Lord of the Flies

       The classic novel Lord of the Flies by William Golding is about a group of young boys that crash land on a desert island with no adults, and therefore, no order. Ralph and Jack, two of the "biguns" (as they had begun to call the older boys), both elected themselves leader, so they held a vote with all of the boys. Ralph won and became chief, but across the book there is an obvious power struggle between the two. People, objects, and other things can symbolize themes in books, just as these symbolize hope, intellect, and power in Lord of the Flies.
     
       As cliche is it is, the fire is one thing that represents hope, along with power. The boys make the fire and hope that the smoke will attract passing ships or planes that will save them. Of course, the young boys get distracted by more interesting things, like stuffing their stomachs with ripe fruit or the glory of hunting pigs with handmade spears. It seems that only Ralph and his trusty (although subject to ridicule) assistant nicknamed Piggy understand that their only hope is the fire. When the fire burns out, so should their hope. The fire was also Ralph's greatest contribution as leader, so when the boys abandon it they relay the message that his authority doesn't mean much to them. Jack, the losing candidate, was one of those boys. This is how the fire represents both hope for the boys and power for Ralph, and the opposite when it burns out.
     
       Another object that particularly represents power and order is a conch that Ralph and Piggy find the very first day on the island. By blowing into the shell, they create a deep, echoing sound that can be heard for miles. They use this to call assemblies led by Ralph, and pass it around to determine who is allowed to speak. The ordinary, inanimate object suddenly had a lot of power on the island. But when touchy subjects came up like the "beast" that was rumored to live on the island or the fact that people kept letting the fire go out, the boys would start to speak out of turn and become rowdy with their urge to speak their opinion. As the boys became more accustomed to their situation, these unruly assemblies occurred more and more often. While the conch itself was passed around, it was controlled and blown by Ralph. The conch wasn't respected anymore, and Ralph was losing authority. When the conch is crushed under a boulder later in the book, all power it or Ralph ever held vanished.
     
       Lastly, Piggy and his glasses represent intellect and rational thinking. Piggy is smart yet he is often bullied by the other boys, being overweight and not exactly handsome. His ideas are intelligent and realistic, but nobody ever listens to him. Even Ralph makes fun of his loyal sidekick. Piggy is technically blind without his thick glasses, and the only way the boys can make fire is to shine light from the sun through them onto a pile of leaves and branches. This makes them very valuable. But the glasses are cracked during one physical skirmish and then stolen by a rival tribe that Jack forms much later in the book. The continuous decline in the quality of the glasses and Piggy's vision relates to what the boys have their eyes set on. They are letting the important things, like being rescued, out of their sight for immature games that turn deadly. What they should be focusing on is obscured by the need to gain power. Piggy was one of the victims of the violence of Jack's new tribe against what was left of Ralph's. He was killed by a boulder let loose by one of the boys, marking the end of all intellectual and rational thinking. Suddenly, full out war against Ralph is the only thing on the boys' minds. Their actions are nothing short of savagely without Piggy and his glasses.

       The fire, conch, Piggy, and his glasses all symbolize different ideas of the text. The fire represents hope of rescue and Ralph's power, like the conch does. Piggy and his glasses represent intellect that keeps the tribe running smoothly. These subtle symbols help the reader understand the text and even foreshadow what is to come. Lord of the Flies involves many complex themes that portray our society in an interesting yet disturbing way that has changed my point of view forever.