Societies Blanket of Innocence
The debate of Nature vs. Nature has been a prolonged, tempestuous argument of whether humans morals come from their genes (Nature) or the environment around which they grow (Nurture). Nature implies that sin committed in this world is to be expected as all men are born with the yearn to sin, and society does its best to blanket this lack of innocence. William Golding tries to express this theme in his novel Lord of the Flies. Golding suggests that savagery comes naturally while society self- imposes civilized thoughts upon its inhabitants. Golding's novel Lord of the Flies is an allegory that uses a plethora of literary devices, most prominently symbols and foreshadowing, to indicate how without society around to govern, humans will naturally succumb to savagery and lose their essence of civility.
By far the most pronounced literary device in the novel is the use of symbols to represent the ideas of society and its ineffectiveness. Due to the fact that the story is an allegory, most all characters or events are representations of Golding's views of civilization. When Ralph, the leader, is confronted by Jack about the fire, he stammers, “The fire's the most important thing. Without the fire we can't be rescued. I'd like to put on war-paint and be a savage. But we must keep the fire burning. The fire's the most important thing on the island, because, because-” (Golding 142). Ralph openly admits that he would like to indulge into his savage qualities, but society has trained him to act responsibly and socially correct. Ralph finds the need to keep the fire going as it is a barometer of the civility of the boys. At the beginning of the novel, Jack is enthusiastic about helping with the fire, but as savagery slowly makes it self present in the boys this fire flickers and struggles to stay lit, both literally and figuratively. Ralph struggles to recall why the boys need civilized thoughts and actions, as it is so much easier to...