Lord_Of_The_Flies

Lord Of The Flies Symbolism in Lord of the Flies Piggy, Jack, Simon, and Ralph can all be seen as symbolic characters in William Golding's novel Lord of the Flies. Golding uses symbolism to display his belief of the nature of mankind. He believes that the change from good to evil, from civilization to primitivism is unavoidable if there is not any direct authority over people. Piggy, an overweight asthmatic boy about 8 years in age, who cannot see without his glasses represents physical weakness and mental strength. His poor vision and obesity immediately establish to the reader his traits of physical infirmity and incompetence. The glasses, however, help illustrate his intellectual strength, his ability to think situations over logically and use reason, rather than emotions to decide upon important dilemmas. Piggy does not let his emotions guide him. Through the course of the novel, we observe how the allegorical society on this uninhabited tropical island in the pacific ocean makes the transition from carefully organized democratic reasoning to feeling-driven anarchy. The climax of this transition is marked by the death of Piggy and the destruction of the conch shell, which has very similar symbolism to Piggy. The lord, flies, jack, boys, piggy, ralph, primitivism, people, island, evil, even, william, transition, reason, piggy's, pig, over, novel, leader, good, golding, emotions, change, boys', because, without, time, symbolize, symbolism, strength, solution, similar, show, shift, role