Perception of Symbols in The Lord of the Flies by William Golding

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Perception of Symbols
In the novel Lord of the Flies by William Golding, the British boys are deserted on an island and get in touch with many features that form symbols of different concepts. Using symbolism through the pig’s head, Piggy’s glasses, the rock, and the beast, William Golding exemplifies that human beings, when set free from communal regulations and prohibitions, enable their natural volume for immorality to control their existence.
Arguably one of the most significant and apparent emblems of the book is the very item that gives the Lord of the Flies its name, the pig’s head. The way Golding illustrates the murder of the swine’s head on a javelin is quite visual and a bit macabre. The head of the pig is portrayed as a "dim-eyed, grinning faintly, blood blackening between the teeth," and the "obscene thing" is covered with a "black blob of flies" that "tickled under his nostrils"(137 & 138). In reaction to the descriptive picture painted for the readers, they become informed of the evil depicted by the “Lord of the Flies.” Once Simon talks to the apparent lifeless, demon-like creature, the origin of that immorality is disclosed. Although the discussion possibly was completely a hallucination, he acquires that the monster, which has made the other boys on the island fearful, it is not an outside power. Actually, the hog head told Simon, "Fancy thinking the beast was something you could hunt and kill! Ö You knew, didn't you? I'm part of you?" (143). Needless to say the immanent fear the boys obtain, represented by the slain pig, is causing the society the boys created on the island to decline. Ending the event, the massive evil symbolized by this cogent symbol can be seen once again as Simon loses consciousness af...

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...e rock strikes Piggy it also crushes the conch shell. Until that point, the conch and Piggy had been only a few of the only symbols to represent civilization and practicality on the island. Nevertheless, when the rock extinguishes both Piggy and the conch, all existing order on the island is diminished as well.

In conclusion, the novel, Lord of the Flies portrays the wicked, deteriorating life as an outcome from humanities inherent magnitude of evil, that is allowed to control individuals once all rules of society are gone. Throughout the story, William Golding utilizes several different articles as symbols to explicate the theme. A few of the objects would absolutely be insignificant in reality and doubtlessly appreciated. However, in this novel, each symbol, the best, pig’s head, Piggy’s spectacles and the rock, are all essential to The Lord of the Flies theme.

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