In William Golding's Lord of the Flies, the boys who are stranded on the island come in contact with many things that symbolize ideas. Through the use of symbols such as the beast, the island, Simon and Piggy’s specs. These symbols represent that humans when freed from society's rules allows their natural desire for evil to dominate their personality.
One of the symbols throughout the story was the beast. In the minds of many of the boys, the beast is a source of evil on the island. However, it represents the evil present within each boy which causes life on the island to slowly dissolve in chaos. Simon begins to realize this before his encounter with the Lord of the Flies. During one argument over the existence of the beast, he attempts to share his thought with the others. Simon tells them "Maybe there is a beast , What I mean is … maybe it's only us" (89). In response to Simon's statement the other boys who had once created their meetings with some sense of order immediately begin to argue. They do not pay much attention to Simon. The crowd cheers …show more content…
A large part of the island is the jungle which is used to represent death and evil. Since the jungle is the home of the “beast” it symbolizes the darkness present within them. This evil eventually spreads to almost every boy on the island, just as in the jungle "darkness poured out, submerging the ways between the trees till they were dim and strange as the bottom of the sea" (57). At one end of the island, where the plane carrying the boys crashed, there is a "long scar smashed into the jungle" (7). While the author does not include much description about the scar. The image of "broken trunks" with "jagged edges" is sufficient to give the reader an idea of the destruction caused to the island (8). This scar represents the destruction that any person is capable of causing. It can also be related to the harm the boys cause to one another which includes the deaths of three
One of the symbols throughout the story was the beast. In the minds of many of the boys, the beast is a source of evil on the island. However, it represents the evil present within each boy which causes life on the island to slowly dissolve in chaos. Simon begins to realize this before his encounter with the Lord of the Flies. During one argument over the existence of the beast, he attempts to share his thought with the others. Simon tells them "Maybe there is a beast , What I mean is … maybe it's only us" (89). In response to Simon's statement the other boys who had once created their meetings with some sense of order immediately begin to argue. They do not pay much attention to Simon. The crowd cheers …show more content…
A large part of the island is the jungle which is used to represent death and evil. Since the jungle is the home of the “beast” it symbolizes the darkness present within them. This evil eventually spreads to almost every boy on the island, just as in the jungle "darkness poured out, submerging the ways between the trees till they were dim and strange as the bottom of the sea" (57). At one end of the island, where the plane carrying the boys crashed, there is a "long scar smashed into the jungle" (7). While the author does not include much description about the scar. The image of "broken trunks" with "jagged edges" is sufficient to give the reader an idea of the destruction caused to the island (8). This scar represents the destruction that any person is capable of causing. It can also be related to the harm the boys cause to one another which includes the deaths of three