A STUDY OF SYMBOLS IN
GOLDING’S LORD OF THE FLIES
AN UNDERGRADUATE THESIS
Presented in Partial Fulfillment of The Requirements to Obtain Sarjana Sastra Degree
in English Letters
By
Wisnu Nurcahyo
Student Number: 994214115
ENGLISH LETTERS DEPARTMENT
FACULTY OF LETTERS
SANATA DHARMA UNIVERSITY
YOGYAKARTA
2007
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A Sarjana Sastra Undergraduate Thesis
A STUDY OF SYMBOLS IN
GOLDING’S LORD OF THE FLIES
By
WISNU NURCAHYO
Student number: 994214115
Approved by
Tatang Iskarna S.S., M. Hum 12 June 2007
Advisor
Adventina Putranti, S.S 12 June 2007
Co-Advisor
A Sarjana Sastra Undergraduate Thesis
A STUDY OF SYMBOLS AS SEEN IN
GOLDING’S LORD OF THE FLIES
By
WISNU NURCAHYO
Student number : 994214115
Defended before the Board of Examiners on June 29, 2007
and Declared Acceptable
BOARD OF EXAMINERS
Name Signature
Chairman: Dr. Fr. Alip, M. Pd., M. ---
Secretary: Drs.Hirmawan Wijanarka, M.Hum. ---
Member: P. Sarwoto, S, S M.A ---
Member: Tatang Iskarna S.S., M. Hum. ---
Member:Adventina Putranti, S.S.,M.Hum
---Yogyakarta, June 29, 2007 Faculty of Letters Sanata Dharma University
Dean
Dr. Fr. Alip, M. Pd., M.
Dedicated To:
My Beloved Father and Mother
& Big Family
My Brother and Family
My Beloved Brother
All of My Friends
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ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
First of all, I would like to thank Allah SWT’s love and blessings are the greatest guidance in finishing this thesis. After and until this time I could pass all the troubles.
My gratitude goes to my advisor, Tatang Iskarna S.S., M. Hum and my co-advisor, Adventina Putranti, S.S who have read, re-read, criticized, and corrected my undergraduate thesis. I truly appreciate their help, support, time, valuable suggestions and opinions during my undergraduate thesis writing. Their sincere guidance has encouraged me to make my thesis better and better up to the end.
I also would like to give my deepest gratitude to my beloved parents. From the bottom of my heart, I thank them for their love, patience, understanding and all of the financial support throughout the years so that this thesis is being done. I finally can pass all of this!!! And to my beloved brother‘s family, my nephew”Athaya Malik Abinaya” just be a good boy, OK.
My next gratitude is given to my friends in “Cantel 353”, Hendro “Ebo” Thank you man for the support, Nickholas “Itho”, Danaz “Mletik”, Dody “Bahjury”, Dady “Betet”, Dony “Adhon”, Awal “Awenk”, Chico, Rolieb “Genthong” and Udin “Pelor”, I thank them for the wonderful moment we share together. I will never forget those moments’ guys. Thanks a lot!!!
To lovely friends in Sanata Dharma University; Genter, Ebo, Itut, Agung, Lita, and Amel King-Kong, etc. I thank them for being such nice friends. I really admire their sincere love to make my study full of hue and happiness.
I would like to say thank for all friends that I’ve ever met, for fulfilling my live with sadness or happiness until this time. To Akbar”BOW” & Adhi “Keep on Rock n Roll” guys, thanks for the happy moments that we share together.
Wisnu Nurcahyo
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CHAPTER II THEORITICAL REVIEW... 7
B.4. The Mask or the Face Paint ... 41
B.5. The Shelters ... 43
B.6. The Rocks ... 44
B.7. The Knife... 44
B.8. The Beast ... 45
B.9. The Lord of the Flies... 48
B.10. The Island ... 49
CHAPTER V CONCLUSION... 51
BIBLIOGRAPHY... 55
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ABSTRACT
WISNU NURCAHYO. Willliam Golding’s The Lord of the Flies: A
STUDY OF SYMBOLS IN GOLDING’S LORD OF THE FLIES
Yogyakarta: Departement of English Letters, Faculty of Letters, Sanata Dharma University, 2007.
