Lord of the Flies - Symbols - Revision Cards in GCSE English Literature

The Island

Microcosm of the world at the time.
Place through which Golding expresses his criticisms of the world's systems, events, people and leaders.
Represents the Garden of Eden where the boys attempt to create a society from the beginning.
Symbolises paradise and how the boys are free from all of the restraints of society from back home but when man's evil, greed and desire comes, the paradise is ruined.
Central to the idea that mankind is capable of the destruction of nature and mankind itself.
Used as a way through which Golding criticises the romanticised view of boys' adventures like those in 'Coral Island' which is mentioned intertextually in the book and 'Treasure Island'.
Symbolises how some take the freedom from rules for granted (Jack, Roger, Maurice) while others still respect the rules even if they are not physically being enforced by figures of authority.
Represents a pristine place free from the influence of evil which eventually gets destroyed by the innate evil of the boys (some more than others) which is revealed as the novel progresses.

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Representative of law and order - the boys inflict the rules of the conch on themselves.
Only a symbol and a material object - worth no more than any other object they could have found but the meaning is what is most important for the boys. It is the only physical representation of anything authoritative on the island.
When Piggy is killed and the conch is broken, power is available to take and that is what Jack tries to do as soon as the conch and the idea of law and order is gone.
Also a representation of Piggy - he is the only one who recognizes the need for rules and restrictions and this is conveyed through the use of the conch as a representative of the rules and authority.
Symbol of democracy as it was the conch that got Ralph voted as chief on the island. The other boys saw Ralph as the one who blew the conch and decided to use their knowledge of the system of democracy to elect Ralph the chief.

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Represents scientific knowledge - can be used to help humanity (build the fire to cook and as a way for rescue) or to destroy it (spreads and kills a little boy and misused to get Ralph to come out of hiding).
Piggy's foresight - despite having impaired vision, Piggy has the wisdom and foresight to acknowledge the necessity of law, order and rules on the island and can see the results of letting go of the remnants of society and civilisation before the rest of the boys do.
Symbolises the blindness of the boys when succumbing to Jack's evil and his tribe. This results in their eyes being blinded to the reality of the situation and their actions which but they are still slightly aware of their choices and feel guilty.
At the moment of Piggy's death, complete blindness forces the boys into total darkness in which they become emotionally unattatched and feel no remorse for any of their previous actions or the ones they later perform.

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Literally represents the mark that was left by the plane that crashed and brought the boys to the island.
Represents the evil and destruction that mankind has brought and created in the world (done through the idea of the island being a microcosm of the world).
Golding wants to convey the idea that evil has left a permanent mark on the world which was created as a result of mankind and its capabilities of destruction.
Symbol of what happens when something beautiful is destroyed - death of little boy in fire leaves mark in Piggy's mind, death of Simon makes Ralph feel very guilty and the death of Piggy leaves a permanent scar in Ralph's mind of the one person that was always loyal to him and supported him.
The idea that no matter how hard the boys try to get on with their lives, they will never be able to remove the marks of their experience on the island from their minds - like the scar on the island is always there, whether the boys try to acknowledge its presence or not.

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Symbol of the power of the human mind - the beast is simply a figment of the boys' imaginations which from one or two of the boys, has spread, creating hysteria amongst the group.
Dead parachutist appears, encouraging the idea of there being a beast on the island - Golding's suggestion that the boys interpret incorrectly - man is the beast and the parachutist is the dead of man's own violence and behaviour.
The twins describe the beast like an animal (along with Simon thinking it is just themselves), suggesting the beast is the animal within them and there is no actual physical beast.
Simon thinks the beast is the darkness and innate evil within all of the boys (Freudian allegory).
Golding could be suggesting that the darkness and evil from people is what is causing all the problems in the world (just after World War Two and during the Cold War). Shows criticism of mankind and its evil.

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Represents the idea that without the contraints of society which made him look the way he did before (red hair covered, well-dressed), he can unleash his true behaviour and place any actions he takes on the mask and not himself.
Symbolic of the Nazi and Communist Parties - red, white and black were the colours of the Hitler's Nazi Germany and the communist Soviet Union - both enforced their systems of leadership through oppression and aggression, foreshadowing that Jack would do the same.
Further descent into savagery - body and face paint is typical of tribal groups which are often seen as less civilised than those living in normal progressed societies. Jack seems to be going from being a highly educated and upper class British boy to a savage tribal character.
The paint could also be Golding's criticism on how society's rules and laws create masks for people which surpress their inner true self as identified in the Freudian allegory and how society does not seem to allow people to be who they are within reason which results in the innate behaviour becoming stronger and more prevalent. When finally liberated, this behaviour is beyond the control of mankind and its rules.
May be the boys' true natures being revealed in the form of these tribal masks instead of being covered by the appearances society has created.

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