Lord Of The Flies
Symbolism in Lord of the Flies
Piggy, Jack, Simon, and Ralph can all be seen as symbolic characters in William Goldings
novel Lord of the Flies. Golding uses symbolism to display his belief of the nature of
mankind. He believes that the change from good to evil, from civilization to primitivism
is unavoidable if there is not any direct authority over people. Piggy, an overweight
asthmatic boy about 8 years in age, who cannot see without his glasses represents physical
weakness and mental strength. His poor vision and obesity immediately establish to the
reader his traits of physical infirmity and incompetence. The glasses, however, help
illustrate his intellectual strength, his ability to think situations over logically and
use reason, rather than emotions to decide upon important dilemmas. Piggy does not let his
emotions guide him. Through the course of the novel, we observe how the allegorical society
on this uninhabited tropical island in the pacific ocean makes the transition from
carefully organized democratic reasoning to feeling-driven anarchy. The climax of this
transition is marked by the death of Piggy and the destruction of the conch shell, which
has very similar symbolism to Piggy. The
lord, flies, jack, boys, piggy, ralph, primitivism, people, island, evil, even, william, transition, reason, piggys, pig, over, novel, leader, good, golding, emotions, change, boys, because, without, time, symbolize, symbolism, strength, solution, similar, show, shift, role
