Extended Metaphor In Lord Of The Flies

The theme in the poem is that individuality or being different gives more freedom. From the poem, we can clearly see an extended metaphor using two things; flowers and a weed. The poet mentions how the flowers are “harnessed by a pot” and are "always watered, fed, guarded, admired." This clearly shows a lack of freedom for the flower because being harnessed means by something means a restriction of moving outside the pot. This relates to how society tells people how to act and the lack of freedom they have. However, in the poem, it also mentions that “If I could stand alone, strong and free, I'd rather be a tall, ugly weed.” This elaborates on the extended metaphor. Since the poet is saying that although the weed is ugly and not accepted, at least the weed has it’s freedom. Similarly, this relates to the theme of individuality gives more freedom because the poet uses a flower to show confinement and a weed to represent freedom.
The way I interpreted the poem was that one should be themselves and not to follow what others do. As mentioned before, an extended metaphor using …show more content…
In Lord of the Flies, before Jack goes to hunt for a pig, he puts on a mask to hide his face. After being completely parted from society literally and mentally, Jack uses a mask to hide his development of savage behaviour. Similarly, in the poem Identity, the weed wants to be unseen from everyone, away from societal impacts and themselves. Jack does the same thing using a mask to cover himself, away from society, showing savagery. However, the difference in individuality between the two texts is shocking. In Lord of the Flies, this individuality and being away from society is defined as the cause for savagery. Contradictory, this individuality in Identity is defined as being strong and free. This is significant because it shows how the two texts see individuality as two completely different things, one being negative and one being