The Enforcers of Civilization In William Golding’s Lord of the Flies numerous symbols revolve around the cen- tral theme of civilization against savagery. This theme may be paraphrased as law and order ver- sus chaos, advancement opposed to degeneration and essentially, good versus evil. The events that occur on the island reflect the correlation between civility and goodness as opposed to sav- agery and evil. Many of the positive events that arise on the island are associated with the sym- bols of Piggy’s glasses, the conch and the signal fire which all have civil ties to the world the boys left behind. Piggy’s glasses are the last remnants of the rational and intellectual society from the boy’s past. When the spectacles are intact the events …show more content…
This implies that by reinventing fire, the boys climb the ladder of inventions and discoveries which promotes their standings of evolution. Since civilized ac- tions are associated with positive events, the advancement from the glasses is favourable. Fur- thermore, the symbol of Piggy’s spectacles contribute to events of rationality which ties into civi- lization and the positive events that occur on the island. Piggy’s reasoning and logic are exempli- fied when he criticizes the boys’ ability to prioritize when lighting the fire, “...he laughed so strangely that they were hushed, looking at the flash of his spectacles... ‘How can you expect to be rescued if you don't put first things first and act proper?” (43-45). This suggests that Piggy’s glasses give him the ability to see why sensibility is essential in making sound decisions. This civilized insight acts as a positive form of guidance on the island. Moreover, Piggy’s glasses pro- vide innovative concepts that enhance civilization and circumstances on the island. Piggy sug- gests that the conch can be used as a trumpet to “call the others [and] have a meeting” (12). Pig- gy’s glasses give him the knowledge of how to use the conch that the other boys lack. This idea to congregate the boys is ingenuity that originates from the glasses themselves and improves the boys’ lives on the island. The practical progressions that the glasses have established permit the boys to continue their urbane …show more content…
The shell’s symbolism is responsible for Ralph being elected chief which effectively prevented chaos from ensuing because there was one respected civil voice to work for the good of the group. Civilized values are also instilled through the shared power of the conch. As chief, Ralph decides that whoever wishes to share their opinions “...can hold it when he’s speaking [and] won’t be interrupted” (31) by anyone except himself. The conch gives everyone a chance to voice their opinions and concerns. This brings about civilized and positive events to occur because the minorities of the weak and little ones are justly represented. The civilized at- tribute of order is established in the boy’s society through the conch as well. Since the children were left to their own devices the conch assisted Ralph to make “...a meeting. So [the boys] can decide what to do.”(17). The plan of action that is created in advance keeps all the boys orga- nized and in agreement to running the society in the same civil and positive manner. The boys have established a makeshift civilization with leadership which will suffice until they are res-
Piggy was the one boy in the novel who has all the knowledge. Despite his asthma and obese problem, Piggy never failed to contribute his cerebral and intelligent ideas. He came up with all the ideas on how to survive and tried to keep the group organized and civilized. The glasses of Piggy symbolized his knowledge and smartness.
When Piggy’s glasses break in half, it symbolizes the boy's descent into savageness. Glasses, by definition¹, are “a pair of lenses used to correct or assist defective eyesight for an individual with vision problems.” Obviously, these glasses are only effective when the lenses are not broken, and this principle also applies in The Lord of the Flies. In The Lord of the Flies, the goal of the boys is to survive, and get rescued off of the island. To get rescued off of the island and therefore survive, Ralph decides that the boys need a fire, to make a smoke signal so passing ships or planes can spot them. They use the lenses of Piggy’s glasses to start this fire. When Jack lets this fire go out when he is out hunting for a pig, Ralph gets very angry, because the passing ship could have rescued them. This leads to the first fight as a result of the boy's’ newfound savageness. This fight leads to Piggy’s glasses breaking for the first time. Piggy’s glasses break again when Jack’s group steals them in a bid to start a fire of their own. “I just take the conch to say this. I can’t see no more and I got to get my glasses back.
