Lord+of+the+Flies

LORD OF THE FLIES ESSAY The book lord of the flies has many symbol and allegory’s, but the main one people will think about is good versus evil. Many people would just read this book and think its just about middle and elementary boys just going crazy on an island, but its not. It has an underlying theme of good versus evil. On the island you can see many symbols that represent that. Some are the kids themselves, and some are objects that you would not think about being symbols but they are. When you open the book you probably think its all about fun and games and that you are going to have a fun time reading this book but it is quite devilish book with power hungry children and murder. The island that the boys land on can in a way represent hell and some of the boys giving into an almost possessed like state. The island and the boys can also represent the real world. How people will become savage and murder other people for no real reason and have wars. Like jacks tribe fighting against Ralph and having an all out war with him. But the symbols in the book can uncover many themes and people can see it in many ways. In lord of the flies, characters represent theme of the story. Piggy, who is the chubby kid that is made fun of can represent common sense. At one point in the story has a quote that describes him as a character “which is better- to have rules and agree, or to hunt and kill”(pg.180). That says that piggy wants everybody to be civilized and not savages, he wants democracy and not to have anarchy. Piggy cares about the fire and getting rescued and wants to have everyone together and be united, not separate tribes. At one point in the story, piggy wants to build things but no one will give him any respect to actually listen to him. Piggy represents science in a way because he is the smart one on the island. Piggy dies in the book all because he wanted order and the conch to still represent the order that it used to but every person still looks at piggy as being the fat kid with the glasses and not a single person will listen to him besides Ralph. They even boo him and throw rocks at him when he tries to get order and ends up getting killed standing up for what he believes. Ralph in the story represents the greater good and leadership. Without a character like Ralph in the story, it would have been complete chaos right from the start. When Ralph found the conch and started using it he was decided on being the leader. In the story Ralph says “im chief then” (pg.23) after a democratic vote and everybody gives him respect immediately. But after jack splits up to make another tribe, Ralph has to fight for it. Ralph becomes the good side of the island and fights for order and to be like it used to be. Ralph truly wants to get off of the island, and fights for the fire to continue going. When piggys glasses get taken, Ralph confronts jack and his tribe for them back. All jack wants them for is small fires but Ralph wanted it so that they could have a good signal fire so that they could be rescued. Ralph said that he didn’t care if jack wanted fire, he said he would have just gave it to him. So Ralph is the good part of the island, he will share things, he wants order, he does not want to be savages and have anarchy. In a way he is kind of the president of the island and piggy is the vice presented. But as soon as people don’t listen to him, he cant have control over them. Jack in the story represents evil and the sort of devil on the island. Jack was not like that when they first landed on the island. Jack was an innocent little boy. He even said “I thought I might kill” because at the beginning of the story, jack said he cant kill. When jack first kills, he becomes blood thirsty. Jack decides to defy Ralph and create his own tribe. He entices all of the children by saying that they will have fun in his tribe. That they will just kill and have fun. And most of the children go with him. Their tribe becomes savages. When they find a pig that they want to kill they start chanting “kill the beast, slit its throat, drink its blood.” now if you think, jack went from a little boy to a stone cold killer in not a long time at all. Even after they kill the pig, jack sharpens a stick at both ends, sticks it in the ground, cuts the pigs head off, and sticks it on the stick as an offering to the beast. Jacks tribe also kills simon because they had the fear inside that simon was the beast coming for them. They also killed piggy, rogger did, but jack did not even care, he actually congratulates rogger for doing it. In the end evil won because it got to most of the kids. It got to jacks tribe, and simon in a way. But before any thing else can happen, they all got rescued. Simon who represented good and the last chance of good was about to be killed when they got rescued so evil was the winner. The inner demons got to the kids on the island. It was just waiting to take control of them. If the rescue did not come, Ralph would have died and the island would have become true hell. It was a hell when they got rescued. Ralph was trying to run away while he was trying to be killed while the island was on fire so the surrounding looked like hell. A burning pit of death where almost no good survives. The lord of the flies represented real life, history, the future, and what goes on in the present.