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Chapter 1 Golding's first chapter describes a new world, an uninhabited tropical island, which a group of English boys discover after their plane crashes, killing all the adults on board. The first two characters described are Ralph, the tall boy with fair hair, and Piggy, said by Golding to be a short and very fat child. While Ralph seems perfectly content and almost exited with the prospect of being free of adults and on his own in this strange island, Piggy, the perpetual voice of the adult world, is terrified by the idea of having no grown-ups to take charge. Piggy continually makes references to his auntie, who has instilled in him the logic and reasoning of adult England. Right away Piggy tries to make sense of their chaotic situation, telling Ralph that they need to hold a meeting and make a list of every boy's name. This again underscores Piggy's reliance on law and order to ensure his (and society's as a whole) well being. Yet Ralph doesn't go along with Piggy completely; often he rejects Piggy's ideas, saying, sucks to your auntie!Ralph, like Piggy, believes strongly in the idea that the boys' rescue is most important. He even boasts about his dad being a commander in the Navy. Right now, the whole episode seems like a tale of Swiss Family Robinson to Ralph; he doesn't recognize the deep consequences, which will quickly ensue. Golding describes Ralph's feelings of independence, narrating, Here at last was the imagined but never fully realized place leaping into real life. Ralph's lips parted in a delighted smile...
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Finally Ralph and Piggy find the conch shell. After tinkering with the fascinating object for a while, Ralph eventually finds the way to call from it by blowing into the shell. Piggy quickly seizes the opportunity, telling Ralph, We can use this to call the others. Have a meeting. They'll come when they hear us . Soon hosts of boys emerge from the jungle and along the beach, following the sound of the conch. Most of the boys are similar in dress except for Jack and his gang of choir members who wear all black. Immediately Jack turns on Piggy, ridiculing him for his weight and awkwardness. It obvious both of them won't get along. Also, it's soon apparent that Jack, their leader, is not willing to submit his authority to Ralph, and a direct confrontation quickly ensues when Roger calls for a vote for chief. Although all of the choir members vote for Jack in grudging obedience, Ralph wins the majority of votes mostly because he's the won who holds the conch. Eventually Ralph and Jack (who seems to function as a co-leader of sorts, though not officially) decide to take a tour of the island in order to determine that it is an island and also to make sure there isn't anyone else on it. Soon Simon joins them and the trio of exploration is complete. During the journey, the three experience a peaceful contentment of brotherhood and common purpose. Golding narrates, Eyes shining, mouths open, triumphant, they savored the right of domination. They were lifted up were friends. Here, the reader feels a genuine sense of hope that the boys, despite their differences, will ultimately get along and cooperatively find a mode of rescue. Golding concludes his first chapter with an eerie foreshadowing when he details the near killing of a pig, which the trio discovers on the trail. The pig especially enamors Jack, feeling a creeping desire to slay it with his knife. Yet Jack's anarchist, hunting influence hasn't had sufficient time to conquer the voice of reason articulated by Piggy. All three boys are afraid of actually taking the life of a living thing. Golding articulates their feelings, saying, They knew very well why he hadn't because of the enormity of the knife descending and cutting into living flesh; because of the unbearable blood. Soon Jack's attitude will change when the desire to kill transcends the necessity to obey. Chapter Golding's second chapter begins with a second, nightly meeting following the return of Ralph and the others from their trip around the island. Aside from a few exceptions, everyone respects the conch as the symbol of authority and it's soon established that anyone speaking with it in his hands must be listened to. First Ralph tells the assembly that indeed they are on a deserted island. He doesn't seem particularly upset at the idea that they are on their own; in fact he relishes the notion, confident in his own leadership abilities. Many routine things are established, such as the rule about speaking with the conch and respecting authority. Soon, Jack insists that the boys create an army of hunters, which he will lead to find food for the boys. Piggy, seemingly uninterested in this, takes the conch and addresses the crowd through his thick glasses, warning them that this is no game that no one knows where they are so a signal fire is of crucial importance. Ralph quickly agrees, bolstering Piggy's opinion.Now that all the major players have had their chance to speak, many of the littluns (slang for little ones) push a small boy with a mulberry-colored birthmark forward to tell Ralph and the others about the beastie which he and the other littluns are