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Symbolism is the practice of investing things with a symbolic meaning, or by expressing the invisible or intangible by means of visible or sensuous representations; in other words, discussing or explaining a broader, more general topic by linking it symbolically with a specific event in a literary work. Time after time and novel after novel, authors since the beginning of literature have used symbolism to present ideas, concepts, emotions, moods, and many other feelings. Symbolism involves the quest for reality beyond the physical world. In Lord of the Flies, William Golding uses parallelism and symbolism to tell a story about boys on an island that create their own society to survive alone. The island itself is the most significant symbol in the novel because it represents mankind in its entirety, and the boys on the island represent a microcosm of humans. Golding uses these boys as an attempt to trace the defects of society back to the defects of human nature.
Three of the most important things in a society are government, higher faith, and intelligence, all of which Golding addresses in his microcosm. It may be noted that a good part of Golding s novel analyzes the negative consequences of complete permissiveness in human beings. However, the foundation of every successful society is a strong government. Conversely, a failing society on the verge of destruction is probably functioning on a corrupt government. In Lord of the Flies, Ralph represents the typical democratic leader that is most likely to aid the boys survival and rescue from the island, supported by appearance and popularity. Despite the fact that other boys were more qualified to be the chief, they all noticed that there was a stillness about Ralph as he sat that marked him out: there was his size, and attractive appearance; and most obscurely, yet most powerfully, there was the conch.
This powerful conch becomes a symbol of order as it is used to call meetings and preserve order during the meetings. It becomes a sacred talisman to the boys, but through the progression of the story, the fate of the conch is ultimately the fate of civilized life on the island. As time advances, the conch is less and less successful in maintaining order until it is finally, and violently crushed into a thousand white fragments, and ceased to exist, symbolizing the end of any remaining order on the island. Behind all the terror and savagery is the primitive leader, Jack, who is largely responsible for the heinous course of action by the savage island boys. This leader of the hunters and savages is the quickest to repress any noble instincts and embrace a life of barbarism. Primarily, Jack represents the dictator of a country, who possesses dictatorial and compulsory power over the boys, luring most of them to follow his way of living.
He steals power away from Ralph and refuses to cooperate to enhance their chances of survival. Golding s choice of words when describing Jack is particularly noteworthy. At the time of Jack s arrival to the group, he is seen as a something dark fumbling along and is said to shatter silence. Here, Golding uses the forest as a method of relating information about the characters. One can contrast the gaudy bird, the harsh cry, and the abyss of ages found in Jack s jungle to the bars of honey-colored sunlight, wide white flowers glimmering under the light and bright fantastic birds of Simon s jungle.
Abstractly, Jack represents the bestial instinct of the human being unrestrained by any rational control. The only way for Jack to feel secure is to systematically destroy Simon, the conch, and Piggy. Jack s counterpart on the island is most obviously Simon. While Jack represents human primitive instinct, Simon represents a shining hope on the island. Simon s true benevolence and charity offset the pessimism exhibited in the selfish retrogression to savagery seen in most of the boys.
His concern for others is first apparent in the consideration he has for the littles. Simon found for them the fruit they could not reach, pulled off the choicest from up in the foliage, passed them back down to the endless, outstretched hands. This symbolic act is distinctly Christ-like and places an aura of holiness around him. Most importantly, Simon makes a large effort to free the island from the fear of the beast. It is he that knows the truth about the mountain beast and the Lord of the Flies- that there is no beast to fear but themselves. Nevertheless, his agony of learning the truth and facing the fear of the real beast living on the island is in vain when he attempts to tell the rest of the boys about the beast.
He is the island s Christ, offering love, compassion, comfort, and understanding only to be murdered in return. However, in general, this saint-like figure doesn t exist in society and this optimism and faith is clouded by the ultimate destruction of the prophet. Simon s slaughter by the savages itself symbolizes the coming of a wave of evil upon the island that will be insurmountable and not preventable. Most significantly, the presence of intelligence must exist in at least a portion of a society. How often does a completely ignorant population succeed in any way in the world? In the minuscule world existing on the island, Piggy was the symbol of intelligence, knowledge and rational procedure.
Because of his appearance and manner, however, the rest of the group usually ignores him. Nevertheless, Piggy is the only one of the boys that realizes how foolish they re behaving and that it will not get anything accomplished, sees how keeping the fire going is imperative to their rescue, and building shelters is necessary for their survival on the island. Golding uses Piggy as a way to present the dangers of the dangers involved in a society of unbridled freedom. Symbolic of Piggy s role as the intellect is the use of his eyeglasses as a magnifying glass to ignite the dry wood to start the signal fire. The idea of intelligence or knowledge is a figure that is often portrayed as a fire-bringer; common expressions associated with intellect are lamp of knowledge, or fire of inspiration. At the start of the novel, Piggy the intellectual and Ralph the leader form an alliance at the head of the boys.
Later, Jack the dictator smacks Piggy, sending his glasses flying across the rocks. One side s broken, Piggy says calmly after finding them again. At this point, the power within the dictator is coming out and the element of violence casts intelligence aside. Gradually, the dictatorial powers become more potent and eventually overpower the intelligence of Piggy and the common sense of Ralph.
This point in the novel occurs symbolically when Jack and his savages attack and torment Ralph and Piggy with the intention of stealing Piggy s glasses to start their own fire. When Jack and his savages succeed at stealing the remaining lens, they have practically stolen their reason for existing and hoping for a rescue. By the end of novel, Piggy stands alone with Ralph against the savages and eventually meets his demise when Jack s alter ego, Roger, sends a boulder down on Piggy, crushing him viciously. His head open and stuff came out and turned red. Piggy s arms and legs twitched a bit, like a pig s after it has been killed. This description of Piggy s brutal murder brings back the first manifestation of the beast that lies within the human soul.
The blood and power lust prevalent in the savages, which led to the first killing of a pig on the island, culminates in this ultimate murder of a human being. Thus, it can be seen that Golding applied many meanings to the characters and objects in Lord of the Flies. It s one of those few books that is capable of being analyzed and interpreted on various levels. This characteristic of the novel is due to the fact that it deals profoundly and is brutally honest about humans under extreme stress, living in a world with no civilized restraints, being forced to face new and difficult situations and adapt. It is because of this that man s primitive urges are allowed to surface, and Golding does a spectacular job of representing many parts and institutions of the real world into his island microcosm. Three of his most important symbols of human society are the government, people s higher faith or religion, and general intellect.
However, these are only three of the many various symbols in Lord of the Flies, which are associated with people s characteristics, and role in society. Other levels of interpretation include a primitive human viewpoint, a philosophical or psychological perspective, or a completely religious take on the novel. Regardless of the point of analysis, the novel is symbolic of many human characteristics on many levels.
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Research essay sample on Lord Of The Flies Jack Represents
