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.