having nightmares about. After he admits his fears about the snake-like beast, there's uproar of laughter and Ralph and the other older kids quickly dispel the rumor, saying it's just in their imaginations.Finally the boys decide to build the fire, placing it on the top of the mountain. Although there's plenty of tinder and help carrying branches, the boys soon realize that they have no way to light it. Luckily, Piggy comes to the rescue, and the boys use his specs to start the signal fire. Soon there is more strife on the island, leading to a confrontation on the mountain between Jack and Piggy, which Ralph quickly diffuses. It seems Jack and his hunters don't give Piggy any respect, making fun of his looks and his obsession with the conch as a tool of his own authority. Quickly fire spreads outside of the fire-pit, leading to the burning of quite a sizable piece of the mountain. Piggy criticizes the others for this, calling them little kids. He continues, How can you expect to be rescued if you don't put first things first and act proper?Ominously, the littluns with the birthmark vanishes, leaving Piggy and the others worried. Unfortunately the real terror is yet to come for the boys on the island.Chapter Golding's third chapter begins with Jack hunting for pigs in the jungle. Meanwhile, Ralph and Simon keep busy working on the shelters. Ralph becomes upset that he and Simon are doing all of the work, realizing that everyone else is bathing, or eating, or playing. Soon the rivalry between Ralph and Jack grows tenser when Ralph criticizes Jack for neither helping with the shelters nor having any success as a hunter. Ralph asks Jack indignantly, Don't you want to be rescued? All you can talk about is pig, pig, pig! This is only a foreshadowing of the tension yet to come between these two. Later in the conversation, Jack admits to Ralph that he too seems to sense the presence of the beast on the island. He explains, If you're hunting sometimes you catch yourself feeling as if...you're not hunting, butbeing hunted, as if something's behind you all the time in the jungle. This is very telling because indeed there is something hunting Jackhimself. The evil nature of his own soul is preying on its good sideexemplified in Piggy and Ralph. All of the boys on the island (except perhaps Piggy) feel the beast, the anarchical side of themselves, growing in one way or another. Jack however is the most susceptible to this spirit.The last part of the chapter gives the reader a sense of Simon's strange behavior. Simon already is portrayed as a martyr of sorts, though in a very small way in this case. He reaches up to the higher branches to give the littluns fruit from the jungle. Later, he crawls beneath the undergrowth, leaving the others to be by himself in this mysterious tropical paradise. Chapter 4 The beginning of chapter four details the events of life as a littluns. Percival, Johnny, and Henry, three littluns, who suffer from unknown terror during the night but play happily during the day, are on the beach, near the ocean water, engaged in their usual trivialities. Soon Roger and Maurice, two of Jack's hunters, begin to harass the boys, kicking over their sandcastles and throwing stones near them. These events are precursors to the actual violence Roger and Maurice will use later in the novel to threaten Ralph and Piggy. Yet for the time being, there is an invisible wall of protection around Henry, whom Roger throws stones near. Roger's conditioning of the old world is still present but will soon wear off. The second major theme of the chapter is the adoption of face paint by Jack and the hunters. Wearing masks of green and other colors, the boys feel compelled to hunt the pig, being much more brave than normal. Golding explains that with the masks, the boys were liberated from shame and self-consciousness. Meanwhile, Piggy is thinking about a sundial. This again shows how Piggy is thinking logically about tools, which could help the boys. Yet not even Ralph accepts this, saying that it's not practical. The other boys on the island dislike Piggy in general. Golding explains, There had grown up tacitly among the biguns the opinion that Piggy was an outsider, not only by accent, which did not matter, but by fat, and ass-mar, and specs, and a certain disinclination for manual labor. The others hate Piggy because he is the only one (except Ralph) unwilling to give up the logic and order of the old world of adults.Soon the rivalries between the two schools of thought are again in conflict when Jack and his hunters abandon the fire to hunt. When the fire goes out, Piggy and Ralph are enraged, seeing a ship, which wasn't able to see them because there was no smoke signal. When confronted, Jack shrugs off the whole thing, starting a group chant and dance with his hunters concerning the pig hunt. Golding explains the two sides, saying, There was the brilliant world of hunting, tactics, fierce exhilaration, skill, and there was the world of longing and baffled common sense.Chapter 5 Chapter five begins with Ralph deep in thought about what he should do as chief. It seems that Ralph is losing his authority over many of the boys, especially Jack and the hunters. Though Piggy is always at his side to remind