This thesis is talking about a study of Symbols in William Golding’s The Lord of the Flies. The object of the analysis is a famous novel which dealing with a lot of symbols since the author Golding makes use of symbolism to represent his idea. In this novel, symbols takes great part to the whole story. Symbols which are found on the novel most of them are desribed the world at that time, which is in a war. And war was a great misfortune which brings disaster and misery to people’s life. On the analysis, there were so many symbols found and this analysis wants to study more of those symbols, so that they will helps to understand the writer’s idea. The novel’s setting is in the end of the Second World War of English society. The main characters of this novel most of them are children age between six to twelve years old.
There are two questions that emerge as the problem of this thesis. The two questions are: 1) what are the symbols found in the novel 2) what do the symbols signify.
This thesis uses the library research as the method of the study. Theories of symbol are used to do the analysis. The theories of symbol by Rohgberger, Holman, Myers and Simms are also used since this thesis is going to discuss the symbols deeper. The method of the gathering data used in this thesis is library research. The writer uses a novel from William Golding Lord of the Flies and several books to collect information about literature and its element. In order to analyze the two problems, the writer uses an exponential approach, since this approach pays more attention to the symbols and images in the literary work.
The symbols found in the story are: The Conch Shell, Island, Glasses, Signal Fire, The Mask or The Face Paint, Beast, Lord of The Flies, Shelters, Rock, and Knife. Those symbols can be concluded as the important symbols in the story because of their appearance capacity in the story, yet those symbols are connected one and another so they are form a great and interesting story to the reader.
ABSTRAK
WISNU NURCAHYO. Willliam Golding’s The Lord of the Flies: A STUDY OF SYMBOLS IN GOLDING’S LORD OF THE FLIES Yogyakarta: Departement of English Letters, Faculty of Letters, Sanata Dharma University, 2007.
Skripsi ini membahas tentang analisis simbol-simbol dari novel William Golding yang berjudul The Lord of the Flies. Objek dari analisi ini adalah novel terkenal , yang berhubungan dengan simbol-simbol yang mana pengarangnya, Golding, menggunakan simbol-simbol tersebut untuk merepresentasikan idea-idenya. Dalam novel ini, simbol-simbol sangat mendominasi pada keseluruhan cerita. Simbol-simbol yang ditemukan dalam novel ini sebagian besar menbggambarkan keadaan dunia pada waktu itu, dalam keadaan atau masa perang. Dan hanya mendatangkan bencana dan kesedihan bagi masyarakat. Dalam analisi ditemukan begitu banyak simbol yang dapat dan sangat membantu untuk memahami lebih dalam isi atau makna novel ini. Novel ini berlatarbelakang pada pasca berakhirnya Perang Dunia II pada masyarakat Inggris. Sebagian besar karakter utama dalam novel ini adalah anak –anak usia 6 sampai 12 tahun.
Ada dua pertanyaan yang muncul sebagai masalah dalam skripsi ini, yaitu:1) simbol –simbol apa saja yang ada dari novel ini 2) simbol-simbol tersebut mengacu pada hal apa.
Skripsi ini menggunakan studi pustaka sebagai metode dari penelitiannya. Teori-teori simbol digunakan dalam melakukan analisis. Teori simbol oleh Rohgberger, Holman, Myers and Simms digunakan dalam skripsi ini karena skripsi ini akan membahas simbol-simbol secara lebih mendalam. Studi pustaka adalah metode yang digunakan dalam skripsi ini. Penulis menggunakan novel dari William Golding Lord of the Flies dan beberapa buku lainnya untuk menggumpulkan informasi-informasi tentang sastra dan elemen-elemen yang ada di dalamnya. Untuk menganalisis kedua permasalahan diatas, penulis menggunakan pendekatan eksponential, dikarenakan pendekatan ini lebih mengacu pada simbol-simbol dan images dalam suatu karya sastra.
