Power Symbolism In William Golding's Lord Of The Flies

An anonymous speaker once said: “A building is a symbol, as is the act of destroying it. Symbols are given power by people. Alone, a symbol is meaningless, but with enough people, blowing up a building can change the world.” This subject is revealed in William Golding’s Lord of the Flies, the concept of power and the loss of power is a dominant idea on the island. This is significant because with little to no power, any order on the island becomes an uproar of chaos. This is demonstrated through objects on the island such as the conch, Piggy’s glasses, and lastly, the war paint.

Throughout the text the conch brings the boys together on the island; it’s the first power symbol on the island. It is what brings out the little civilization each

The only way the boys could start the fire is through Piggy’s glasses. The fire that is both incredibly influential and essential in Ralph and Jack Merridew’s eyes, for different reasons, can only be brought from Piggy, the seemingly worthless one in the group. As the text progresses the boys become more savage-like; they disregard Piggy and talk over him. When the boys “borrow” Piggy’s glasses they are civilized, as young boys can get stuck on an island without adults, they tolerate Piggy so the can use his glasses. However, as they start to dislike Piggy’s talk about rules, rescue and no beastie, they find other ways to create a fire and Piggy becomes completely hopeless to them, including his glasses. This also happens in everybody’s lives, maybe not starting a fire with someone’s glasses, but being excluded or excluding someone from something because of how they look. This happens subconsciously, not inviting someone to something because you don’t want to be seen there with them, it might not always be turning them down. This happens with Piggy throughout the text: “‘I’ll come.’ Ralph turned to him. ‘You’re no good on a job like this.’ ‘All the same-’ ‘We don’t want you,’ said Jack, flatly. ‘Three’s enough’”

This can be a good obsession Jack starts; as it protects their innocence from the beasts they become within the mask. However, it turns into a terrible catastrophe that ends in the boys hunting down each other. This is shown in the text when Jack applies the mask for the first time, “He looked in astonishment, no longer at himself but at an awesome stranger... He began to dance and his laughter became a bloodthirsty snarling” (66). The boys are also given too much power with the mask, power that can be used in a good way, but they chose to manipulate each other. The boys can change their personality in the mask by just washing it off and altering the colours and patterns: “He peered at the reflection and disliked it. He bent down, took up a double handful of lukewarm water and rubbed the mess from his face... Jack planned his new face” (66). The power each of the boys acquires from their masks is too much for 12-year-olds, each mask makes the boy a new person they can be bloodthirsty, murderous, killers or savage-lake cavemen that don’t communicate with one another. This happens in everyday lives and throughout this book the reader can experience what it’s like to live in third world countries. Many different ethnic groups and communities over the world use certain paint colours on their skin as a sign of difference from other ethnic groups; Jack’s aggregation does this to differentiate