Lord of the flies literary terms
Lord of the Flies: Literary Elements
Symbolisms
Scar: imperfection. The island could be a Utopia, but the scar tells the reader the island is flawed.
Conch: order. The conch is used to call the boys to get themselves organized. Its possession: authority. The Individual who holds the shell has the right to speak.
Fire: spirit of civilization that must be constantly fed
Piggy’s glasses: government and political vision (created the spirit of civilization) Simon’s butterflies: innocence of childhood
Title of the novel: (translation of Beelzebub) the latent evil that is within each of us, but is kept in check by reason and social pressure (civilization). In the absence of these controls, barbarism erupts.
Pig’s head: stark reality of spiritual corruption
War paint: hidden desire to move outside of social controls (when boys wear war paint, they are not the same people – they are not responsible for the actions that are done while masked.)
The symbolism of evil flows from a series of events:
1. “Littluns” complain of seeing an imaginary beast
2. the fear which grows finds an outlet in dead paratrooper
3. hunters offer head of a dead pig on pole to beast
4. Simon confronts impaled pig’s head – his butterflies disappear; he faints because he has received knowledge too overwhelming to bear.
Golding is not telling us what children are like. They are rescued by adults, but are in the plight because of the grownups’ war; the destroyer that rescues them is on a manhunt not unlike Jack hunting Ralph. Island is a microcosm of the adult world-‐ the war on the island is a reflection of the adult war. (Microcosm – a small world that represents a larger world)
Irony
• Fire made from Piggy’s glasses goes out when Jack kills the first pig. Group begins to focus more on the hunt than on rescue (beginnings of barbarism). Smashing one lens – sends group into semi-‐barbaric state. Theft of the other lens – complete reversion to savagery. Fire built during the
Symbolisms
Scar: imperfection. The island could be a Utopia, but the scar tells the reader the island is flawed.
Conch: order. The conch is used to call the boys to get themselves organized. Its possession: authority. The Individual who holds the shell has the right to speak.
Fire: spirit of civilization that must be constantly fed
Piggy’s glasses: government and political vision (created the spirit of civilization) Simon’s butterflies: innocence of childhood
Title of the novel: (translation of Beelzebub) the latent evil that is within each of us, but is kept in check by reason and social pressure (civilization). In the absence of these controls, barbarism erupts.
Pig’s head: stark reality of spiritual corruption
War paint: hidden desire to move outside of social controls (when boys wear war paint, they are not the same people – they are not responsible for the actions that are done while masked.)
The symbolism of evil flows from a series of events:
1. “Littluns” complain of seeing an imaginary beast
2. the fear which grows finds an outlet in dead paratrooper
3. hunters offer head of a dead pig on pole to beast
4. Simon confronts impaled pig’s head – his butterflies disappear; he faints because he has received knowledge too overwhelming to bear.
Golding is not telling us what children are like. They are rescued by adults, but are in the plight because of the grownups’ war; the destroyer that rescues them is on a manhunt not unlike Jack hunting Ralph. Island is a microcosm of the adult world-‐ the war on the island is a reflection of the adult war. (Microcosm – a small world that represents a larger world)
Irony
• Fire made from Piggy’s glasses goes out when Jack kills the first pig. Group begins to focus more on the hunt than on rescue (beginnings of barbarism). Smashing one lens – sends group into semi-‐barbaric state. Theft of the other lens – complete reversion to savagery. Fire built during the