The Evil Within

In this novel, a group of British boys goes through a near death plane crash and they struggle to live without a leader. This results in bullying and fighting. The real character of the boys is demonstrated when all of their true emotions come out. Their hatred and immaturity makes it extremely hard to persuade the boys in any direction to do something. In the novel Lord of the Flies, William Golding uses symbolism to create the theme that society must depend on the ethical nature of individualism of the boys and not on a political system.

In the novel, Piggy’s glasses represent clarity of each individual on the island and the making of what is right vs. what is wrong. Jack explains that Piggy’s “specs” can be “used as burning glasses” (Golding 40). This quote was being used …show more content…
Jack explains that his “Life on the island” was “a race with the fire.” (Golding 56). The boys set up signal fires as a sign of hope and being rescued later on. The boy’s eagerness for making signal fires also represents their original weakness for civility and amenity. Jack explains that “The fire is the most important thing on the island” and then he questions, "How can we ever be rescued except by luck, if we don’t keep a fire going? Is a fire too much for us to make?... Look at us”(Golding 31)! This demonstrates his thought that the least the boys could do is keep a fire burning to keep the hope of being rescued. Ralph is trying to make the boys rely on the fire to be rescued, but the boys don’t have mutual feelings. This disagreement also shows their declivity into savagery. The boys failure to make a signal fire also creates a weakness to create a civil society throughout the book. Once again, the fire is a symbol used to represent hope and the evil that the boys go back and forth