Did You Know?

William Golding's Lord of the Flies was written as a reaction to R.M. Ballantyne's The Coral Island, even using a similar setting as well as names. However, in The Coral Island, the boys remain civilized till the end, while in Lord of the Flies, the boys descend quickly into barbarism without any adult supervision.

The novel opens at an unspecified war time, when a group of British boys, aged 6 - 12, are stranded on an island in the Pacific ocean. In a plane crash, they are the only survivors. With no adults around, the boys are left to fend for themselves. One of the boys, Ralph, finds a conch on the seashore, and is thus elected as the chief of the young boys. They decide to build a fire to signal to any passing ship, for their rescue. All the boys, except Jack, who was already a chief sort for the choir boys, were coping under Ralph's leadership. Boys like Simon help him build shelters for all of them. The trouble begins when the young boys recount the tales of the island beast. The older ones tease them, though all the boys are actually afraid of the beast. One day, Jack lured the boys to go pig hunting. While the boys go for the hunt, they miss their rescue as no one is left tending to the fire. Jack becomes more and more savage as the days go by on the island. One day, a dead fighter's parachute gets tangled in the trees. In the dark, the boys mistake this as the beast. Jack and Ralph lead a hunting party, but with no success. Only Simon identifies the dead man, and decides to tell everyone else. Jack, later, forms his own tribe, as he does not think Ralph to be a good chief. He lures other boys with the promises of food, hunting, and freedom. Simon watches the pig hunt, and the mutilation of the pig's head, led by Jack. Simon names the pig head 'Lord of the Flies', and believes it is talking to him. Simon imagines the dead pig head telling him that the beast is inside the boys. He decides the tell the boys the truth, but is killed instead by frenzied boys due to his sudden appearance. As the sea washes off Simon's body, the wind untangles the parachute, and the dead man's body falls into the water. Jack and his crew decide to take Piggy's glasses to create a rescue fire. While Ralph and Piggy are talking to Jack and his crew, one of the crew member, Roger, pushes a boulder from a cliff, killing Piggy and breaking the conch. Ralph runs for his life, as Jack and the others chase him. The chase ends when Ralph runs into a British Navy officer. The officer is surprised to find civilized British boys in a very uncivilized and savage state, and demands an explanation. The boys begin crying, as they realize that they are now safe, but remember what all has happened on the island.

Lord of the Flies: Symbolism

In the beginning of the novel, we see Ralph and Piggy discovering a conch shell on the seashore. Ralph uses it to gather all the boys, who were separated after the plane crash. This use makes the conch a symbol of civilization and order, instantly. The influence of the conch helps Ralph get elected as a chief unanimously. In addition to that, anyone holding the conch in the meeting could speak his mind. The shell becomes a symbol of democracy as well. The conch starts to lose its bright colors as the boys grow more and more savage. In the end, the smashing of the conch with the death of Piggy symbolizes the end of whatever little democracy or civility was left in the boys.

The boys decide to burn a fire as a signal so as to attract a passing ship's attention, which would help them be rescued. In this way, the fire signal connects the boys to civilization. However, as they become more savage, their losing connection with civilization is shown with their ignorance of this signal. For example, Jack lets the fire go out in order to go hunting. The fire signal symbolizes the hope to be rescued. However, with the loss of the fire, they lose their hopes as well. In the end, the fire raging out of control depicts the boys' loss of control.

In the novel, Piggy's glasses are used as a mode to start a fire. The glasses also stand for the ability see and understand things clearly. When the glasses are broken, with Piggy's death, it depicts the boys' inability to see or understand anything civilized. They then become totally barbaric.

The boys believe that the island is a habitat of a beast. The beast has no specific shape or size. The boys perceive a dead paratrooper tangled in the trees to be this beast. However, this unseen beast represents the inner beast or inner savagery of mankind. Among all the boys, only Simon actually understands that there is no real beast around, and that the actual beast is within themselves.

After a hunt, Jack impales a pig's head on a stick, and keeps it as an offering to the beast. When Simon sees this, it is already swarming with flies. Simon names it 'Lord of the Flies'. It is a physical representation of the beast that talks and explains the true nature of evil to Simon. It is a literal translation of a biblical name 'Beelzebub', which is a powerful demon from hell.

At the beginning of the novel, after the plane crashes, it leaves a scar on the island. Golding uses this image to depict the evil that mankind has shaped on Earth. It is ugly and permanent, like the very scar in the novel.

Just as other things, the boys also represent different aspects of society. Ralph: leadership, order, and civilization Piggy: intellectual aspect of society Jack: savagery and desire of power Simon: goodness Roger: brutality Older boys: ruling class Younger boys: common people