How Does Golding Create An Allegory In Lord Of The Flies

In the Lord of the Flies by the author William Golding, he creates an allegorical novel based on stranded children abandoned on an island. In order to create an allegory, it's a figure of speech in which abstract ideas and principles are described in terms of characters, figures and events(Allegory). The novel Lord of the Flies it begins with a group of children that were stranded on an remote island without adult supervision. They start to develop their own civilization but however as they continue to work together they also start to develop their inner savage. Toward near the end, their inner savage starts to controls them and ends with a disturbing and tragic ending. Although they’ve built a civilization, Golding’s has used symbolism and the literal meaning of being civil and human nature. In the Lord of the Flies, Golding uses this allegory structure and uses symbolism to describe the human nature with a conch, fire, and the beast. When creating a civilization, the conch became an essential symbol in the novel to create a sense of law and order. Earlier in the novel, the conch, blown by
Ralph, was used to gather a meeting amongst the lost boys on the island and create a civilization. "But there was a stillness about Ralph as he sat that marked him out: there was his size, and attractive appearance; and most obscurely, yet most powerfully, there was the conch. The being that had blown that, had sat waiting for them on the platform with the delicate thing balanced on his knees, was set apart" (Golding 22). When it comes to reality, a conch shell doesn't exactly have meaning except being an item; However, the conch begins to have a meaning as it's allures Ralph. Afterwards, it becomes to have a role of the center of the “government”. The conch has its symbolic and literal meaning to politics and the structure of society. It becomes a literal meaning of how people uses society as a organization of power and status. Golding's uses the conch as a great example of how we organize and create human civilization. While Ralph is leader he demands for a fire which this creates an extrusive symbol for fire which also relates to its literal meaning. As the story continues, there has been foreshadowings of savagery throughout the book with symbols such as the fire. “You got your small fire all right."… the boys were falling still and silent, feeling the beginnings of awe at the power set free below them..”(Goldings 44). When they started the fire it was meant as a signal fire except the fire killed an innocent boy. The meaning of the fire became a whole different meaning such as destruction. In literary terms, its describes of how people can be careless in handling resources. Although there was failures, Golding uses it as a great example of humanity relation to destruction but also hope. In the Lord of the Flies, the beast was the most feared among the characters that reveals the true nature of a human being.
Earlier in the novel, when the beast was mentioned, most of them thought it was a physical being rather than an inner one. “ And I’m the Beast. . . . Fancy thinking the Beast was something you could hunt and kill! . . . You knew, didn’t you? I’m part of you? Close, close, close! I’m the reason why it’s no go? Why things are the way they are?”(Goldings 142). When it comes to the term, beast, it relates to how the boys creates a fear based off an imaginary beast but it also relates to the inner beast within them. Since the human race is naturally savage, people can easily lean toward barbarism and forget their own identity in society. Golding’s displays extraordinary meaning toward humanity’s nature especially if a man is good he may never remain
innocent.
In conclusion, with its symbolism of the conch, fire, and the beast it proves that Lord of the Flies is an allegorical novel. The conch represents of how humanity creates a organized society in order to keep everything in control. Without social status, there cannot be a balanced between a leader and a follower. The fire gives a good representation of how careless a person can be or how a person can either be destructive or hopeful in something. The beast shows people’s inner nature and how naturally savage everyone is. Due to these literal and symbolic meaning, Lord of the Flies is considered an allegorical novel.