Symbolism in Lord of the Flies

Golding’s Use of Symbolism Symbolism is the “frequent use of words, places, characters, or objects that mean something beyond what they are on a literal level” You don’t need to define a literary term for a literary audience. Treat them as intelligent as you wish to be treated.

Title- Lord of the Flies Before even opening the novel, the readers of Golding’s work are face to face with a symbol—the title. Lord of the Flies is “a name applied to the Biblical demon Beelzebub” thus symbolizing evil ie. the devil

Lord of the Flies In the novel, the Lord of the Flies is the name is given to the pigs head that the hunters put on a stick sharpened at both ends. “This head is for the beast. It’s a gift”.

Conch Shell The conch shell, which is “used to call the children to assemblies,” serves as a symbol of order and authority. For the children in the story, the conch shell is an important object.

Signal Fire At their second council meeting, Ralph tells the rest of the boys, “We can help them to find us…We must make a fire”. The boys agree because they want to be rescued.

Signal Fire The fire which must be kept burning is the symbol of their hope for rescue, of their attachment to civilization, and it will reveal their presence on the island to the outside world.

Characters We can find symbolic meaning in the four main characters of Lord of the Flies: Ralph, Jack, Piggy, and Simon.

Ralph Ralph is a symbol of democracy and order as he continuously tries to maintain order and peace amongst the boys. Ralph’s character is uneasily corruptible as he stays true to his values in maintaining and orderly community.

Jack Jack’s character is hell bent on power and will do anything to achieve it. Jack’s appearance becomes wild to represent his decent into savagery. (Flickr)

Piggy Piggy is the voice of reason and represents intelligence. When Piggy is killed, intelligence is also killed on the island as the everything falls apart for the boys.