William Golding's Lord Of The Flies

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An allegory is a story, fable or parable that portrays a moral or a message. William Golding’s Lord of the Flies is a novel where many morals and messages are found. William Golding uses symbols, characters, and themes to express his message to the readers. In the novel, the theme of loss of identity is illustrated through the unusual behaviour of the children, on the island. Jack is the first to convey savage-like behaviour. Jack creates a new identity for himself through the use of a mask. The mask is a powerful symbol which shows the loss of identity because “the mask was a thing on its own, behind which Jack hid, liberated from shame and selfconsciousness.” The uses of masks show how Jack starts to disconnect with civilization and liberates…show more content…
This marks a point in the novel where Jack becomes ruthless and proves he is capable of killing anything without feeling remorseful about it. Due to the thrill of killing, Jack becomes desensitized to killing. In short, from a good British choir boy he becomes a terror. Roger’s dark, mysterious persona comes alive through the torture of others. Roger throws rocks at Henry only aiming to miss. Roger still follows the rules of society as “Roger’s arm was conditioned by a civilization that knew nothing of him and was in ruins.” (Golding 62) Even though there are no adults and no one to condemn Roger from doing harm, he follows the rules he was always taught but as the story moves along, he begins to act without a conscience. To further the idea that Roger acts without a conscience, near the end of the novel, Roger crushes Piggy with a large boulder where “ Roger with a sense of delirious abandonment leaned all his weight on the lever,” (Golding 180) and down went the rock and Piggy. Roger reaches a…show more content…
Among all the boys Ralph represents civilization, but as the story moves along, he starts to lose focus on the goal of being rescued. Ralph’s descent into savagery is shown when he wounds a boar and experiences the thrill of excitement afterwards. When he wounds the boar “he sunned himself in their new respect and felt that hunting was good after all.”(Golding 113) Ralph is slowly becoming one of the savages as he hurts something innocent to prove he is capable of being like the rest of the hunters. In addition to experiencing thrill, Ralph joins in on the chanting and dancing at the feast and unintentionally kills Simon. He realizes what he did and even questions Piggy “didn’t you see what we-what they did?”(Golding 157) Ralph seems to be repentant although “There was a loathing, and at the same time a kind of feverish excitement, in his voice” (Golding 157). This shows that even if Ralph did not know what or who he was killing, he enjoyed doing it regardless. Given these points, William Golding demonstrates through his characters, that when human lose themselves, they tend to lose their morality. This is one of the many messages William Golding conveys to his

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