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Literary Analysis Essay: Lord Of The Flies

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Literary Analysis Essay: Lord of The Flies What happens when reason tries to reason with savagery? Where does evil come from? In William Golding’s novel Lord of the Flies, he shows how evil can come from places unexpected. The novel begins when a group of British schoolboys get in a plane crash. The plane crashes onto a deserted island where there are no adults. One of the older boys named Ralph wants to build a signal fire so he and the other boys can get rescued. But another boy, Jack wants to just go hunting and use the fire to cook meat. Later, Jack and Ralph make separate groups on the island and things get out of control. Lord of the Flies contains many literary elements such as irony and symbolism. Many characters in Lord of the Flies …show more content…

One of these examples is the conch.“I’ll give the conch to the next person to speak. He can hold it when he’s speaking” (33). The conch represents civilization and order in the government because whenever the boys have a meeting they blow into the conch to call an assembly.“There isn’t a tribe for you anymore! The conch is gone” (181). Also, at the end when the conch breaks, the whole civilization becomes chaotic and out of order. Another important symbol is the signal fire. “We can help them to find us. If a ship comes near the island they may not notice us. So we must make smoke on top of the mountain. We must make a fire” (38). The signal fire represents rescue and hope. When the fire goes out, nobody really cares about being rescued except for Ralph and Piggy, who have hope about getting off the island. Another symbol is Piggy’s glasses. Piggy’s glasses represent the artifact of attraction. An artifact of attraction is something that everyone wants. “His specs- use them as burning glasses!” (40) The other boys want to use his glasses to make a fire, but Piggy needs his glasses to be able to see. “Give ‘em back! I can hardly see! You’ll break the conch!” (40) All of these symbols show that civilization is a fragile thing and if the wrong person takes control, it could all

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