...ing the boys know that if they do not stay prim and proper, rescue will be the last thing on their minds. Piggy is the brains of the group, he is the one with all the answers. When the boys first start the fire they want smoke, but Piggy is the only one who knows why, “Course we have. ’Cos the smoke’s a signal and we can’t be rescued if we don’t have smoke” (Golding 173). Ralph’s boys all just want to get off the island at this point, they are tierd of fighting Jack and his sneaky devious ways of getting what he wants. By stealing the glasses he has an edge on everyone and the power of fire, so Piggy is trying to come up with a way to keep the smoke signal going so they can still attract any passing ships attention. With all of Piggy’s genius ideas he shares with the boys to stay safe and civil on the island, he really is not paid back with the respect he deserves.
His glasses symbolize many different things in the novel. First, they symbolize hope. Piggy’s specs are what the boys are using to light their signal fire, and without their fire, there is no hope for them of ever being rescued from the island. Therefore, the only hope that the boys have of leaving the island is in the balance of the condition of Piggy’s glasses. Without them being in good enough condition to use to make a fire, then there would be no hope of them ever leaving the island.
Ralph is one of the few boys who realize that the only way to survive is through peace and order. Because he summons the boys at the beginning of the novel with the conch he and Piggy find, they look upon him as the most responsible of the boys and elect him as a chief over the humiliated Jack. Ralph creates a stable and peaceful society for the children to live; this significantly bothers Jack because he wants to have fun and do things that he never did back in the civilized society. Jack is eventually successful of pulling nearly all of the children out of Ralph’s control to form savages. Ralph represents the civilization, and Jack represents the primitive society.
The kids' fear of not being rescued from the island led the group to the top of the mountain to make signal fires. They used Piggy's glasses in order to make that fire:
...ally it shows us that this was not a place intended for human life. By the end of the novel they have set the entire island on fire. Piggy’s glasses breaking means that he cannot see the world as he once did, and that his insight is slowly fading. Piggy however remains himself until his death.
The first point proving how Piggy represents the rational adult figure on the island is how his approach on surviving is that of what an adult would do. At the beginning of the book, Piggy maturely takes on the job of writing down the names of all the children. He also “moved among the crowd, asking names and frowning to remember them” (14). Through the eyes o...
The glasses that Piggy wears are also very important to the boy’s survival and getting off the island, as the glasses create fire. Along with fire comes warmth and smoke. The smoke is a very vital part as the ongoing ships can see the smoke and then the ship can rescue the boys.
Even though Piggy does not agree to lend the other boys on the island his glasses to start the fire it, it brought hope. In the book Ralph suggests, “ His specs-use them as burning glasses!” (40). When they use the glasses to start the fire all the boys are excited and filled with new hope. PIggy's glasses truly brought hope because they planed to make smoke with the fire so they could be rescued. Without piggy and his glasses
fun on the island. Piggy represents the logical side of humans by his thick glasses (called specs in the novel) so he responds to the chaos with a plea of order.
When Piggy is clearly able to see with the help of the glasses the boys are still fairly civilized. For example, at one of their first meetings, the boys decide that they "can't have everybody talking at once" and that they "have to have there hands up' like at school" (Golding, 33). However, after some time passes, the boys become more concerned with slaughtering a pig than with being rescued and returning to civilization. Returning, from a successful hunt in the jungle chanting "Kill the pig. Cut her throat. Spill her blood," Ralph and Piggy attempt to explain to the boys that having meat for their meals is not as important as keeping the signal fire burning (Golding, 69). With anger, Jack knocks Piggy glasses off from his face, smashing one of the lenses against rocks and obviously impairing his vision. William Golding uses Piggy's glasses as a symbol of civilization and when they break it is like that the
Two boys from similar upbringings can both be so drastically different when put in difficult situations and given things to make them wield power, among others. Spitz says, “But his desire for many controls did not, of course, extend to controls he disliked, to those over himself. These glasses are very symbolic. They don’t just represent Piggy, but all the boys and how they must survive on the island, although they do not realize its importance yet.
People are privileged to live in an advanced stage of development known as civilization. In a civilization, one’s life is bound by rules that are meant to tame its savage natures. A humans possesses better qualities because the laws that we must follow instill order and stability within society. This observation, made by William Golding, dictates itself as one of the most important themes of Lord of the Flies. The novel demonstrates the great need for civilization ion in life because without it, people revert back to animalistic natures.
Two important symbols of civilization, the conch and the glasses, are closely followed throughout the action. As the civilized life breaks up on the island, the glasses are broken and stolen, and the conch is crushed. Piggy, who wears the glasses and carries the conch, is killed.