him, a still graver problem is emerging for Ralph he is forgetting the purpose of the signal fire. Like Jack and the hunters who have already forgotten, Ralph too is growing more and more susceptible to the beast's power of persuasion. Soon Ralph calls another meeting to discuss matters. Here, it's made obvious that everyone is becoming more fearful of the beast. Even Jacks's hunters say that they dream of the beast at night. Soon killing the pigs is associated with killing Piggy. Although the boys make a joke of this, Golding is very clever in the way he links the two ideas. Indeed killing the pigs is like killing Piggy because with each successful hunt, Piggy loses more and more power as an advocate of order. This is evident from the partial breaking of his glasses. Giving into the beast by hunting is parallel to betraying Piggy, who rejects hunting as a worthwhile endeavor. During the meeting there is a continued and heightened sense that the beast is real. One of the littluns believes that the beast comes from the sea. This fear is further strengthened when Simon, the first of the biguns to do so, admits the possibility of there being a beast on the island. This makes sense, since Simon is the only one of the boys with the moral conscious to identify the beast when he perceives it. Indeed Simon has a greatly heightened perception of matters the other boys can't understand. This is being made clearer later in the novel.Piggy, too, senses something, though not as easily as Simon. Piggy confides to Ralph his fear of Jack. He says, I'm scared of him, and that's why I know him. If you're scared of someone you hate him but you can't stop thinking about him... Soon Piggy tells Ralph that Jack hates him too, and this is the first time Ralph realizes that indeed Jack hates him. It's at this time that Ralph clearly sees the distinction between Jack and himself.Chapter 6 Golding's sixth chapter starts with a very eerie introduction. He details the nighttime arrival of a parachutist onto the mountain of the island. It's often speculated that this is the plane's pilot, yet Golding never confirms this one way or the other. The man in the parachute is dead that's for sure. Golding narrates, There was a sudden bright explosion and corkscrew trail across the sky; then darkness again and stars. There was a speck above the island, a figure dropping swiftly beneath a parachute, a figure that hung with dangling limbs.Samneric, who are tending the fire, see this figure and run down to the shelters to tell the frightening news to Ralph. When morning comes. Jack and Ralph decide to seek out the beast at Castle Rock, and if they don't find him there, they will search the mountain. Ralph leads the way, and Jack follows; yet when they reach the top no beast is in sight. This frustrates all the boys, but especially Ralph, who vents his frustrations on Jack. He tells the hunter, We want smoke. And you go wasting your time. You roll rocks.The hunters want to stay at Castle Rock to build a fort and roll more rocks, but Ralph convinces them to follow him to the mountain. Chapter 7 This chapter begins with the boys following the winding pig-runs, up the side of the mountain to its peak. Though everyone is nervous about confronting the beast, somehow Simon knows that Ralph will make it back all right. When Ralph tells Simon he's batty, Simon gets angry, again insisting that Ralph will return from the mountain safely. What's strange about this dialogue is the fact that Simon never predicts his own safe return. Like Christ on the Garden of Gethsemane, Simon knows that he will die soon. On the trip to the mountain, which also serves as a pig hunt, Ralph sees a pig and spears it. He is shocked and enamored by his own success, saying, I hit him! The spear stuck in . Unfortunately the pig escapes, wounded, and Jack's tribe is upset at Ralph for not bringing it down.To make up for their loss, Jack and the hunters decide to pretend to be killing the pig, using Robert as the sow. Even Ralph can't resist the temptation of killing. Golding explains the motives in the minds of the boys. The desire to squeeze and hurt was over-mastering.Soon Jack decides to go to the mountain alone (he's the only one willing) to kill the beast. After awhile Jack comes running back to the group. Golding narrates, There was a slithering noise high above them, the sound of someone taking giant and dangerous strides on rock or ash. Then Jack found them, and was shivering and croaking in a voice they could just recognize as his. 