Lord of the Flies symbolism, conflicts and themes

[mk3500]

Hello all. I'm currently reading Lord of the Flies in my Honors English class right now, and I would like to share some of my views and discuss their accuracy with others, along with hearing their views as well.

Piggy is symbolic of logic and reason. His specs are an extension of this, as when he loses the glasses, he seemingly loses his logic and reason and is condemned to die.

Jack is symbolic of emotion. He brings out the extreme emotion in the boys on the island and leads many of them into savage behavior, such as the murder of Simon.

I see Ralph as the every-man. He seems to be symbolic of balance, as he is balanced by Jack and Piggy, one being extremely logical, and the other being extremely emotional and savage. Ralph is a balanced leader and is eventually the only boy on the island not to be killed/consumed by the evil within himself.

Simon is the Christ-like figure. He stands for pure good. Often he wanders off alone, and at one point, he was standing in the brush, surrounded by darkness, while a bowl of light filled the area he stood in. I feel this conveyed his goodness and the evil the boys surrounding him brought to the island.

The littleuns are very innocent. They were impressionable and easily swayed to one side, often doing what they were told.

Roger seems to be pure evil, based on my class' discussions. I don't have textual evidence for this yet, because I'm a bit behind in reading.

Also, I've noticed a few objects in the story such as Piggy's specs, the fire, the conch shell and a few others. Would anyone care to discuss their meanings?

The statement Golding seems to want to prove is the fact that humans are inherently evil. I agree with this statement, as the boys brought evil to the island. The island began as a beautiful location, and, lucky for the boys, ideal for survival, with trees, fruit, water, meat and shelter among other things. However, as the boys spent more and more time away from civilization and proper guidance, the evil within them began to take over.

[mk3500]

thanks for the help :/

[AZPAZ]

Piggy's glasses also mist when he becomes emotional.

Jack is an evil leader. That he leads is important later. The officer who rescues them is the equivalent of Jack, but in the larger world.

Ralph, though chosen solely by his looks, is a poor leader up until the end. Then he is a leader you would follow. he did participate in the killing of Simon.

You are correct saying Simon is a Christ-figure. He sees and understands. The description of his burial is fitting of someone that much like Christ. He also fought off three temptations from the pig's head (Satan) as did Christ. His death signaled the loss of good on the island.

The littluns are those in society who need care: the children, elderly and others. One of the signs of a failing society was that the littluns were on their own.

Roger is the most evil of the boys. Even Ralph fears him. When he threw rocks at the littluns, he was tempted to not miss. His rock eventually killed Piggy. He participated in the killing of the sow, symbolically the boys raping their mother in a most cruel way. At the end Roger and Jack would have caught Ralph and possibly consume him like the savages they had become.

Piggy's specs; wisdom. Conch: authority, rule of law, order within the society. Fire: hope for rescue,but more importantly,hope the society survives. Pig's head on a stick: Beelzebub (Satan), the darkness in man's heart. The island setting: a microcosm of outside society.

Golding's purpose? Conduct a somewhat controlled experiment to observe the development of and workings within society. Some of the controls were these: all boys and no girls, limited to an island, young and mostly innocent (choir boys), no adults in the experiment itself, there about a year, or six months.

The main morals of the story are to elect good leaders and live by the rules. The theme is probably re the darkness in Man's heart (original sin?). One thing to keep in mind is that although there was near total destruction of good and the society good brings, there is hope. Although rescued by a Roger-type person which might suggest that evil on the island reflects a hopelessness with a world at war, Ralph is now a seasoned leader who recognizes good and ev

[Pompey Bum]

Simon has sometimes been compared to Zarathustra coming down from the mountain to tell the boys that god (the pilot they mistake for a god) is dead. It's an interesting view, although I think Golding always said it was rubbish.

[ennison]

So the island is beautiful... so what. I think you should read more Golding. Try Pincher Martin.

[Eiseabhal]

Well it's Edenic. The boys find it hard to convey its beauty, being inarticulate. The Edenic aspect is ambiguous though as it is isolated and the surrounding ocean is described in terms of implicit threat. It is not that easy to survive there and they do not initially want to remain long. Original Sin is a Christian concept and the novel can be read as an illustration of that but it does not have to be read like that. To some extent Golding was reacting to earlier novelistic accounts of happy family castaways. It is quite a dark book for one set in a place described in such bright colours. I like the end. There is a dark irony that it is a warship from a world at war that rescues them from their own "war". I would agree that reading other Golding texts would deepen your appreciation of this one but Pincher Martin is much too difficult for the average school pupil.

[ennison]

Ok Edenic but not Eden and the sense of threat has to be present for paradisiacal or not it has to be described as a place in this world so it cannot be a place into which they bring evil. But Golding is not writing anything explicitly Christian so if people want to find links they can without upsetting the "meaning" of the text. But it would be hard to take them very far. Useful starting points perhaps. Trouble for me is that breaking down the text in this way is not that enlightening. Some things are obvious but I find it a text where the whole is greater than the sum of its parts. It's a tragedy of course in the true sense.
PS Eiseabhal he said Honors English so whatever the heck that is it suggests to me something more than "average"