Lord Of The Flies

6 Pages 1581 Words

Lord of the Flies

Lord of the Flies, the consummate novel by William Golding, is rife with powerful thematic elements and striking symbolism. However, throughout the lush expanse of the book, several important themes stand out above the rest. Perhaps chief among these themes is the story’s take on civilization. Like authors writing in a similar vein, such as Cooper and Conrad, Golding challenges his characters to survive without tangible connections to the civilization they know. Unlike these authors, though, Golding takes a somewhat darker view of civilization and human nature. As the plot of Lord of the Flies progresses, the various characters slowly lose contact with their civilized nature. This decay of civilization is continually symbolized by the decay or destruction of other aspects of the novel. Golding seems to believe that if left to his own devices, man cannot maintain civilization alone.
As Lord of the Flies opens, Golding places his young characters in a terrible situation, far from the comforts and controls of civilization. Having been evacuated from a war zone, their plane has crashed on an unknown and uninhabited island. Despite the obviously frightening elements of this situation, the boys are, at first, eerily unconcerned and relatively sure of the fact that they will be rescued. They have been conditioned all their lives to rely on adults for protection and now believe that their parents will eventually come to rescue, especially Ralph who expresses confidence that his father, “…when he gets leave… will come and rescue us.” (Golding, Page 12).
When Ralph and Piggy call the boys together for the first time, they all agree that, as a civilized people, they ought to have some sort of leader. However, lacking experience in governmental process, they choose Ralph for chieftain simply because of “…his size, and attractive appearance…” (Golding, Page 22), not necessarily because he is t...