Lord Of The Flies, By William Golding

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How do the effects of good and evil present themselves in society? In “The Lord of the Flies”, an allegory written in 1954, a group of young British boys are stranded on an island, and they are left to fend for themselves and face the struggles of reality. Throughout “The Lord of the Flies”, William Golding uses symbolism to represent the good and evil that the boys face on the island. For instance, throughout the novel, Golding uses specific symbols to portray goodness. Specifically, Golding uses a conch shell to symbolize goodness through order and civilization. At one of the first meetings, the boys realized that they needed rules for who could speak, so they decided to “‘... give the conch to the next person to speak. He can hold it when he’s …show more content…

He started down the mountain and his legs fell beneath him. Even with great care, the best he could do was stagger”(Golding 147). Throughout the whole novel, Simon proved to be completely selfless. His actions symbolize morality and a lack of corruption in humanity. Additionally, Golding shows goodness through the symbol of light. When Simon was killed, his body was left on the beach where “... the creatures made a moving patch of light as they gathered at the edge. The water rose farther and dressed Simon’s coarse hair with brightness”(Golding 154). Golding describes the water taking away Simon’s body with light and brightness because it symbolizes innocence and beauty, like a halo around Simon. By using different symbols, Golding is able to show the goodness that is present in humanity and society. At the same time, Golding also used symbolism to show evil. For example, Golding uses the destruction of the conch to symbolize evil. Since Roger pushed the rock and crushed Piggy, who was holding the conch, “the conch exploded into a thousand white fragments and ceased to exist”(Golding

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