Simbol-simbol yang ditemukan dalam novel ini antara lain The Conch Shell, The Island, The Glasses, The Signal Fire, The Mask or The Face Paint, Beast, The Lord of The Flies, The Shelters, The Rock, and The Knife. Simbol-simbol tersebut dapat digolongkan sebagai symbol-Simbol-simbol yang penting dalam novel ini karena kapasitasnya yang sering muncul dan symbol-simbol tersebut saling berhubungan satu dengan yang lainnya.Sehingga symbol-simbol itu membentuk suatu alur cerita yang menarik bagi pembacanya.
1 CHAPTER I
INTRODUCTION
A. Background of the Study
Literary works are men’s creation in the form of writings that are valued as works of art such as essay, short story, novel, drama and poetry. Fictions are included as literary work because fictions are purely the reflection of human beings life that is influenced by their imagination. Literary works are in contrast with technical works, newspapers, and magazines because they represent human being’s life and are influenced by the author’s ideology, morality, social background, education and religion. Literary works also offer something that makes them different from technical books. In technical books they just offer something that is real and certain but literary works offer more than that, that is also useful for human’s life (Wellek and Warren, 1962:58)
Literature is one of the great creative and comprehensive ways of communicating the emotional, spiritual, or the intellectual apprehension of mankind. It can help the readers to develop their intelligence and also their personality by read and understand the literature itself.. Literature also provides an objective base on the reader’s knowledge and understanding.
and the emotion. Then we will find it easier to go back for a second or third reading in which we concentrate more on identifying the major ideas.
We can analyze literature by discussing about the theme, plot, character, or other elements of literary work. Symbol is one of the important elements on literary. By learning and understand its meaning in contributing the story, we can get the authors purpose. In analyzing Golding’s Lord of the Flies, we can see a lot of symbols that can be found.
This thesis will discuss one important element in a novel. That is symbol. Symbol is a term, name, or even a picture that may be familiar to daily life, yet it implies something rogue, unknown, or hidden from us.
In A Glossary of Literary Terms states that symbol is anything, which signifies something else; in this sense, all words are symbols. In discussing literature, the term symbol is applied only to a word or phrase that signifies an object or an event that in turn signifies something, or has a range of reference (Abrams, 1971:195).
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constant element in the story. And the third, a symbol in the story helps us to define or clarify the purpose of the story (1965:32).
The reason why the writer chooses this novel is because the writer thinks that this novel has a strong indication of symbols. And these symbols are some kind of guide line to understand the whole elements in the story. And also as these symbols came through or happened on the characters whom are all children and during their long-lived on the deserted island, they can commit many actions that considered beyond the thinking of a child at their age. Moreover, the reason why the author chooses children instead of adolescents, or even adult, most likely because children have not been fully conditioned by society to understand right from wrong, and thus in ignorance. Most of them are guided by their instincts and what is inherent within them. Furthermore, in this analysis Golding makes use of symbolism which is made such a great impact to this novel. Therefore, Golding make deliberant use of symbolism, he chooses his symbols within care that will help the reader to understand his idea.
first and greatest success novel which became a best seller in both Britain and United States. Golding was awarded the Nobel Prize for literature in 1983 and then he died in 1993.
The writer is interested in Golding’s work, The Lord of the Flies, because the story is simple but meaningful for the reader. It is simple because the story can be enjoyed by all kinds of people with less difficulty, and it is also meaningful because in this simplicity the reader can find much moral values and lessons of life.
Golding as the author describes how inherited can suddenly occurs to every human being. He shows that savagery can be occurred even to a child. This novel shows that Golding’s ability in writing skill, especially on boys’ fiction novel and his way in combining the setting, the symbols and the characters which create such a great story like this novel. Here the writer chooses this novel to be discussed due to interest in observing the symbols. Therefore the study will be concerned with the symbols.
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hunt food for the entire group. Ralph as the chosen leader makes the rules that any one who wants to talk has to hold the conch, a shell like object that projects a monotonous tone when it is blown. But all things that Ralph made was ruined by Jack and their members, after Jack intimidate the other child by introducing the beast and when he decided to built a new tribe which elects him as the leader of that tribe. Soon after, a major confrontation between Jack and Ralph occurs on the beach. Ralph is accused of cowardice by Jack and Jack moves to remove Ralph from leader of the group of boys. He is humiliated though, as none of the boys voted for his takeover. So this becomes a battle of Jack’s tribe with Ralph’s tribe. But at the end of the story, Ralph wins this battle even though he must lose all of his friends.
