had once knew, the choirmaster and the schoolboy, had been immediately replaced by a savage-like human being, compelling the other boys, because of the painted mask. He knows that it
is going to to give power over the others. A while afterwards, as mentioned before, the killing of the sow takes place. After the kill, Jack stands up and holds out his hands. He told the others to look. “He giggled and flecked them while the boys laughed at his reeking palms. Then Jack grabbed Maurice and rubbed the stuff (blood) over his cheeks” (Golding 135). After the boys kill the mother pig, they smear their faces with her blood. The mask formed by blood distances the boys from the event. Their actions won’t feel or seem as horrifying to them if they aren’t themselves. They are hidden behind the mask, conscious of the fact that the mask had the power of shielding themselves from the savage actions that they have done. As the story progresses, after a long chain of events, Piggy, Ralph, and Samneric decides to march towards the hunters to get Piggy’s specs back after it was stolen by the hunters to make their own fire. However, Eric hesitates and brings up a noteworthy point. He brings up the fact that the hunters will be painted, and he was afraid. The others had realized this up to now. “They understood only too well the liberation into savagery that the concealing paint brought” (Golding 172). From these words, we can see how painted faces can “liberate” the boys into savagery, freeing and giving them power to act in a way that authority would have allowed. The paint represents the savage and power within them. In Lord of the Flies, William Golding uses people, ideas, and objects to show how they gain power when enough people believe to their having power.
The influence of power, or “power hungry”, has had a huge effect on many people who feel that they must be in charge. These people often have trouble being told no or being told that they can’t be in charge. People throughout history have done it in many ways. Our own government displays this when we elect a new president every four years. These candidates often tell the public what they want to hear and how they’ll make it a better place, when, in reality, they only mean half of it and they just want to be able to have the power of the president. In the novel Lord of the Flies, by William Golding, the antagonist, Jack, shows throughout the book that he craves power and feels that he deserves it more than anybody else.
Authority plays a vital role in the modern world through contrasting forms of government and the struggle for power between leaders. The leader of a society asserts power over its citizens with the aim to create the laws, which hold the society together. Once authority is demolished within a community, the power spreads to its citizens in which total chaos collectively overtakes the society. The process of law-making and a struggle for power takes precedence in William Golding’s allegorical novel, Lord of the Flies, through the conch shell found upon the shore. The conch grants superiority to one member of the group over the others, it is used to call assemblies and assists in choosing the speakers during important meetings. When the conch
The boys’ fear of the beast causes them to pay no attention to their morals and act savagely to defeat it. However, Simon is ultimately able to understand the beast and avoid savagery because his embrace of nature allows him to avoid any fears of the island. Simon demonstrates this lack of fear when he climbs the mountain by himself in order to find the beast, despite the dangers that might await him. The hunters and even Piggy and Ralph want to avoid the mountain because that is the last place where the beast was seen, but Simon seems to Once he reaches the top, he finds a physical beast, but not the kind the boys were expecting: a dead parachutist. The parachutist serves as an ironic symbol of Simon’s understanding; the monster the boys were afraid was a human. In contrast, Piggy displays immense fear throughout the novel, especially about Jack. For most of the story, his appreciation of logic and order help him remain civilized, but eventually his fears overcome him and he acts savagely the night of Simon’s murder. As Golding states, “[Piggy and Ralph] found themselves eager to take place in this demented but partly secure society….[the crowd] leapt on the beast, screamed, struck, bit, tore” (136). After this occurrence and the theft of his glasses, Piggy decides to
Before he would go hunting Jack felt that he needed to disguise himself in the forest. So he painted his face with red and white clay as well as some charcoal. This is seen when “Jack planned his new face. He made one cheek and one eye-socket white, then he rubbed red over the other half of his face and slashed a black bar of charcoal across from right ear to left jaw,” (Golding 68). It doesn’t get more straightforward than this. It is very obvious that Jack is showing his wild side. He wanted to be camouflaged while hunting but it is deeper than that, the red and white paint on his face is a direct result of a punishment free life. There is no way that in society he would be accepted as normal, but most likely a deranged lunatic. His inner animal is coming out which as we know from reading the book does not end well for a few characters. This painting of a face not only shows the other boys Jack’s true nature within, but also told Jack it was ok to act like that. This allowed him to turn into a complete savage by adding to the behavior making it even more
Democratic power can be used to control a society, as well as to establish a closeness among civilians. To lose sight of this can mean the corruption of a civilization caused by the lack of order. One’s choice of independence over the reliance on others in order to better the chances of their survival requires complete dedication and willingness to take risks. In William Golding’s Lord of the Flies, Ralph loses his democratic power due to his failure to ensure survival and protect the boys as a leader. Ralph’s failure to lead the group is due to his inability to compete with Jack and gain followers, mostly because of Jack’s reign of fear. Ralph’s integrity enables a growing confidence in his ability to avoid reliance on leadership power in
In ‘Lord of the Flies’ and ‘The Tempest’ William Golding and William Shakespeare both present a strong theme of power throughout both of the literary texts including power represented through fear and through nature.
