Symbols in Lord of the Flies

Symbols in Lord of the Flies

1. The Conch

   • democracy, social order, respect, power
   • "magic shell"
   • R: "Whoever holds the conch gets to speak"
   • "The conch exploded into a thousand white fragments and ceased to exist."
   • Conch is destroyed: end of order

2. The Fire

   • fire destroys island but is also only hope of rescue: paradoxically symbol of hope of rescue and destruction of island
   • "A fire, make a fire!" - recognize that fire is essential for survival
   • R: "The fire is the most important thing on the island"
   • R: "Can't you see we ought to die before we let the fire out!"
   • last connection to civilization
   • loss of fire: loss of desire to be rescued

3. Rules

   • R: "Rules are the only things we've got!"
   • Roger: "Rules! We'll have lots of rules! And if anyone breaks em-!"
   • Jack: "We've got to have rules and obey them. After all, we're not savages, we're English."

4. Pig's Head on a Stick

   • Part of Simon's hallucination
   • "You knew didn't you? I'm part of you."
   • Beelzebub
   • "fun": foreshadows Simon's death

5. The Beast

   • shows boys' paranoia
   • Simon: "Maybe it's only us"
   • represents primal instinct of savagery that exists within all human beings
   • becomes Totemic God: "It's a gift for the beast"
   • beast is only a dead man
   • "The beast, harmless and horrible"
   • "at once heroic and sick"
   • "I saw it.. a beastie"

6. Piggy's glasses

   • last connection to civilization
   • power: fire
   • Piggy's intelligence/Piggy's physical weakness
   • glasses break: social order breaks down
   • "Piggy's glasses flew off and tinkled on the rocks"
   • "He was a chief now in truth.. from his left hand dangled Piggy's glasses"

7. Ralph's hair

   • descent into savagery
   • time spent on island
   • Ralph's obsession
   • "like the tendrils of a creeper"
   • "flung the mass back"
     • "filthy hair"
   • "pushes" hair off face 12 times

8. Wounds

   • boys leave "gashes"
   • water "warmer than blood"
   • "scar" - man's destruction of Edenic island
   • "sulphurous explosion" - smell of hell

9. Painted Faces

   • "The mask was a thing of its own, behind which Jack hid, liberated from shame and self-conciousness"
   • reveals boys' true nature
   • paint "liberates" boys into savagery
   • loss of humanity
   • loss of identity: boys become tribe

10. Pig Hunts

    • foreshadows violence & death on island
    • "kill the pig, cut its throat, spill its blood, do him in"
    • "dreadful eruption"
    • "air was full of sweat and blood and terror"
    • "terrified squealing became a high-pitched scream"
    • boys hunt mothering sow: symbolic of rape
      • as if they are killing their own mothers
    • exerting power over helpless animal
    • play-act hunting ritual: Simon is killed

11. Simon's death

    • the boys "leapt onto the beast, screamed, struck, bit, tore"
    • "no words, no movement but the tearing of teeth and claws"
    • frenzied, savage, graphic