Lord Of The Flies Figurative Language

A detailed book is like unicorns and rainbows. When unicorns and rainbows are visualized, they are often very colorful. Imagine a book with no details at all; it will give off a black and white feeling. A book with a variety of colors gives readers more understanding of the context. William Golding was in the Royal Navy before he started writing. As William Golding wrote literature as a response to his own beliefs, he expressed his emotions with many tools. The book Coral Island inspired Golding to write, Lord of the Flies, a book which shows the breakdown of civilization and the light and dark in humans. William Golding uses a plethora of descriptive writing to paint a picture in the Lord of the Flies using foreshadowing, mood, tone, and many types of figurative language. Golding uses many examples of figurative language such as similes, metaphors, personification, and hyperboles. A simile and metaphor compares two unlike objects. To differentiate the two, similes uses like or as and metaphors directly compares the two objects. An example of simile that Golding used is, “ Ralph danced out into the hot air of the beach and then returned as a fighter-plane, with wings swept back…” Ralph is being compared to the plane to show the wingspan of Ralph’s arms. If Golding just wrote that Ralph was waving his arms
around, there wouldn’t be a strong, nice visualization of what Ralph was doing. Similar to similes, a metaphor that Golding wrote was, “ The creature was a party of boys.” This metaphor is being used so the boys appear to be a creature in the readers’ minds. The use of similes and metaphors helps readers visualize the scene. Both similes and metaphors use comparison to engage the readers to picture the scene and relate to it. Two objects with no resemblance also helps readers visualize the objects being one. Personification is an object that is given human qualities. An example would be, “ A flurry of wind made the palms talk and the noise seemed very loud now.” Golding gave palms the ability to speak so that the readers could see that the palms were making a lot of noise. The last but not least figurative language is hyperbole which is an exaggerated claim or statement. In the Lord of the Flies Ralph says, “ We got to make smoke up there-or die.” This quote was written to show how vulnerable the boys were and their bad conditions. Golding uses hyperboles to help describe the conditions while they worsen. Without figurative language, there wouldn’t be any expression of how something is or doing. The figures of speech should be able to help suggest an image to the readers. When building an image, Golding uses many descriptive words to make the tone and mood of the story. Tone and mood is used so that the audience could analyze the writing and relate to it. An example from the Lord of the Flies would be, “ The silence continued, breathless and heavy full of shame. Slowly the red drained from Jack’s cheeks, then came back with the painful rush. He licked his lips and turned his head at an angle, so that his gaze avoided the embarrassment of linking with another’s eyes.” The tone of the passage would be ashamed, embarrassed, and regretful. The mood, which would be the readers’ feelings, are miserable, depressed, and gloomy or sad. Golding uses tone and mood so that the readers can really relate and feel the situation. A story with no atmosphere doesn’t interest readers so the readers won’t be engaged in the book. To get readers engaged in a book foreshadowing plays a huge role. Foreshadowing is a hint or warning for a future event. Golding uses foreshadowing so readers could get involved in the book and pick up what’s going to happen. One example of Golding’s foreshadowing in the Lord of the Flies is when Simon says to Ralph, “You’ll get back to where you came from.” The readers should be able to predict that Ralph will definitely be rescued and be able to return home. The use of foreshadowing lets readers guess what events are going to occur which makes it more exciting. Everyone always have expectations in a book that may or may not be fulfilled.
Fulfilling most of the expectations of readers, William Golding uses a lot of descriptive writing throughout his Peace Nobel Prize book Lord of the Flies.
With the use of figurative language, tone, mood, and foreshadowing, the readers will be able to relate to the book and visualize the actions in motion. “You can’t depend on your eyes when your imagination is out of focus,” said Mark Twain. All books have pictures but some are not seen with the naked eye. The authors paint the picture. The perspicacious audience piece together the aspects of the image using their insight. All together the pictures may vary and differ, but everyone has their own
imagination.