Light And Dark Imagery In Lord Of The Flies

Throughout an individual’s life, they go through change. Everything around them can impact the way they grow up, physically and mentally. The environment that an individual is around can influence how he/she acts, either being good or bad. In the Lord of the Flies by William Golding, light and dark imagery demonstrate how the environment impacts an individual’s behavior and feelings.
During the book, Golding uses light and dark imagery to illustrate how the good and evil surrounds and impacts the island and characters to set the mood and to show the significance of how it changes their personalities. Light imagery is typically associated with hope, purity and goodness. Dark imagery is associated with chaos, evilness and fear. On the island, the light and dark imagery symbolizes the good and evil, which drastically impacts the boys. When the boys first arrived on the island, they think the island is a paradise, since there were no parents or rules. Two of the boys, Ralph and Piggy, talked as “spots of blurred sunlight slid over their bodies” (Golding 15). This created a feeling of warmth and safety for them, as they stood in the sand, thinking they were in ‘heaven’. As time goes on,

there was “a blackness that spread” (Golding 144). The growth of evilness begins to show more and more, becoming more visible to the boys, creating fear of the unknown. With this fear spreading, the boys created a monster that lives in the woods, haunting them. The boy with the mulberry colored birthmark announces that “the beastie came in the dark” (Golding 56). The forest is the main source where the fear. The boys are afraid because it’s where they believe the beast lives. The contrast between light and dark imagery shows that the boys started off with the feeling of safety to the feeling of chaos and fear.
Golding foreshadowed that Jack has the capacity to be evil. From the beginning to the end, Jack progressively developed that evilness inside him. He began to change, adapting to the island’s natural way, making him similar to an animal. He “passed like a shadow under the darkness of the tree and crouched” (Golding 49). As he begins to hunt, he developed a hunger to kill, associating him with savagery. He brings evil onto the island because of his violent behavior, he was portrayed as animalistic.Wherever Jack is, there’s darkness. He “came forward, vaulted on to the platform with his cloak flying, and peered into what to him was almost complete darkness” (Golding 20). He represents darkness because he creates chaos and fear. Many of the boys are afraid of him, he is like the beast because he brings evilness, makes people afraid of him, and has power and control over them. The darkness on the island influenced how Jack evolved, though he always had the evil inside, the island helped unleash it.
With the battle between good v.s evil, Jack is the evil and Ralph is the good on the island.

He represents light because he creates a sense of stability for the littluns. He makes a civilization with shelters, food and warmth. Ralph gives the boys hope because of his leadership and determination to get off the island. As darkness is around for Jack, it’s the opposite for Ralph, wherever he is there’s some light. He “lifted the cream and pink shell to his knees and a sudden breeze scattered light over the platform” (Golding 33). This shows the importance of his leadership, that he is he center of attention because he has the conch. Ralph is associated with light because he shows there was hope getting off the island and that impacted his behavior, he kept his rules and

organization.
Light and dark imagery demonstrate how the environment impacts an individual’s behavior and feelings. The effect of light and dark on Jack and Ralph established the sense of morality and how there’s more light than darkness. When an individual goes through change, it affects them and the people they are around. Their actions influence others.