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Symbolism in Golding’s Novel Lord of the Flies

 


Symbolism in Golding’s Novel Lord of the Flies

Dr. Nivedita Lahkar

Assistant Professor

Department of English

Bezera Anchalik College,

Bezera  Kamrup (R), Assam, India

 

 

Abstract: Modern novelists are not content with presenting merely an interesting narrative with absorbing characters. They are knee-deep in investing their compositions with a variety of images and symbols to convey something meaningful and deep through them.  William Golding too tries to give layers of meaning to his novel ‘Lord of the Flies’ by employing various types of symbols. He mentions that the entire novel is the representation of symbols excluding the release and rescue in the last part where adult life become visible but in reality the life of the boys on the coral island enmeshed with evil symbolically. The truth of his words may be examined if we study the novel not only from the angle of characters but also from the angle of different incidents and situations. This paper is a humble attempt to project various symbols used by William Golding in his novel. 

Keywords: Evil, Society, Conch-shell, Sandcastle, Beelzebub, Flies

 

 

1. Introduction

Golding was born at Newquay, United Kingdom in the year 1911, 19th September and died on the 19th June, 1993 at Perranarworthal, UK. He started his career in the Royal navy in 1940 later involved in the Second World War against France in 1944. After the World War he resumed teaching and came out with his first outstanding novel ‘Lord of the Flies’ in 1954. The novel ‘Lord of the Flies’ shows the power of evil, savageness and brutality of man lurking below the surface of civilization through the representation of the marooned boys in the coral island. The ‘Lord of the Flies’ holds sway for a spell of time over the sensibility and the disposition of the boys in the island, but eventually the novel clichés the defect of evil, unreason and violence, anarchy and all primitive urges operated by the lord of the flies.  Li & Wu (2009) has mentioned that Golding had a “unique writing style-he puts symbolism in a delicate blending of fable, allegory and adventure story” (p 119). Examined from the view point of theme, plot materials, and different symbolic representations, the novel comes to be highly appropriate, effective, and suggestive with ironical overtones. Here in the novel Golding tried to express various complex ideas through the projection of symbolism.

1.1. Objective

Throughout the novel Golding has tried to trace the defects of society, man’s urge for savagery. The objective of this paper is to explore symbolic representation of characters, theme, events, and different objects of William Golding’s novel ‘Lord of the Flies’

1.2. Methodology

The data for the present research was collected from some peer reviewed English journals, books written by different writers on William Golding. Most of the date was collected and cited in the present work is basically from secondary sources. The primary data was procured from University professors from the Dept of English from Assam University, Silchar and from the Dept of English of Bezera Anchalik College, Gauhati, Assam through oral and group interaction. 

1.3. Review of Literature

On the basis of review of literature following works are noticed by the researcher:

Sajad Hamza Haddad’s (2024)  “An Analysis of the Themes in William Golding's Lord of the Flies” he pointed out  in his  work  that “the themes include civilization vs savagery, loss of innocence, the nature of evil, childhood, morality, and leadership”

 Pradeep Kumar’s  (2019)  “William Golding's Lord of the Flies: A Study of Evil in Man”  he in his paper mentioned that “inherent evil in man which brings out the dystopian vision of the post-modern world Lust for power and control over other are the evils of society from which even the children are not immune.”

Hasan & Sharif’s (2020). “William Golding’s Lord of the Flies: A Reconsideration” they have stated that  “ In the beginning, the paper introduces the novelist’s opinion on human beings through allegory and fable that encouraged the reader and listener to look for hidden meanings. Then it deals with the cultural approaches famous at that time for utilizing symbolism within the novel.” (p 125).

Alaa Lateef Alnajm’s  (2015). “The Main Themes in Lord of the Flies.”  In his  paper he has presented  “how Golding displays his characters to present different themes and ideas in order to show his readers the experience and performance of each character to give more understanding about the conflict and emotion of them.”

 

2. Symbolism

Wang (2021) stated that “It is an influential philosophical fiction in that the characters and their behaviors are all highly symbolized.” (p 114)  The main characters of the present novel are the boys like Ralph, Jack, Piggy, Simon and Roger who are symbolic of some ideas and values of our life.  Ralph stands for the tendency for adventure, common sense, sense of adjustment, respect for sound social order , democratic system and general well-being.  Jack symbolizes human appetite for power, lust for destruction and violence, proneness to evil and sadistic pleasure in shattering anything democratic, reasonable and systematic in society. He stands for what is called totalitarian dictatorship.  Golding (1958) “I ought to be chief, because I’m chapter chorister and head boy. I can sing C sharp” (p23). Piggy symbolizes the intellectual light, wisdom, the good will to guide others for all round well-being and peace.  Simon is represented as a symbol for religious and visionary values and feelings, who can offer solutions to many human dilemmas and mysteries but which are ignored and eliminated by hostile forces.  Roger is a symbol of primitive prosperity to torture and kill innocence  and simplicity. Thus all of them are imbued with symbolic and allegorical meaning.   

