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The use of symbolism in Lord of the Flies
The use of symbolism in Lord of the Flies
Lord of the flies essay on symbolism
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In Lord of the Flies Golding uses the symbol of a spear to illustrate the power, intimidation and dictatorship. One way that he does this is during Jack’s rise to power. For example, when Maurice hesitantly suggested that the beast may be “up there” Jack immediately “brandished his spear” and said “We’ll kill it” (Golding 116). Maurice was not too confident in the way that he expressed his concern nor did he seem like he was willing to go find the beast, but due to the fact that jack raised his spear he was able to show his power and restore his groups confidence in killing the beast. Weapons always tend to subconsciously make people feel superior over others and make the others feel inferior to them. Additionally, when the group was cooking
These objects symbolize fear, and violence which contribute to Jack’s dictatorship. One object that symbolizes violence is smoke and the fire. Jack doesn’t care about how far the fire reigns, or how many people the fire kills. The fire also resembles that lack of self control he has. By the end his life on the island he has lost all sense of civilization, and has killed other humans. He also doesn’t think about the consequences of the fire, he lost control of the fire, and burned a lot of his remaining food on the island. If they hadn’t been rescued in the next few days the fire might have killed them, or because of lack of food the turned to cannibalism. One symbol that was shown before Jack took thing too far was the storm clouds. Bad weather started to form before Jack tried to show his power. The worst time the storm clouds appeared was right before Simon died. The storm clouds appeared overhead as Piggy, Ralph, and Samneric were sucked into the dance and chanting of “Kill the Pig. Cut her throat. Bash her in.” Unfortunately for Simon, he stumbles into the middle of the ring they have formed and everybody was bottled up and they killed Simon because they didn’t realize who he was. The biggest symbol of fear in the Lord of the Flies is the Beast. The beast inside everybody is what controls people’s minds on the island, once the beast came out in Jack
There are signs and symbols in both novels that show the beginning of barbarism and brutality. In Lord of the Flies, the boys portray inhumane characteristics in painting their faces. Jack, being the archetypal savage, paints his face the symbolic colors of red and black. "For example, when Jack first paints his face to his satisfaction, he suddenly becomes a new, savage person. "He began to dance and his laughter became a bloodthirsty snarling." (Al-Saidi, “Savagery and the Heart of Darkness in William Golding’s Lord of the Flies”). Jack’s transformation into a savage character results in his animalistic behavior. Likewise, Gene’s downfall into a wicked state results in his change of character. He ultimately acts as an archetype of brutality and jealousy. Similarly, “the scornful force of his tone turned the word into a curse” (Knowles) showing that once peaceful words have turned into barbarian, savage-like ones. Overall, the boys barbarian actions resulted in the degeneration of man and the archetypal character of a savage.
For there is the power in losing innocent, there is the power causing the violence. Jack and Ralph are sided on the strong part of the power, and in the beginning, Ralph started with the civilized, innocent boy, but later, the boys become savage and harm each other., being violent. Golding put all the characters as the symbol of turning to savage, but Jack was the main one who Golding put as the symbol of violence. “The painted group moved round Samneric nervously and unhandily....‘Tie them up!’...Now the group... felt the power in their hands...Jack was inspired…‘See? They do what I want (178-179).’” Jack is using the power to cause the violence. He hunted pig and he needed fire to cook it. Since he had no source to light the fire, he sneaks
In Williams Golding’s Lord Of the Flies, Jack’s knife symbolizes totalitarianism in one major way and which is that since he has the knife he has all the power. Just like in totalitarianism events such as the Holocaust, Hitler had all the power since he had all these people backing him up with all his plans. Just like Jack all of Hitler's people backing him up are Jack’s knife because it is the source of what makes him the leader. Although just Jack having the knife does not make it totalitarianism, what he does with it eventually relates to it. For example, Hitler had all those people backing him up and wanting him to continue to do what he did so by him killing all those people and running everything made it totalitarianism.The way Jack's
Ralph, the first character introduced to the audience, is probably the most likable character in the entire story. Although he does not ponder such deeply like Piggy, is not as spiritual like Simon, or as energetic as Jack, there is something in him that attracts the audience. Ralph serves as the protagonist of the story. He is described as being a playful, innocent child in the beginning, but towards the end he matures significantly. In the first chapter where he takes his clothes off and goes swimming like any child would do, he seems to be Adam in the Garden of Eden, a child left to play with the nature.
In William Golding’s Lord of the Flies there are many examples of symbolism. The conch shell represents order, the appearance of the boys represents savagery, and the fire on top of the mountain represents rescue. These examples are all symbols in the book.
