Symbols and Symbolism in Lord of the Flies :: Lord Flies Essays

Symbolism in overlord of the Flies   In William Goldings master key of the Flies, the boys who are stranded on the island come in contact with galore(postnominal) unique elements that symbolize ideas or concepts. Through the use of symbols such as the beast, the pigs head, and even Piggys specs, Golding demonstrates that humans, when liberated from societys rules and taboos, allow their natural capacity for brutal to require their existence.   One of the most important and most obvious symbols in manufacturing business of the Flies is the object that gives the story its name, the pigs head. Goldings description of the slaughtered animals head on a spear is very graphic and even frightening. The pigs head is depicted as dim-eyed, grinning faintly, blood blackening between the teeth, and the obscene thing is cover with a black blob of flies that tickled under his nostrils (William Golding, Lord of the Flies, bare-ass York, Putnam Publishing Group, 1954, p. 137, 138). As a result of this detailed, striking image, the reader becomes sensitive of the great evil and darkness represented by the Lord of the Flies, and when Simon begins to talk about with the seemingly inanimate, devil-like object, the source of that wickedness is revealed. Even though the conversation whitethorn be entirely a hallucination, Simon learns that the beast, which has long since frightened the other boys on the island, is not an external force. In fact, the head of the slain pig tells him, trick thinking the beast was something you could hunt and kill Ö You knew, didnt you? Im part of you? (p. 143). That is to say, the evil, epitomized by the pigs head, that is create the boys island society to decline is that which is inherently present within man. At the sack of this scene, the immense evil represented by this powerful symbol keister once again be seen as Simon faints after looking into the grand mouth of the pig and seeing blackness within, a blackness that ext end (p. 144).   Another of the most important symbols used to present the theme of the novel is the beast. In the imaginations of many of the boys, the beast is a tangible source of evil on the island. However, in reality, it represents the evil naturally present within everyone, which is causing life on the island to deteriorate. Simon begins to realize this even before his encounter with the Lord of the Flies, and during one argument over the existence of a beast, he attempts to handle his insight with the others.