'I saw a thing on top.'Eventually everyone decides to go up and look together. What they see is nightmarish. Golding again narrates, Behind them the silver of moon had drawn clear of the horizon. Before them, something like a great ape was sitting asleep with its head between its knees. Then the wind roared in the forest, there was confusion in the darkness and the creature lifted its head, holding toward them the ruin of a face. Quickly everyone runs back to the shelters on the shore in sheer terror.Chapter 8 Golding's eighth chapter begins with a meeting on the shore following the previous night of fright and unknown terror. It seems the beast is very close to the fire, which has long since gone out. Ralph suggests that the beast doesn't want them rescued; indeed he doesn't. Soon Jack confronts Ralph in front of the assembly. He tells his hunters the lie that Ralph said they were no good. Then he calls for another vote for chief. When no one votes for him, he becomes suddenly embarrassed and starts crying. He tells them, I'm not going to play any longer. Not with you. I'm not going to be a part of Ralph's lot.When Jack leaves, three things occur Ralph thinks that matters are hopeless; Piggy suggests building the fire on the shore; Simon decides to confront the beast.Piggy is thrilled that Jack, his archenemy, has left Ralph and the others. Golding narrates, Piggy was so full of delight and expanding liberty in Jack's departure, so full of pride in his contribution to the good of society, that he helped to fetch wood.Soon Ralph and Piggy realize that many of the others are slowly and silently deserting camp to join Jack. Maurice, Bill, and Roger (Jack's strongest supporters) are first to go. Simon has also left but for a different reasonhe wants to find the beast, not to kill it, but to find out what it is and what it wants.Meanwhile Jack and his dedicated followers go back to their hunt for pigs. When they see a large sow with piglets, they attack her, throwing dozens of spears into her body until she finally collapses in the middle of an open field. Yet this kill is different. Golding explains, Then Jack found the throat and the hot blood spouted over his hands. The sow collapsed under them and they were heavy and fulfilled upon her. The butterflies still danced, preoccupied in the center of the clearing. This marks a major turning point for the adolescent boys. The pig satisfies not only their desire to kill, but also their sexual need. This is further exemplified when Robert boasts, Right up her ass!Soon the boys cut off the head of the pig and leave it poking up from the ground on a stick sharpened at both ends. This is a sacrifice to the beast, or so they say. Simon also is nearby, but for a different reason. Now he can confront the beast in his own way. Soon Simon begins hearing statements from the beast. The Lord of the Flies tells Simon I know that when Simon thinks to himself about the infinite cynicism of adult life.Eventually the beast begins speaking to Simon more directly. The Lord of the Flies tells him, Fancy thinking the Beast was something you could hunt and kill! You knew, didn't you? I'm part of you? Close, close, close! I'm the reason why it's no go? Why things are what they are? This overwhelms Simon, seeing himself inside the mouth of the beast, losing consciousness and falling down. Meanwhile, Jack and his hunters in face paint, steal fire for Ralph and Piggy. Chapter Golding's ninth chapter mostly concerns Simon. The chapter begins with Simon sleeping in the creepers. Golding explains, With the running of the blood Simon's fit passed into the weariness of sleep.Yet Simon is much changed from the preceding affairs concerning his conversation with the beast. Again Golding explains, The usual brightness was gone from his eyes and he walked with a sort of glum determination like an old man. Simon has lost his innocence; he knows more than anyone else about the beast, which is taking its toll on his body.The parachute man is soon swarmed with the flies. This is quite fittingthe order that the man represents is being replaced with the chaos of the beast. This also is parallel to the pain Piggy gets in his head at this time. His logic is being impaired as the beast grows in power and control of their island society. Soon Simon decides to tell the others about the beast. Golding narrates Simon's thoughts. The beast was harmless and horrible; and the news must reach the others as soon as possible.The change in power from the parachutist to the Lord of the Flies mirrors the change in power from Ralph to Jack. Golding follows, Power lay in the brown swell of his forearms; authority sat on his shoulder and chattered in his ear like an ape. Here, the author proves that Jack has replaced Ralph as chief, not democratically, but practically. Soon all the boys, including Ralph and Piggy, congregate around a bonfire where the sow is being cooked and eaten. During another of their pagan-like chanting ceremonies where they pretend to kill the pig, Simon appears. In the darkness the boys believe that Simon is the beast, so they descend upon him, slowly murdering the poor boy. Simon's body gradually floats out to sea. Here the Christ metaphor for Simon is strongest. Chapter 10 Like the opening scene of the novel, chapter ten begins with two figures alone on the beachRalph and Piggy. Both of them are very frightened about their future; both feel guilty for taking part in the previous night's feast, which turned out to be Simon's murder. Piggy won't believe that he had anything to do with it, saying that it was just an unfortunate accident. Soon Samneric appear, helping to keep up the fire on the shore. Ralph seems to forget the meaning of the fire, however. Golding explains, Ralph tried indignantly to remember. There was something good about a fire. Something overwhelmingly good. Here again is proof that Ralph is becoming increasingly weary as the power of the beast infects his soul. Piggy, of course, comes