B. Problem Formulation
1. What are the symbols found in the story? 2. What do the symbols signify in the story?
C. Objectives of the Study
The objective of the study is focused on influential things to get better understanding of the symbol. The objectives here are the aims of this paper concerned with the questions in problem formulation. In brief this thesis aims:
1. Give explanation about what are the symbols found in the story.
D. Definition of Terms
In order to give the readers a clearer understanding of the title and the analysis, the writer here will give the meaning of the complicated words:
7 CHAPTER II
THEORETICAL REVIEW
A. Review of Related Studies
The first criticism that deals with Golding’s Lord of the Flies is stated by Velissaries Valsamas:
Lord of the Flies, is a great novel in which W. Golding explaining the real nature of human being, which i9s not as innocent as we think. The young boys, before they have received the complete procedure of social formation, when they have to live in a world where they make the rules, they become savages and merciless like the animals. These ideas of W. Golding, game a complete explanation to the atrocities of war. War is a “game” which human knows from the beginning of his life.
(http://www.goecities.com/athens/forum/6429/reviews.htm)
A good novel arouses responses from other writers. Comments or criticisms might be discussing the intrinsic aspects of the novel such as plot, theme, characters and extrinsic aspects of a novel. Some criticisms which are found by searching the internet will be used in this analysis.
Lord of the Flies can be considered a classical novel. A classic in the respect that the author creates special circumstances under which abnormal actions and functions mutate into everyday activity (www.sjsu.edu/depts/golding) All of these concepts and ideals are generated by Golding to finally produce a novel of both perplexity and perfection.
The problems or the conflicts presented in a novel may interest the critics to give their opinions toward the novel. It could make the writer get stimulated to create a better book in the future.
Many critics say that Golding’s Lord of the Flies is affected by R.M Ballantyne’s The Coral Island, a classic adventure story of young boys on a desert- island (Hudson 1969: 5). Actually, Golding himself admits, explicitly or implicitly, that this Lord of the Flies has a kick-off in Ballantyne’s The Coral Island. In his interview in 1980 he said:
I think it’s possible that my books sometimes have a kick-off in other books, but only because my human experience has made me feel that, in those circumstances, I know better. Lord of the Flies had a sort of genesis in seeing how ridiculous a picture of human nature The Coral Island is (Haffenden 1985: 101).
Golding uses The Coral Island as his specific source for the Lord of the Flies. He admits that he even uses many elements of the novel, but he is not determined by it. He, on the contrary reverses it, or in Niemeyer’s word: “Golding…gives a corrective to Ballantyne’s optimism” (McEwen, 1981: 101).
The comment is from Owen Webster in Living with Chaos, Books and Art who says that Golding felt he was writing other people’s books, while what he wanted to say needed a new story (1958: 15).
Frank Kermode strengthens this comment. In his books, Interview with Golding for BBC, on August 28, 1959, he wrote that Golding has also said that he sees the novel as a unique pattern that should not be repeated to order:
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Charles Monteith, the publisher stated in his article Strangers from Within written as attribute on Golding 75th birthday, that on September 17, 1954 Lord of the Flies was at last published by a curious coincidence exactly a year after it was first submitted. He said that its early reception by reviewers was usually good, and even enthusiastic. E. M. Forster recognized the novel as the out standing novel of the years. Eliot who got the copy of the novel said that Lord of the Flies is not only a splendid novel but morally and theologically impeccable (1987:63).
In his interview with a reporter from the New York Word-Telegram and Sun printed on December 3, 1963, Golding insisted that the novel’s primary purpose is to serve as a warning of a man’s potential for brutality to his fellow man. It will be seen that Golding’s general statements fully express the mood and purpose of his books.