William Golding’s timeless classic, Lord of the Flies, reflects Philip Zimbardo’s observations on the power of power through the transformation and development of the character Roger and his personality. The more power available to Roger, the more savage he becomes until it reaches a point where he can violently murder a peer and put his head on a stick for all to see and feel no remorse. Power can corrupt even the greatest of men and if a man can have power and not be corrupt, he has passed the ultimate test of character.
Power is very dangerous, as shown in William Golding’s Lord of the Flies. The novel explores the use of power in both the hands of good and evil and for success and for failure. Also, how some characters respond to having power. An examination of William Golding’s LOTF will show how fear is powerful and how the characters use that to their advantage. Also, the power shifts between the characters and the aftermath of that.
All of this fear starts at one of the very first assemblies when a littlun says that he saw a beastie in the forest. "Now he says it was a beastie" (35). Everyone is already a little afraid of being on the island alone, without any adults, but this makes them even more scared. Ralph, the chosen leader, feels this fear and notices it among the other boys. He tries to reassure the others as well as himself with, "You couldn't have a beastie, a snake-thing, on an island this size. You only get them in big countries, like Africa, or India" (36). He continues trying to ease the fear by ending the conversation of beasties with, "...I tell you there is no beast" (36). In addition, Ralph tries to have an optimistic look on rescue, and talks of fun on the island to help the children stay calm.
Lord of the flies, William Golding best exemplifies the theme of the power through the conch shell and the pigs had as both control the boy’s emotions and actions throughout the course of the novel.
Beforehand, everything was all fun and games on the island, and Piggy was the only one that actually worried about anything. However, the idea of the beast brought fear to them again and again. Whether it was when it was first mentioned as a snake, or when it was thought to come from the sea, or when it was guessed to be ghosts, the idea of something being there at the island made the boys afraid even though there was no actual evidence of the beast. Golding wrote, “‘He says in the morning it turned into them things like ropes in the trees and hung in the branches. He say will it come back tonight?’ ‘But there isn’t a beastie!’ There was no laughter at all now and more grave watching.’” At the idea there there was some sort of mysterious fearsome monster that might come after the boys, the previously joyous atmosphere quickly bursted as fear settles on them. Though the beast only symbolized fear in the beginning, by the latter parts of the novel, it had become a representation of the savagery within a human. Simon was the first one to notice, at how he pointed out how maybe the beast lived within themselves. Also, Jack’s bloody offering to the beast, the sow’s head, represented how the darkness has taken over the hunters. Their belief in the beast strength as their savagery increased, it was almost as if they worshipped it, leaving offerings and such. Also, the Lord
Give him a mask, and he will tell the truth” – Oscar Wilde. Initially, Golding used these masks as a simple tool for the boys to use for hunting, but soon enough, these masks were used by the characters in the text to hide behind and camouflage from prey. But as Jack’s dictatorship role became more define, so too did the real intentions of the masks. As this group formed under the collective goal to hunt for meat, each member would gain a mask, so as to be allowed to partake in the hunt. But this also was a sign that they were now a part of the group, and that no longer were they a Jerry, or a Tommy, but now they were a hollow, faceless person, who was now the eyes and driving life force of the group. Any new action from now on, that the individual undertook, could no longer be linked to that single person, but was now linked to the whole group. Also, all actions had to be justified to be “for the greater good of the group”. This allowed the boys to do much more daring deed than before. Although they were still confined to the limits at which the group found acceptable, it still allowed them to steal the fire, trample shelters, and beat others. This is due to fact that if a small number of people from the group found that action acceptable, then the whole group would have to agree. Therefore anyone could do unspeakable actions. “The mask was a thing of its own, behind which Jack hid, liberated from shame and
The reader meets Jack and his fellow choir members as Golding continues the introduction. From the first moment the reader meets Jack, they know he is a natural leader. He comes marching his choir mates down the beach in a crisis with a complete and calm demeanor, showing the audience right from the beginning that this book is
Power is not generally bad, but each individual contains an evil desire to posses it, and with this
There are several sources of power, some of them are authority, reward, expertise, and coercion.