to the rescue, reminding Ralph that the fire is the only way for the boys to be saved. That night, Jack and his hunters raid Ralph's camp, taking the fire and stealing Piggy's glasses. Soon it will be all over the adult world of logic.Chapter 11 This chapter begins with Ralph, Piggy, and the twins recovering from the previous night's battle with Jack and the hunters. Ralph blows desperately at the fire, but there are no sparks. Without Piggy's glasses there is no way to start another fire either. The situation has become hopeless for Ralph and his few remaining followers. Piggy soon shows his rage and contempt for Jack when he tells Ralph, I got the conch. I'm going to that Jack Merridew an' tell him, I am. Ralph and the twins decide to follow Piggy's lead and confront Jack and the hunters at Castle Rock. They decide to carry spears while Piggy brings the conch, his last semblance of order. When the two tribes meet each other at the hunter's fortress of Castle Rock, words and stones are hurled back and forth, eventually leading to a fight between the two chiefs. This fight ends in a draw, but Samneric are quickly taken as prisoners. This inspires Jack and his hunters to become more aggressive. When Piggy screams at them in desperation, Which is betterto have rules and agree, or to hunt and kill? the hunters are enraged. Roger, Jack's torture specialist, rolls a giant boulder down the hill, striking Piggy head on. Instantly Piggy's body is hurled over the ledge, crashing onto a rock below revealing his blood and guts before his corpse is washed away with a wave from the ocean. Ralph, in savage-like panic, crashes through the foliage, escaping the situation, which has killed his only source of encouragement. Chapter 1 In this chapter, Ralph loses his sanity, not believing the events he has witnessed. Ralph approaches the fortress again at night, when Samneric are serving as guards. They tell Ralph that Jack is planning a hunt for him tomorrow, and he will surely be killed unless he finds a clever place to hide. Ralph tells them that he'll hide in the thicket near Castle Rock. The next morning, Roger sharpens a stick at both ends, signaling the time for another big hunt and showing that now Ralph has become the beast the boys must kill. Soon Samneric tell the others where Ralph is hiding, betraying their loyalty to him. This devastates Ralph, who can't reason any longer. Golding explains his feelings, There was no Piggy to talk sense. There was no solemn assembly for debate nor dignity of the conch. The rest of the chapter is dedicated to the hunt, which almost kills Ralph several times. In desperation, Ralph runs out into the ocean, trying to escape Jack and the savages. To Ralph's surprise, he almost runs into a naval officer, who asks what is going on and where the adults are. Ralph tells him that two people have been killed. The puzzled officer takes Ralph and the others aboard, and their deadly battle is over.Golding explains, Ralph wept for the end of innocence, the darkness of man's heart, and the fall through the air of the true, wise friend called Piggy. In this way, though the boys are rescued, the novel has anything but a happy ending. Indeed Golding's dark vision of man has come true all men are inherently evil.Character Profiles Jack Jack is described by Golding as tall, thin, and bony; and his hair was red beneath the black cap. His face was crumpled and freckled, and ugly without silliness. Out of this face stared two light blue eyes, frustrated now, and turning, or ready to turn, to anger. Jack is the leading advocate of anarchy on the island. Jack is the leader of the savage tribe, which hunts the pigs. Opposed to Ralph and Piggy on almost all matters, Jack represents the id of one's personalityhe supports the notion that one's desires are most important and should be followed, regardless of reason or morals.Jack is the kind of person, which Golding believed everyone would eventually become if left alone to set one's own standards and live the way one naturally wanted. Golding believed that the natural state of humans is chaos and that man is inherently evil. When reason is abandoned, only the strong survive. Jack personifies this idea perfectly. Piggy Golding as short and very fat describes Piggy. It's no coincidence that Piggy's nickname is such; the overwhelming emotion Jack and his hunters have to kill the pig is an indirect and clever author metaphor to suggest the boys are also killing a part of Piggy. In fact, while Jack and his gang continue to kill more pigs, the logic and reason, which Piggy symbolizes progressively, diminishes with the pigs. Piggy's hair never grows, suggesting that he is not vulnerable to the progression of savagery the other boys seem to be drawn towards. Piggy represents the law and order of the adult world. He is the superego, the part of man's personality, which attempts to act according to an absolute set of standards. Throughout the novel, Piggy attempts to condition the island society to mirror the society they all lived in England. Piggy's continual references to his auntie demonstrate this philosophy. He tries to pull Ralph towards the reason-oriented side of human nature.Piggy is obsessed with the signal-fire. This is because he wants