What Does The Pig's Head Symbolize In Lord Of The Flies

Lord of the flies

In the famous novel, "Lord of the flies", William Golding creates and uses certain symbols to show the darkness in the heart of humanity through the thought of young boys. Symbols such as the pig’s head,the hunters face paint and the beast and allow Golding to show how evil and darkness can take over someones life.

Firstly, one of the main symbols of lord of the flies is the pig's head that throughout the novel is referred to as lord of the flies. When the pig is described its creates a graphic image in the mind of the reader the pig's head is described as "dim-eyed, blood blackening between the teeth," and is covered with a "black blob of flies" that "tickled under his nostrils" (Golding,152). This shows that the lord of the flies symbolizes evil and darkness because of how it is described . When Simon speaks to the lord of the flies it tells him, "Fancy thinking the beast was something you could hunt and kill!... You knew, didn't you? I'm part of you?" (p. 158). Shortly after this Simon faints seeing “ blackness within, blackness that spread” (p.159). This can be interpreted as darkness had taken over the whole island and is a part of everyone who is on it.

Secondly, The use of face paint demonstrates how the hunters and everyone using face paint have come to forget their civilised behaviours and how they have given in to their natural desires and darkness from within.

An example of this would be when jack paints his face and suddenly becomes more savage. "He began to dance and his laughter became a bloodthirsty

snarling"
(p. 64). In any other setting, Jack would never under any circumstances behave in this manner, but because of the face paint Jack feels free to let his most inner urges and instincts come out.

The beast is an important symbol throughout the novel. To many of the boys the beast is source of evil on the island. As the evil within each and everyone of the boys begins to progress, their life on the island gets worse. During an argument over the reality of a beast, simon shares his belief with the others. Simon tells them, "Maybe, maybe there is a beast… maybe it's only us" (p.89). The other boys immediately begin to argue in response to Simon’s thoughts. The crowd gives a "wild whoop" when Jack scolds Ralph, saying "If there's a beast, we'll hunt it down! We'll close in and beat and beat and beat!" (p. 91). They’re desires to kill the beast shows no matter how innocent little children might be they have all given into their primal instincts which has caused them to lose all sense of civilisation .

In conclusion, “Lord of the flies” show us that darkness has the ability to awaken the evil within our hearts. the symbols shown by golding are important to story themes and ideas.