Lord of the Flies
According to William Golding, the theme of the Lord of the Flies is: "The theme is an attempt to trace the defects of society back to the defects of human nature. The moral is that the shape of a society must depend on the ethical nature of the individual and not on any political system however apparently logical or respectable. The whole book is symbolic in nature except the rescue in the end where adult life appears, dignified and capable, but in reality enmeshed in the same evil as the symbolic life of the children on the island. The officer, having interrupted a man-hunt, prepares to take the children off the island in a cruiser which will presently be hunting its enemy in the same implacable way. And who will rescue the adult and his cruiser?"
My interpretation of this story is that he uses symbols to represent fear, trust, friendship and leadership.
Pigeon Lord of the Flies
Lord of the Flies
Re-Covered Books: The Lord of the FliesA group of young boys who are stranded on an island make a startling change from being civilized to becoming barbaric. The author uses symbolism to show that people are naturally tied to society. If people were not then they would behave in a savage manner. If we did not live in a civilized society we would loose our ideals and values. We would not know what was right or wrong.
The beast represents fear. He is the evil that lives within us. There actually is no beast, but they believe they see the beast several times. As the boys behave more savagely, the beast becomes more real to them.
At one point the "littleuns" see creepers (vines) in the jungle and mistake it for a snake. The fear in them has caused them to imagine they really saw a beast. They...