Butterfly In Lord Of The Flies Symbolism Essay
Very rarely does one feel absolute revulsion, however Golding’s Lord of the Flies repeatedly and incessantly induces nausea, from images of gangrape to the loss of an adolescent boy’s soul. To understand the vast, evolving symbolism within Golding’s macabre Lord of the Flies, one must comprehend the multifaceted layers entrenched within Golding’s butterfly. The butterfly is at first sanctuary or biblical Eden, then quickly butterflies evolve to delineate the boys’ fleeting innocence, and overarching themes suggest that Golding’s butterflies symbolize the human corruptible soul.
Permeating the island with their innocence, butterflies flit about the island frequently in its prelapsarian state. Golding utilizes butterflies and their frequency of apparition as a symbol of Biblical Eden and respite. In sequential order “butterflies, lifting, fluttering, settling”(25) first appear as the boys discover “(as) they had guessed before that [they are on an] island”(26). The island is an illusion to the Garden of Eden, an isolated paradise, at first free of sin and evil intention, a place where a holy man, simon, “can come to a place where more sunshine falls”(58), and “nothing [moves] but a pair of gaudy butterflies”(58). Sanctuary is also found just a scene before the metaphorical gangrape of a nursing sow as “butterflies danced in their unyielding dance”(146), this is the last true sanctuary, after the murder and sacrifice of the sow, sanctuary and butterflies disappear entirely from Golding’s island. Butterflies evolve rapidly throughout Lord of the Flies and not only represent sanctuary but also the inevitable loss of innocence that Golding predicted.
Society crumbles. Rapidly, the boys are losing their childlike innocence and are discovering that “life outside of society [is] nasty, brutish, and short”(Thomas Hobbes, Leviathan). The first truly violent death the boys cause is that of the nursing sow, as she staggers into an open space where bright flowers [grow] and
Permeating the island with their innocence, butterflies flit about the island frequently in its prelapsarian state. Golding utilizes butterflies and their frequency of apparition as a symbol of Biblical Eden and respite. In sequential order “butterflies, lifting, fluttering, settling”(25) first appear as the boys discover “(as) they had guessed before that [they are on an] island”(26). The island is an illusion to the Garden of Eden, an isolated paradise, at first free of sin and evil intention, a place where a holy man, simon, “can come to a place where more sunshine falls”(58), and “nothing [moves] but a pair of gaudy butterflies”(58). Sanctuary is also found just a scene before the metaphorical gangrape of a nursing sow as “butterflies danced in their unyielding dance”(146), this is the last true sanctuary, after the murder and sacrifice of the sow, sanctuary and butterflies disappear entirely from Golding’s island. Butterflies evolve rapidly throughout Lord of the Flies and not only represent sanctuary but also the inevitable loss of innocence that Golding predicted.
Society crumbles. Rapidly, the boys are losing their childlike innocence and are discovering that “life outside of society [is] nasty, brutish, and short”(Thomas Hobbes, Leviathan). The first truly violent death the boys cause is that of the nursing sow, as she staggers into an open space where bright flowers [grow] and