to return to England where adults are, but also because the fire is one of the only symbols of order on the island. When the fire goes out, Piggy mentally collapses.Ralph Ralph is the main protagonist of the novel; he has fair hair and is very tall and thin. Jack is the only other character who is close in physical stature to Ralph. This is appropriate since these characters represent two competing philosophies of life on the island.Golding uses Ralph do represent the perfect humansomeone who does well but isn't so out-of-touch that he can't relate to normal human temptations. This is the Ralph of the beginning of the novel. Later, however, Ralph grows distant from Piggy, the good side, and grows closer to Jack, the anarchical side of human nature. In his way, Ralph represents the ego of the human personality. He must compromise both the id (the 'if it feels good does it' attitude of Jack) and the superego (the strict adherence to the logic and order of the adult world symbolized through Piggy).After Piggy's death, Ralph finds it impossible to determine what action to take next. This goes along with Golding's view that if left alone, human nature will naturally be pulled to the id side of one's personality.Roger Roger becomes a self-proclaimed torturer and executioner for Jack and the rest of the tribe. Even at the beginning of the book when Roger throws stones at Henry, Golding shows that the seed of anarchy has taken root and is spreading in the hunter's mind. Roger symbolizes man's natural tendency to cause harm to others. Sam & Eric These twins represent the need humans have for moral support from others. Sam and Eric are so connected that they must do everything together. As soon as one of them takes an action, the other follows. Both twins respect Ralph because he offers them a sense of security. Sam n' Eric's main job throughout the novel is to tend the fire.Soon, however, when Jack and his hunters threaten the sense of security Ralph provides, Samneric decide to join Jack's tribe (after they are threatened). Later, they even betray Ralph, showing his hiding place to the others. In this way, Samneric symbolize the weakness of human nature. When really pressed, these twins decide to join the dark side.Simon Golding as one of the in-between boys describes Simon-- a skinny, vivid little boy with straight, coarse black hair. Simon shares the experiences of both the littluns and the older boys. He has the innocent perceptions and feelings of littluns but the knowledge of the biguns.However, Simon is alienated from the rest of the group. He takes life much more seriously than the others, being plagued with a certain moral consciousness, which the other boys don't understand. Simon has a heightened perception, even more so than Piggy. Simon is unique because he can actually hear the voice of the beast. He realizes that the beast is not something one can kill because it's inside the boys.Most importantly, Simon makes the connection between the dead parachutist and the Lord of the Flies. He understands that with the death of the man in the parachute, which symbolizes the death of reason, the chaos of the Lord of the Flies is free to reign supreme.Lastly, Simon is seen as a Christ figure. He gives up his own life in an attempt to tell the rest of the boys about the beast. Yet when he crawls out of the forest, Jack and his hunters see him as the beast, and murder his body, which floats out to sea. Beast The beast, the Lord of the Flies, is seen as a real object on the island, which frightens the boys. Actually the beast is something internal; the Lord of the Flies is in soul and mind of the boys, leading them to the natural chaos of a society with no reasoning adults. Only Simon understands what the real beast is, but is killed when he tries to tell the boys about the Lord of the Flies.Conch The conch shell symbolizes the law and order of the old adult world, which Piggy tries so desperately to protect. The conch represents all the authority, which the boys are so used to obeying. When Jack destroys the conch, anarchy quickly ensues because any hope of strong, central leadership has been abandoned. The island society collapses into chaos. Face paint This is the excuse many of the boys use for living as hunting savages, instead of civilized English citizens. The paint symbolizes the smoke screen the beast uses to infiltrate the boys' souls.Fire/Smoke The smoke of the signal fire symbolizes the last best hope of the boys being rescued. To Piggy and Ralph, the fire represents the moral influence of their old life in England. When the fire goes out, Ralph loses his bearings, unsure of his next move. The fire is diatonically opposed to hunting, the activity of anarchy on the island. Island Golding purposefully picked an island to be the landing place of the crashed plane because an island is isolated from the rest of society. The boys have no contact with the outside world and must look to themselves to solve the problems of their own micro-society. In this way, the island, which symbolizes isolation, serves as a perfect backdrop for the frailties of human nature, which eventually surface. Glasses The glasses symbolize the voice of reason and logic among the boys. Piggy defends his glasses even