This is shown when the boys use the glasses to start a fire for themselves, which is a crucial element to survival. “Ralph moved the lenses back and forth, this way and that, till a glossy white image of the declining sun lay on a piece of rotten wood.” (41) This describes when they used Piggy’s glasses to make the fire on the mountain. The glasses are also used to represent order and when the first lenses shatters, it signifies the start of corruption in their society. The pig head that was impaled on the stake symbolizes the evil within the boys and was a sacrifice to please the beast. When Simon hallucinates and hears the pig head talking to him, it foreshadows his death by explaining who the beast really is.
When he found paint, he put it on his hunters faces, and he put the pigs mask on his face. This represents the unleashing of evil nature. “Kill the beast! Cut his throat! Spill his blood” The blue-white scar was constant, the noise unendurable.
He became absolutely obsessed with hunting and killing pigs. At first it really was just to feed all of the boys, but more towards the end of the story it was for the please of killing the pig to feel powerful and pure primeval. Allowing Jack to become this kind of monster was another mistake that the boys made. Because once he changed other boys started to follow until it was just Ralph and Piggy by themselves and all other boys were in Jack’s tribe. Of course then Piggy was killed.
The boys’ savage show that they are savages by how the pigs are killed. At first Jack wouldn’t even scratch the pig but now the boys brutally murder the pig they were hunting. “The sow gives a gasping squeal and staged with two spears striking in her fat flank. Jack was on top of the sow, stabbing downward with his knife. Roger found a lodgment for his point and began pushing until he was leaning with his whole weight”.
In the final chapter the hazard uncontrolled fire that Jacks hunters made to kill Ralph is what led to their survival “we saw your smoke” (201). When the navy officer first encounters Ralph he does believe that they could be the only ones on the island. When he is finally convinced, he assumes being on the island was just “fun and games”(200), not knowing the horrors that took place on the island. When the rest of the kids come
“Hereby it is a manifest, that during the time man live without a common power to keep them all in awe, they are in that condition which is called war…” This quote, from the 16th century philosopher, Hobbes, states that mankind is naturally evil. Moreover, Hobbes believes that without a leader, everything would be chaos. For example, in William Golding’s novel, Lord of the Flies, there are many prime examples of Hobbes’ theory. The novel’s plot involves a group of English school boys who become stranded on a deserted island, but arrive in a good state of mind. As the novel progresses, the boys become chaotic after not having a dependable leader.
They all get caught up in hunting and killing the beast, that they are overwhelmed with blood-lust. “There isn’t anyone to help you. Only me. And I’m the Beast … Fancy thinking the beast was something you could hunt and kill! …You knew, didn’t you?
Jack represents the dark side of human nature. In the beginning, he was eager to be chief and punish whoever broke the rules. However, he consistently broke them and went hunting. This began his hunger for meat. He painted his face like a barbarian.
Therefore it is clear that abuse of power causes the destruction of spirituality. Next, symbolism is used in the novel to represent destruction of spirituality due to corruption. Here Roger kills the sow which they hunted in a very unusual/unpleasant way, that it clearly represents fallen spirituality. “Roger found a lodgment for his points and began to push till he was leaning with his whole weight. […] ‘Right up her ass!’ ‘Did you hear?’ ‘Did you hear what he said?’ ‘Right up her ass!’” (Golding 149).
The boys are preparing to hunt and kill Ralph. They light a fire to represent that they are beasts, savages ready to kill nature and humanity. They no longer care about using such a fire for rescue. Golding uses this symbol to really emphasize the cruelty and bestiality of these