Symbols and Themes

The Island

The island is a microcosm of the modern world, which suggests that just as the boys are stranded on the island, so too are humans “stranded” in the world at large. Just as the boys find themselves on the island solely out of chance, humans, too, inhabit the world only by chance. The chaos on the island reflects the war taking place in the world. It also highlights the tension between civility and savagery, law and order and anarchy. In doing so, it urges readers to ask important questions about human nature and civility. Are humans inherently good or bad? Are civility and morality innate to humans? Or are they cultivated?

Fire

The fire is mainly a practical necessity on the island in that it serves as a signal to ships at sea and enables the boys to cook their meat. However, it also has a symbolic function in the novel: it represents the tension between order and anarchy, good and evil, savagery and civility. When it engulfs the island toward the end of the novel, the fire also represents the unchecked destructive impulses of the boys—and indeed of humans in general.

The Conch Shell

At the beginning of the novel, the conch shell appears to be a symbol of necessary order and regulation. Ralph and Piggy use it to good effect first to gather the group together and then to inculcate civility during their meetings. However, as the novel progresses, the conch shell becomes a superficial symbol of power. It ceases to have any effect on the group, and only Ralph and Piggy see the shell as a symbol of order. Toward the end of the novel, Ralph often relies on the conch shell merely to assert his authority, not to call for order. The shell gradually grows ineffective as a regulating principle, and it highlights the tension between order, anarchy, and mob mentality.

The Lord of the Flies

The Lord of the Flies is represented by the pig’s decapitated head. Though only Simon and the narrator see the head as an embodiment of the spirit of the Lord of the Flies, it represents evil human impulses. It symbolizes the deterioration of order and civility and the rise of anarchy on the island. It can also be seen as Golding’s attempt to suggest that humans can be carried away by evil impulses and that social restraints are necessary to discourage them from the lure of evil. Indeed, in the novel, the Lord of the Flies rises to power only after the disappearance of social restraints.