Heggem 1
Homer Heggem
Mrs.Pomeroy
Advanced English
Lord of the Flies Symbolism
If you were trapped on an island with other people of the same age and gender, do you
think that you would turn savage as fast as the boys in LOTF did? William Golding uses
symbolism many times in LOTF(Lord of the Flies) that always relate back to the theme of
savagery and civilization. In the next paragraphs there will be 3 different types if symbolism that
all relate back to savagery or civilization, The Fire, The Conch Shell, and The Beast.
The fire is one of the most complicated symbol because of the mass amount of meanings.
The most important part of it is how it symbolizes civilization because of their hope of rescue
from the signal fire. The signal fire is one of the most important things in the book that Ralph
wants to keep going. There "was a ship. Out there. You said you'd keep the fire going and you let
it out!" (Golding 70). Ralph getting mad at Jack shows that there is still civilization because of
the anger he gets for letting their only hope of rescue to be ruined. This shows how fire
symbolizes civilization and savagery.
At the very beginning of the book Piggy and Ralph find a shell and they blow in it to see
if there are anymore survivors. After all the boys(survivors) group up after the shell is blown, it
is like a microphone that grants one person who gets to speak. The shell represents civilization in
the sense that they are setting rule of law by establishing a meeting caller and a microphone.
Also during LOTF when Piggy has the shell nobody cares what he has to say. Piggy wants to
keep the rules and create rule of law. Piggy tells Jack "I got the conch," said Piggy indignantly.
Heggem 2
"You let me speak!"(Golding 32 ) Jack wants to establish a rule against it and make him seem
savage by yelling"The conch doesn't count on top of the mountain," said Jack, "so you shut
up."(Golding 32). This represents civilization and savagery even though it was created to keep
civilization and rule of law but did the opposite after Jack started to not follow the rules put
down.
The beast in LOTF is a symbol of savagery. Throughout the book Simon is the only one
who knows that the beast isn't real it is just the savagery in everyone taking over. As the boys go
more and more savage the beast seems even more real. The boys are the ones portraying the
beast and savagery. Simon is mistaken as the beast and is brutally murdered by the all of the
boys. This is a big example of how the beast has turned all of the boys savage. The beast
represents a fuse to a powder keg meaning that the beast sped of the process of full savagery.
How the boys are getting scared and taking precautions while hunting is also and example of
civilization because the beast is the unknown to them.
The Fire, Conch Shell, and The Beast are all examples of savagery and civilization.
William Golding uses symbolism many times in LOTF(Lord of the Flies) that always relate back
to the theme of savagery and civilization. Every single symbol displayed are all tied to the theme
of savagery and civilization. The fire symbolizes good and evil as well as savagery and
civilization. The Conch shell symbolizes civilization and rule of law. The beast symbolizes evil
and savagery, the fear it creates makes it civilized as well.