As we closely study the present novel we can find out the novelist's objective and endeavour to focus on the truth of the forces of disintegration operating in our society. The fight between the forces of good, sanity and wisdom on the one hand and those of the madding passion for violence, disorder and tyranny on the other through the representation of Ralph and Jack with their followers. The conch shell was represented in the novel as the symbol of authority and administration. Ralph uses it to subdue and control the unruly wild spirit of the boys on the island for a spell of time. When it is smashed the power of authority disappears from the hands of Ralph. Piggy’s glasses symbolize the power of insight and foresight, the reason for pragmatism. When these are shattered by Jack and Roger under the guise of mock-game, he becomes stripped of his intellectual faculty; his rational action is the face of reality on the island. The smashing of the sand-castle is symbolic of the manifestation of the loss of innocence and incursion of violence, which turns out to be the recurring feature of Jack like boys. The pig dance of the boys in the novel strikes us as the symbol of the new of wild life which replaces the social order and the democratic set up as championed by Ralph and Piggy in that island.

Again the head of the slain boar is then hung on a stick on the island’s ground as another symbol of terror and horror, representing evil and sin. The flies that buzz over the guts of the sow symbolizes the primitive urges which by and by predominate over boys leaving them at the mercy of Belzebub. Piggy’s murder symbolizes the annihilation of intellect and reason from the island, the growing darkness of man’s heart.

The scar is a split land caused by the crash plane landing of those boys in the island. the scar symbolizes brutal human nature ruined paradise just by reaching it. The ocean stands for unintended, unconscious and unintentional thoughts and hunger that are hidden within humans’ minds. The coral island with its beautiful edibles and intact beauty symbolizes ‘Paradise’ like Eden Garden. The beast in the novel is the head of the dead parachuting soldier and whose head was hanging in the branch of the tree and surrounded by flies and maggot therefore it transformed into a symbol of something horrible and terrifying.  Infact the head of the dead soldier symbolizes the internal barbarity and brutality of the boys in the island in particular and the human race in general.  The naval officer was from British Royal Navy, who appeared at the end after seeing the fire in the island. He stood up before Ralph who was running to save his life from Jack’s hunters. When he witnesses the dirty boys playing the game of brutality he scolds them for being dirty and rude. He asked Ralph about their game and cause of his running and their presence on the island, Ralph somehow narrated  the barbaric event to the officer from the Royal British Navy. Jack and his hunters became civilized after seeing the officer in uniform, with a pistol and his holster. Here the naval officer symbolizes culture, authority and order. His pistol and naval uniform are symbols of rule and law in the novel.   ‘Lord of the flies’ symbolizes universal personality to evil and mischief and destructibility in human nature. The imaginary encounter between Simon and the Lord of the flies is symbolic of the conflict between holy-spirit and evil, the sense of vision and that of destruction in every human being. At the end of his excellent novel William Golding seeks to convey to us that each boy in the coral island is a better ground where the forces of evil and violence wage war on the forces of good and reason.

3. Conclusion

Thus the novel “Lord of the Flies” yields multiple symbols with meanings of gravity with regard to human nature, life, over social system as well as the political order of the twentieth century. Baker (2000) stated that “Lord of the Flies is an allegory on human society today; the novel’s primary implication being that what we have come to call civilization is a best on more than skin deep” (p. 12).  The symbolism in Golding’s novel is not only an ornamental skill or techniques but it is closely associated with fable and allegory and these two include numerous symbols and elements.  Each allegory presented in the novel with a motif to move towards religion and facts and its most important characters represent a precise idea.

Works Cited

Alnajm, Lateef. Alaa. “The Main Themes in Lord of the Flies.”  International Journal of English and Literature, Vol.6,(6), June, 2015.

Baker, R.J. “Golding and Huxley: The Fable of Demonic Possession.” Twentieth Century Literature, vol 46, issue (3). 2000.

Bloom, Harold. (Ed). William Golding’s Lord of the Flies. Infobase Publishing. 2008.

Giri, Pradeep. Kumar. “William Golding's Lord of the Flies: A Study of Evil in Man” THE BATUK: A Peer Reviewed Journal of Interdisciplinary Studies, Vol. 5 Issue No.1. Jan, 2019.

Golding, William. Lord of the Flies. London: Faber and Faber Ltd. 1958.

Haddad, Hamza, Sajad.  “An Analysis of the Themes in William Golding's Lord of the Flies.” BA Dissertation, College of Education. Dept of English University of Misan, Iraq. 2024.

Hasan, Mariwan & Sharif, Diman. “William Golding’s Lord of the Flies: A Reconsideration” NOBEL: Journal of Literature and Language Teaching. Volume 11, Number 2, September 2020.

Li, Xiaofang. & Wu, Weihua. “On Symbolic Significance of Characters in Lord of the Flies.”  . English Language Teaching.  Vol 2, No. 1.  2009 .

Wang, Tianyue. “Discourse Analysis of Lord of the Flies: A Systemic Functional Approach” Advances in Literary Study  Vol 9. 2021.