After this incident we can see continual conflict between Ralph and Jack. We can see this when Jack proclaims that Ralph, “Isn’t a proper chief.” Golding is trying to show us that this conflict is very similar to the conflict between humanities inner barbarism and the living influence of reason. We can see other evidence of this conflict within ourselves, with the masks that Jack and his hunters put on. We are informed that Jack, “ rubbed the charcoal stick between the patches of red and white on his face” The mask represents the dark line (charcoal) between good (white) and evil (red) within ourselves. These masks also let the boys hide f...
In Lord of the Flies, Golding’s portrayal of Jack’s growing power on the island aligns with Thomas Hobbes’s assertion that humans naturally tend to act violently and contentiously, but Golding’s depiction of Jack as a leader also ridicules Hobbes’s idea of an absolute monarchy.
From the beginning of the novel Jack intimidates the other boys with his flaming red hair, his long black cape, and the brutal way he shouts orders to his choir. Although he is not a good-looking boy, he is amazingly arrogant. He always has to look good in people's eyes. Not that he cares if people like him, but more that they respect him. The only way he knows how to gain people's admiration is by getting them to fear him. He spots Piggy as an easy target and immediately starts to humiliate him in front of the others: "You're talking too much," said Jack Merridew. "Shut up, Fatty."(21) He sizes up Piggy right from the beginning knowing that Piggy wouldn't stand up to him and by making fun of him he was letting the other boys know that he not one to be messed with. When he feels that people are about to think him to be weak or gutless, he uses his knife as if it were a symbol of his superiority: "Jack slammed his knife into a trunk and looked round challengingly"(33). His knife gives him power, a weapon that he would use against anyone who dares to mock him.
Would you be able to resist savagery from being away from society? Could you resist the urging power to kill? How about being able to find food without killing or not to go full savage on other people, could you still do it? A normal person could say no to all of these. In the novel, “Lord of The Flies”, William Golding shows that without civilization, a person can turn into a savage by showing progressively how they went through the seven steps of savagery.
This is evident when Jack wants to put people in punishment if somebody breaks the rules (32). His desire to punish people shows his love of power and dominance. It also reveals that Jack could have been like one of the ambitious leaders in the past history. Another sign of becoming a savage in the society is showing an act of disrespectful to another neighbour, including Piggy. This reveals when Jack mocks Piggy by telling him, “Shut up, Fatty” (17). It also happens when Piggy condemns Jack for “[letting] the fire out”, although Jack makes a promise to “keep the smoke going” (75). However, he became so violent, so angry that he “smacked Piggy’s head” (75). Some of the uncivilized members of the society use their selfish desires, which is not aiming for the common good. For instance, Jack tells Ralph that he successfully “cut the pig’s throat” (73). He said, “There was lashing of blood…you should have seen it!” (73). This suggests that Jack is more concern about hunting rather than getting rescued. Jack, as a savage, uses his ambitious power to put people in punishment, his rude attitude to hurt people, and his way to care more about himself than others. This character greatly exemplifies a savage in the society, but another important symbol that makes a novel an allegory is the
Golding's stress on the negative results of brutality might be perused as a reasonable support of civilization. In the early parts of the novel, he proposes that one of the paramount capacities of socialized public opinion is to give an outlet to the savage driving forces that dwell inside every person. Jack's starting longing to slaughter pigs to show his fort...
...ay savage, and thus making the whole island a savage place. Without symbols, Lord of the Flies would be a different story (Literary analysis: Symbolism in Lord of the Flies, by William Golding).
Throughout Lord of the Flies is a display of humankind’s thirst for power. Most of the boys, for example, transition to savagery and animalistic behaviors to free themselves from powerless lives. Jack, the leader of the hunters, becomes the first of the boys to paint a mask on his face. “Jack planned his new face. He made one cheek and one eye-socket white, then he rubbed over the other half of his face and slashed a black bar of charcoal across from right ear to left jaw…Beside the pool his sinewy body held up a mask that drew their eyes and appalled them. He began to dance and his laughter became a bloodthirsty snarling, behind which Jack hid, liberated from shame and self-consciousness,” (63-64). Under his mask, Jack feels no shame, and therefore is free to indulge in power as he desires. In fact, later in the book, Jack and a few other boys commit one of the ultimate crimes of violence and power—rape (although only metaphorically.) Jack...
In the Lord of the Flies, William Golding uses a variety of symbols to represent ideas, or abstract notions or conceptions about people, places, and things. A symbol, according to the Webster's Dictionary, is an object that stands for something in addition to its literal meaning. In the book, there is a continual breakdown of society and civilization on the island. During this breakdown, Golding uses symbolism to further explain the process. Some of the things he symbolizes in the novel are the island itself, the conch, the boys clothing, and the violence.