Lord of the Flies, Interpretive novel study.

1. I believe that lord of the flies represents the darkness inside us. Piggy is the Voice of Reason, Speaking to us, as a fat, unwanted outsider, and Barbarism is Jack, offering meat, and war paint, and death. Ralph is the victim. He represents us. Caught between good, and evil, we want to side with reason, we want to be “good” but we can’t because we don’t know what good is.

2. I do agree with some of the undertones of this story, for example, that the only thing that keeps man civilized is civilization. Away from the disapproval of our peers, we are naught but savages in men’s clothing.

3. The conch is a symbol of equality, all voices are one when the conch is held. However, it shatters, and thus, so does the ideal of perfection that the boys create for themselves.

4. Piggy is the voice of reason. He influences Ralph and the others to turn their island into a utopia. And in the beginning, it is good. However, good things do not last. Jack, as the counterpart of piggy, as the voice of instinct, corrupts the group against him. Chaos wins out, in the end.

5. The head, is a subtle symbol of the devil, cynical, and worldly, uncaring of others, and thoroughly bad of an influence. He corrupts Simon, and eventually causes his death.  It is not real, it is not evil, but because people perceive it as such, it becomes so.

6. This novel simply proves a point. Utopian societies do not work, simply because they operate on the belief that people are inherently good.  Capitalism works, because it places its belief that people are inherently evil, and greedy.

7. Having read this book , I can now state that this book is not a true story. Like Voltaire’s sly denunciations of the catholic church through ingenious so-called “fictions”, Golding denounces society, and the “civilized” countries that live on its hide. He uses rather cynical representations in order to portray the separate “factions” of human society. His “morality” is Piggy, a fat, whining child who tries to coerce others to form a utopia, using manipulation, appeasement, debasement, and his glasses, which are the only thing on the island that can be used to start a fire. The glasses represent technology, the fire, and the cooked meat that can only be given by civilization. However, similar to the fable of the goose and the golden egg, when technology is stolen, without adhering to civilized rules, disaster ensues. “Jack” is a hunter, he provides the meat, but also the bloodlust of the kill. He satiates the others with gifts, and then takes advantage of their suggestible state to impose a reign of fear. He offers protection from the “big bad beastie”, a dark and sinister creature that many of the children believe is walking in the woods, just out of sight. However, the only proof that this beastie exists is the testimony of  two frightened children. Nevertheless, the inhabitants fear the dark creature that is purported to creep through their island. They are afraid. Without adult figures to guide them , they begin to rely of the guidance and counsel of the eldest castaway, Jack. However, Jack is a sociopath. This is a very simple example of how leadership affects the tribe. These little boys, some of them no older than 7, are driven to murder and madness by an insane leader. Ralph, the “sensible” and “wise” leader, is really no better than Jack. He does not remember why they need a signal fire, he is arrogant, and aggressively asserts his authority. HOWEVER, he is the protagonist of this story only because he recognizes the value of Piggy’s advice. This is one of the main points of a story-the hero and the villain are separated only by which little voice in their head they listen to. Listening to reason, listening to madness, the means are the same, but the ends wholly different.

This fragile balance, this yin-yang conscience that resides within the group of boys, is shattered by the Beast, a hallucination of a deranged and sick Simon. His wild tales of a beast cause the scales of voice to tip in the minds of the boys, from Piggy, with his free, and equalizing conch, to Jack, a savage monster, but one that will protect them form the other savage monster. Ralph, although he is the leader, represents us, the victims in this game, this tug-of war between the reason and the unreason.

           We cannot swim in an ocean of conflict without getting wet. We trust in our ability to judge between right and wrong, but these choices are influenced by our morals. Morals, are notorious for being relative. You cannot have a concrete set of rules to judge each and every situation. The brain, cannot utilize morals effectively, because very few, on the innermost level, even realize what morals really are. They are the code,  set down by the people of ages pat, to form a barrier between us, and the animals from which we came. Our consciences are psychological barriers that wall off the instinct driven subconscious within our minds. We  are animals, and the only thing that sets us apart from the rest of the animal kingdom is our ability to use things. We use tools, we use other animals, we use the resources of nature. Most importantly, however, we use each other. We use each other for work, for war, we manipulate, and we lie. This is how we stay human. Civilization, equality, all of it is simply organized manipulation, simple and effective methods with which to stop people from devolving back to more ancient days of Barbary.

           We are conquerors. Humanity as a whole. We conquer continents, worlds, each other. We are not happy unless we are killing. Why? Why do we fill ourselves with bloodlust? Because we are giving in. The fragile walls that hold back the flood of evil animal intent are beginning to fray. Civilization is like a tremendous beast. Eventually, it cannot survive under its own weight, crushing the very thing that it tries to protect. The great union of people that formed under the guidance of the humanist philosophers is gone. It has been replaced by an age of replacement. Old things are being traded in for the new. And, when the old morals are cast aside, what will fill the power vacuum? Simple. The savagery from which we ascended will flood back to us. We will once again be horrible, cruel, heartless men, but this time we will be heartless men with bombs. The power made by us has gone beyond our control, the very core from which society was founded is corrupt. This is the true message of lord of the flies:

You think you’re civilized now? You think your hands are finally cleansed?

Never. You, your people, and their fragile puny midst are tools, and ever will be. Tools of hatred, rage, and prejudice. Savagery possessed you before civilization, Savagery will possess you thousands of years from today.

It possesses you now.