lord of the flies essay

Submitted By phgfrd786
Words: 819
Pages: 4

Savagery Lord of the flies

Lord of the Flies is an adventure book by William Golding. The book is about a group of English boys turned savage while stranded on an island. One of the main themes throughout Lord of the Flies is man’s need for civilization. The book shows how people can change without civilization, rules, and order. Civilization today has become almost completely reliant on technology. Almost the entire world is based off of technology (airplanes, trains, cell phones, super markets, cars, computers, tv, electricity, etc.). We are governed by laws designed to protect us. We live by government control and rules that keep us in order. Our world is organized and technologically advanced and this is what the boys tried to reflect or portray on their island. Although towards the end of the book the boys were not civilized at all, they were off to a pretty good start in the beginning of the book. They had rules such as, having to raise their hand in order for Ralph to give them the conch (no one else can speak except the holder of the conch) like in school. Also, the fire must be looked after at all times, and assemblies will be held when ralph blows the Conch. They also were civilized on the island by having a leader or dictator. In our country we have a leader or a dictator and he/she is the one who makes laws and is pretty much in charge. In the book ralph is the leader of the boys he was the one that made up the rules and made boundaries for everyone. Not everyone agreed with Ralph’s authority and some thought that they would be a better chief than ralph, like jack who became chief after he over ruled ralph. The boys did a pretty good job at creating civilization on the island for a while until the boys started losing their minds. In this book there are many symbols, starting with the conch. Ralph finds the conch shortly after landing on the island. It soon becomes the symbol of authority and law and order. Ralph and Piggy respected the symbol of the conch until it was smashed to pieces by Jack. The destruction of the conch symbolizes the destruction of what civilization the boy’s had. Also piggy’s glasses symbolized knowledge. Next we will go to the signal fire. The signal fire symbolizes the boy’s connection to civilization. As the boys grow more savage, the fire becomes less important to them. As the fire becomes less important, the boys let it go out more in order to hunt. Also the fire is a symbol of hope, sometimes the fire would die out which meant they had no hope in being rescued. Also when the fire went out of control, that is symbolic for the boys because sometimes they came to a point where they couldn’t control themselves. I also think that some of the boys have symbols like Ralph and Piggy who symbolize law and order and Jack and Roger who stand for evil. Towards the