Symbolism in the novellord of

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Symbolism gives a novel a deeper level of meaning and a stronger emotional effect.lord of the flies is a novel extremely rich with symbols that give it a literary value.

One of the most important of these symbols is the conch .It comes to stand for authority,democracy and civilized behaviour.Piggy is the one who always reminds the boys about the authority of the conch,while jack is the one who often violates this rule and belittles what this conch represents .Eventually this conch was destroyed and scatterred to pieces with the cruel, unhumanly death of piggy.this comes to mean the end of all civilized signs and life on the island .

Another symbol is the fire. Apart from being used in their cooking ,it is a symbol of hope and rescue. Relevantly at the end it is actually the fire blazing all over the island that attracts the passing ship.

However the first fire can also be described as a symbol of destruction.when it was lighted at the begininng on the mountain top with the purpose to produce smoke to attract the source of rescue,it gradually spread and pervaded the forest causing the death of the little boy with the birthmark on his cheek.finally in the last chapter the whole island along with it's contains of fruit trees and beautiful nature is destroyed by the fire.

Also symbolic is the sow's head which represents evil.The lord of ther flies is symbolic of the surfacing through of the dormant evil inside the human heart.Actually the whole novels deals with the age-old battle between good and evil inside the human heart.

The island itself can be a double symbol of both paradise and hell supported by the painted faces of the boys and their mock hunts which strengthen the hell factor of the island with it's primitivism and savagery.