Lord Of Flies

Significance

In the Lord of the Flies there are a lot of symbolic objects that you may not recognize at first when you are reading. These symbols in the book are objects, characters, figures, or colors used to represent complex ideas written by William Golding. There are two very important symbols that I believe make the book and its point strong.

In the book Piggy is known as a chubby, but intellectual young man who wears thick glasses. In this book Piggy's Glasses are very symbolic because there are things that symbolize power; the glasses were one of those things. In Chapter Ten, Jack's group decides to break-in to Ralph's group's campsite to swipe Piggy's glasses. The glasses are very important because whoever had them, had the power to keep warm and stay alive. The young boys can use the lenses to focus the sunlight and start a fire which is needed to survive.

One of the other symbols in the book would be The Conch. In Chapter One, Ralph and Piggy wander around the beach, wondering where all the other boys could be. As they are walking, they spot a large "deep cream, touched here and there with fading pink" colored conch shell. Piggy realizes, "We can use this to call the others. Have a meeting. They'll come when they hear us-", so as you can tell in the beginning of the book it starts to show how the conch is used to symbolize order. Ralph decides that when meetings are called, the conch shell will be used to designate which boy has the privilege to speak. Which ever kid is holding the shell will speak, and the others will listen silently until they have the shell to themselves.