Golding's Mindset In Lord Of The Flies

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A Deeper Understanding of Golding’s Mindset in Lord of The Flies
A group of young civil boys, stranded on an island with no supervision, is bound to end with a number of unfortunate events. Firstly, savagery quickly turns from civility throughout the boys stay, attempted to be maintained in the form of a shell. Next, starting out as a gathering place signaling passing ships, the fire plays an important role of slowly tearing the group apart. Then, initially a figure of the boy’s imagination, along with passing days, cause them to find out that the beast has been in them the whole time. In Lord of the Flies, William Golding shows that the impact of being lost, innocent, and deserted, can take a downfall from complete civility, to complete savagery …show more content…
To start, because Ralph’s father is in the Navy, he suggests that the best way for them to be saved is to start a signal fire. Ralph wants to be rescued and get back to civilization, as he takes his spot as leader very seriously, “’ There’s another thing. We can help them to find us. If a ship comes near the island they might not notice us. So we must make smoke on top of the mountain. We must make a fire’” (Golding 38). As they only arrived shortly, the agreeance of this idea portrays that the boys are equally eager to go back to Britain. The author shows that the boys are willing to work together, and maintain their respect, by creating it. Then ironically taking a turn, their first signal fire does not bring them closer to each other or being saved, but rather losing one of their own. After the fire settled down in hiding, the boys had noticed they could not find the boy with the strange birthmark, “Ralph muttered the reply as if in shame. ‘Perhaps he went back to the, the –‘Beneath them, on the unfriendly side of the mountain, the drum roll continued” (Golding 47). Instead of the time awaiting journey’s fire bringing the group together, everyone flees away from their meeting spot as the fire chases them away from each other. Here, the boys learn that that this adventure will not be all fun and games, as the …show more content…
In Lord of the Flies, savagery reigns over civility when innocent boys lose themselves, which is all portrayed using symbolism. Starting with the conch representing the fact that civility can easily turn into savagery, even to the best behaved of the bunch. Moving on, fire can quickly turn the group against each other, granting that its original use was to keep them close and saved. Then, with the time passing on the island, these young boys come to the knowledge that the beast they’ve feared is really themselves and their actions. In total, the symbolism depicted in this journey, encourages the audience, when reading a book, that fully analyzing the text can be very beneficial to learning the life lesson
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