Lord of the Flies: Write an essay exploring four of the main symbols and their relevance, explain which one(s) you see as most useful to the reader and why?
William Golding lived from 1911- 1993, and was seen as one of the most inspiring and influential English novelists of the twentieth century. In many of his exceptional works, he has taken a group of isolated individuals and put them through extreme conditions and circumstances. One of his most famous novels, Lord of the Flies (published in 1954 and was awarded the ‘Nobel Prize for Literature’), is similar to this, where a group of young boys find themselves stranded on a deserted Island. Violence and chaos erupt when they lose all adult guidance, and some members of the Island reveal their dark side and become savage, highlighting the negative side of human nature shown in Lord of the Flies. Throughout the novel, Golding uses various objects to symbolise various aspects of the novel, to diverge and communicate basic ideas to the reader in a more mature way, and to present numerous themes and biblical outlooks of the novel.
One memorable and important symbol in Lord of the Flies is the conch. The conch is symbolic as it is the first symbol that appears in the novel. ‘Ralph had stopped smiling and was pointing into the lagoon. Something creamy lay among the ferny weeds.’ This conveys its importance, especially when it is blown and the other members of the Island are drawn to it, as if they were hypnotised by the muted sound of the conch. In the novel, Golding tries to show the negative side of human nature and how the lack of society with its rules and laws, can play on the members of the island. The conch, however, symbolizes the authority and democracy that is needed on the Island. It is also seen as being one of the most powerful symbols in the novel as it is the only object that can call a meeting. Furthermore, I feel that the conch is the start of the divide between Jack and the hunters, and Ralph...