more than the conch. Piggy, who represents the superego of the boys' (and society's) collective personality, uses his glasses to find solutions to the boys' problems. The most important solution the glasses find is the lighting of the fire, the boys' best chance of being rescued.The Parachute Man The dead body flying in the parachute symbolizes the end of adult supervision of the boys on the island. While the parachute man is flapping back and forth on the island, conjuring up a powerful image of its prolonged death, the Beast, or Lord of the Flies, is prospering under its new control over Jack and most of the other boys on the island. So while the law and order of the adult world is waning, childish chaos is growing exponentially. Simon has a special connection with the parachute man. He climbs the mountain, subconsciously, to determine whether the parachute man is still alive. When he finds out that the man is dead and that the Beast is alive, Simon has a nervous breakdown. The moral confrontation, which occurs when Simon has the interview with the Lord of the Flies, symbolizes man's inability to conquer the evil anarchy of the devil. Theme Analysis The theme of Lord of the Flies has been questioned and speculated about for decades. To answer the critics, Golding said that the theme was to trace the problems of society back to the sinful nature of man. He wrote the book to show how political systems cannot govern society effectively without first taking into consideration the defects of human nature.The defects of human nature are exemplified in Golding's novel through the characters of Jack and his hunters. Here, Golding shows that men are inherently evil; if left alone to fend for themselves, they will revert back to the savage roots of their ancestors. This is seen in the novel near the end, when the tribe is hunting Ralph. Matters had become quite out of hand by this time. Even the naval officer who saves the boys knows their society has become savage. Yet Golding's last comment in his press release criticizes not only the boys on the island but also the society of adults in which the officer lives. Golding askswhile the ship saves the boys from killing each other, who will save the ship from killing other ships or being killed? In this way the society of the outside world mirrors the island society on a larger level. Remember that the novel takes place during World War II. Golding got the idea for the book because of his experiences in the war, where he served in the Navy and learned the inherent sinfulness of man. It's interesting that the war is mentioned indirectly at the beginning and end of the novel but nowhere in between. This is a remarkable literary device of Golding.After reading any significant portion of this site, it will become obvious that Piggy and Jack symbolize two opposite extremes of human behavior while Ralph is pulled between these philosophies. Piggy demands adherence to the rules of his auntie while Jack subscribes to the philosophy, If it's fun, do it. Ralph empathizes with parts of both sides; that is why he walks the tight rope. Eventually he seems to side with Piggy, but actually Ralph never changes his philosophyit is Jack and the rest of the boys who become more extreme in theirs (hunting humans, forming their own tribe, etc.). In this way Ralph portrays the role of government in any modern society. While he wants to satisfy the wishes of the public, he must also realize that certain rules of behavior must be followed in order to prevent anarchy.Unfortunately anarchy defeats order. This is the outcome because Golding believed that government is an ineffective way to keep people together. No matter how logical or reasonable, government will eventually have to give in to the anarchical demands of the public. For alternate themes, see the character sections-- especially the Simon profile. Top Ten Quotes 1) Piggy We can use this to call the others. Have a meeting. They'll come when they hear us . ) Ralph This is our island. It's a good island. Until the grown-ups come to fetch us we'll have fun.) Ralph There's another thing. We can help them to find us. If a ship comes near the island they may not notice us. So we must make smoke on top of the mountain. We must make a fire. 4) Piggy How can you expect to be rescued if you don't put first things first and act proper?5) Golding There was the brilliant world of hunting, tactics, fierce exhilaration, skill, and there was the world of longing and baffled common-sense.6) Golding However Simon thought of the beast, there rose before his inward sight the picture of a human at once heroic and sick.7) Golding Then Jack found the throat and the hot blood spouted over his hands. The sow collapsed under them and they were heavy and fulfilled upon her. The butterflies still danced, preoccupied in the center of the clearing.8) The Lord of the Flies Fancy thinking the Beast was something you could hunt and kill! You knew, didn't you? I'm part of you? Close, close, close! I'm the reason why it's no go? Why things are what they are?) Golding A stick sharpened at both ends.10) Ralph, thinking to himself What was the sensible thing to do? There was no Piggy to talk sense. 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