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The use of symbolism in the book Lord of the Flies
The use of symbolism in the book Lord of the Flies
The use of symbolism in the book Lord of the Flies
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The most important technique in the book Lord Of The Flies, by WIlliam Golding, is symbolism. The most significant symbol in the text is fire. The fire throughout the book helps the reader understand hope and savagery.
At the Beginning of the novel fire is used in an attempt to signal a passing ship. As the boys start to build the signal fire they also start to put rules in place. Jack says, ‘we’ve got to have rules and obey them. After all, we’re not savages. We’re English, and the English are best at everything.’ This fire represents the hope on the island, the hope for being rescued. Jack says, ‘fire is the most important thing on the island. How can we ever be rescued except by luck.’ When he says this he is showing the reader that he thinks fire is their only chance of getting off the island, without it they only have luck.
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Towards the end of the novel Jack releases the signal fire on the island.
In the novel is says, ‘He saw a shelter burst into flames and the fire flapped at his right shoulder’ this shows the reader that the fire was vicious. Saying that it burst into flames infers that it was sudden and was not intended. The quote also mentions that you can see it over the right of someone's shoulder. This person was Jack. Jack lit up the island in hopes of killing everyone he did not like. This shows that the fire turns into savagery. Even though the forest fire was intended to kill, it brought more hope. It brought a passing ship.
Throughout the novel fire is used to symbolise hope. Fire helps the reader understand hope on the island, without the fire hope dies out. When the signal fire turns into a forest fire, irony comes into play. A fire that was once used to represent luck was turned into a fire that represented savagery because it was used in an attempt to kill everyone on the island. This is ironic because the forest fire that represents savagery was actually what ended up
saving. Symbolism in the novel Lord Of The Flies helps the reader understand certain aspects of society. The symbol fire helps the reader understand how fast someone can turn from hopeful to savage. Another symbol used in the novel is the Lord Of The Flies, this is a severed pig's head. This symbol helps the reader understand how fast someone can resort to the animal instinct of savagery. In conclusion fire is the most important symbol on the island in the novel Lord Of The Flies. It shows hope for rescue, will to survive and savagery.
The fire is significant because it is the one that gives them the hope that they will get rescued without it everyone would have lost hope that they will get out of there. Throughout
Page seventy-one states, “There was a ship out there you said you’d keep the fire going and you let it out!”(Golding). This shows that they believe that the fire will help them escape the island and the boys desperately cling to the hope fire provides. However, as the story concludes the fire takes on a different meaning: “The whole island was shuddering with flame” (Golding 201). This dark and powerful portrayal of the fire describes a weapon of mass destruction. The atomic bomb was used twice just like the fire. The fire’s symbolism, like others’, shifts throughout the story.
How can we ever be rescued, except by luck, if we don’t keep a fire going? Is a fire too much for us to make?”(80). In the beginning of the novel, the way that the boys maintain the fire is a sign that they want to be rescued and return to society. When the fire burns low or goes out, the boys have seemed to lose sight of their desire to be rescued and have accepted their savage lives on the island. In this way, the signal fire functions as some sort of indicator of the boy’s connection to civilization.
This fire destroyed a big part of the island, thus limiting them on meat or fruits to survive on. This same disaster happened again when Jack and the hunters hunted Ralph, "Now the fire was nearer; those volleying shots were great limbs, trunks even, bursting. The fools! The fools! The fire must be almost at the fruit trees-what would they eat tomorrow" (Golding, 198). They went as far as burning the whole forest to smoke out Ralph. The event, if wasn't for the ships noticing the fire and rescuing them was all but positive, the hunters didn't think as to what would happen next after they burn the forest and kill Ralph. Ralph of course wasn't even a threat to them; Jack feared that Ralph's presence could be disastrous toward his control.
The imagery of fire continues in the story; the building of their fires, how the man molds the fires, and how they stoke the fire. When the boy gets sick the father is referred to many times of how he builds and rekindles the fire. This actual fire is a symbol for the fire that the man and the boy discuss carrying within in them. The man fights to save his son and the fire within the boy
...m the island is if they make smoke. To make smoke, they must build a fire. They decide to put the fire on top of the mountain because it is the highest point on the island and they smoke would be easier to see to passing by ships. Everybody at this point thinks it’s a great idea and thinks is willing to pitch in to get the fire going. They are very enthusiastic and they all want to get of the island as soon as possible. Rescue is the first and only thing that is going through the minds of the boys. Fire also represents civilty because fire is used for warmth, comfort and tool-making. All things that are needed in a civil society and at this point in the novel, the boys are very civil. Jack and some of the other boys are starting to lose will to be rescued. ‘”We can light the fire again. You should have been with us, Ralph. We had a smashing time…”’ (Golding 73)
Ralphs scolding of the boys for not maintaining the fire reveals how while the rules on the island are essential to their survival, the boys still ignore them, showing their early descent into savagery. In the novel Ralph addresses the boys about the fire they were supposed to keep going: “How can we ever be rescued except by luck, if we don’t keep a fire going? Is a fire too much for us to make?”(80). Ralph is
Fire is also referenced throughout the book as a symbol of destruction, connecting to the theme of change, but when preventing change. When one thinks of fire, they think of destruction that is the meaning conveyed from the man-made fire in the book. The fire in the society is used to burn books but on another level, it is linked to the destructive ways of the society. When looking at the women in his society, Montag sees “these women twisting in their chairs under his gaze, lighting cigarettes, blowing smoke, touching their sun-fired hair and examining their blazing fingernails as if they had caught fire from his look. Their faces grew haunted with silence” (Bradbury 92). The fire represents how the ways of the society are killing its citizens,
Imagine a group of young boys who have just crash-landed on a deserted tropical island with no adults or supervision. William Golding showed in his ground breaking novel Lord of the Flies, what may happen in just those circumstances. In his very complicated and diverse novel Golding brings out many ideas and uses many literary devices. Above all others though comes symbolism of three main important objects being the conch, fire, and "Piggy's" eyeglasses. Through each of these three symbols Golding shows how the boys adapt and change throughout the novel. These symbols also help to show each of the boy's ideals on a variety of elements from human nature to society and its controls. All three of these symbols also change and are one of the most important elements of the story.
Symbols: we see them on the street, on the walls, and in our homes, plastered on backpacks, jackets, and even fast food receipts. From the generic images that guide us through our daily lives to the shapes we see on television screens, these symbols are everywhere—and their importance as guides that tell us how to live, what to do and whom to believe is undeniable. Of all of these symbols, perhaps some of the most important are the symbols found in literature. In using simplistic symbols to represent profound ideas, authors construct a kind of “key”: one that allows readers to look past the surface of a story and reflect on the deeper messages beneath. Such is the nature of the symbols found in William Golding’s Lord of the Flies. As a group of boys stranded on an island struggle to survive without adult supervision to maintain order, Golding uses a variety of objects to convey their descent from civilization into brutality, violence, and savagery. Of these objects, three hold particular significance. In Lord of the Flies, Golding uses the conch, the signal fire, and the Lord of the Flies to symbolize civilization, hope for rescue, and inner evil while conveying an overall theme of innate human evil.
When Jack was chosen to keep the fire going, he decides to get meat instead of tending to the fire. His pursuit for killing a pig is symbollizing a sexual desire built into human nature. While he was out pursuing the pig, the fire went out. This symbollized the fact that Jack's sexual desires led him away from hope and deeper into despair.
Fire then would symbolize the rebirth Jack and Mabel experience and the passion that fuels it. The house is "empty" when Jack carries Mabel there, but fire is "burning in the grate." Likewise, "Mabel was unconscious of her surroundings," but "she was conscious of herself.
So, in the beginning of the story, the fire symbolized civilization and hope. However, this was changed when Jack confiscated the fire from Ralph's tribe and used it to help them do more wrongdoings. He set the jungle into fire so that Ralph can burn out. This changed the symbolism of the fire from civilization and hope to evil, savagery, and calamity. However, soon something ironic happened.
William Golding is essentially the king of symbolism and covert delineation. The Lord of the Flies is a novel based around a large handful of English schoolboys becoming stranded on an island that will later become a sadistic dystopia. The boys are left unsupervised with only their ill experienced wits to survive and rule. A power struggle breaks out between two of the main characters, Jack and Ralph, Jack being the antagonist and Ralph being the protagonist of the story. In modern pop culture, Jack and Ralph would compare to an event like North Korea versus South Korea. Lord of the Flies is home to many forms of symbolism, including the importance of Piggy 's glasses, the fire on the island, the sow 's head, the beast and the conch shell; all of these items play a huge role in shaping the story, tone and the mood.
At the beginning of the book the island was described as paradise, a garden of Eden. Examples of some characteristics of the island turning from paradise to hell is, the fire, the mountain, the heat, the fruit, and the lagoon. The fire was like paradise because it was used as a signal for other people and later for warmth but turned bad when, it burned down the island. The mountain was paradise because, it's where the fire was put to be rescued and where they found out they were really on an island. It became hell when, it became the lair of the “beast”. (Where they found the “beast”.) The heat was paradise when, the water was described as warm and nice. It became hellish when it got so hot that they were sunburnt from the heat. For the fruit, it was paradise when, the island smelled like ripeness and fruit but turned to hell when, the boys got stomach aches and diarrhea. The lagoon was good when, it was described as an aquarium but then it was hell when, it was described as a stupendous creature. The island can also symbolize that man destroys beauty because it was perfect and beautiful before and at the end of the book it was being burned to the ground. It's ironic though that how the boys were found was the smoke from the island being burnt. “ «I know. Jolly good show. Like the Coral Island.» Ralph looked at him dumbly. For a moment he had a fleeting picture of the