I learn during World War II just how brutal people can be to each other. Not just Germans and Japanese, but everyone. I tried to point that ou. Some have said that the brutality of the novel is impossible. It’s not. Look at any newspaper…
Leighton Hodson said that Golding’s novel is sufficiently naturalistic for his purpose and has been described as “naturalistic-allegorical” (1969:38)
F. E. Kearns as pointed by Hodson in Salinger and Golding; Conflict on the Campus, has placed Lord of the Flies in tradition of the insuperable depravity of human nature which makes all human effort at justice or order futile, hoping to prove that Golding’s book is one of unrelieved pessimism (1969:33). On the other hand, Hodson stated that the message does not fit easily into the categories pessimistic or optimistic. Criticism which goes straight for the message presupposes that the author is offering solution when he is only offering an imaginative experience.
It is not that man is either good or evil but simply that he is capable of becoming, and needs to become, self-aware. Golding is stating our problems, reminding us of them or even making us re-experience them, but it is too much to expect him to solve them (1969:34).
Hodson in his book William Golding: Writers and Critics, stated that the character in the Lord of the Flies are not certainly divided into ‘goodies’ and ‘baddies’, though Jack and Simon do lie towards the extremes. It is the complexity of human nature that accommodates the possibilities of both good and evil (1969:26). As pointed by Hodson in the same book, Waltre Alen found that the burden on the children was “too unnaturally heavy for it to be possible to draw conclusion” (1969:28).
B. Review of Related Theories
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symbols, which is meant to get the knowledge to study the definitions of the symbols and their traits in the story.
B.1. Theory of Symbols
The word “symbol” comes from Greek which means “to throw together or to compare” (The Longman Dictionary of Poetic Terms, 1989:297). More over Encyclopedia of Literature defines symbol as “something used for ort regarded as representing something else, a material objects representing something, often something immaterial, emblem, token or sign (1995:1440).
suggests “love and female beauty” and “the cross that is connected with Christianity”.
In private symbol or personal symbolism, the symbol’ significance is only evident in the context of the work in which they appear. They can be symbols only inside the work. Consequently, the meaning of symbols should be supported by the entire context of a story. This kind of symbolism is perhaps quite misleading because no symbol is altogether private and personal.
Symbols are not new things. Symbols are always used to convey meanings behind the objects or words that serve as symbols. The use of symbols in literature is not different to the use of symbol in the real world in the sense that they stand for something beyond themselves. The most difficult part of the study of symbol is giving the meanings to the symbols and relating one meaning to the other logically. The difficulty may arise because the meaning itself is a complex matter.
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Symbolism in fiction, as Stanton’s theory, has three usual effects, depending upon how it is used. First, a symbol that appears during an important moment of the story underlines the significance of that moment. Second, a symbol repeated several time remind us of some constant element in the story. And the third, a symbol in the story helps us to define or clarify the purpose of the story (1965:31). To recognize literary symbols and discover their meaning according the context of the work, reader needs to know the methods of interpreting symbols. Stanton suggests that reader has to notice the symbolic details, the symbols’ connotation, compare it to the context and its contexts to one another. But nevertheless, these methods need a close attention and thought of the work, such as our previous acquaintance with the author’s work, our knowledge of the plot and characters or what we know of the elements of the story (1965:32-33). It is said that the usual clue for a detail to become symbolic is that it is conspicuous for some reason other than its factual importance. For instance, it repeats or resembles certain other details. Details may also be conspicuous because they contrast with one another. The presence of any pattern linking details together may become a clue to symbolism, unless the facts of the story fully account for the pattern. Several; other ways of the author to make a detail conspicuous are describing it more fully than its factual importance deserves, making it unusual for apparent reason, or even mentioning it in the title.
themselves and give their own objective realities that signify the specific things the author himself has intended.
We can find symbol in conversation, religious rituals, and advertising. The problem is to recognize that certain details are the symbol but to discover to what they means is really interesting. The author can give us a description of that symbol more than its factual importance deserves, by making mentioning it in the title, or by making it unusual for no apparent reason (1965:32).
There are three general form from Mayer and Simms (1989: 297-298):
1. Cultural symbol in which a natural object references a limited number if interpretations that transcend cultural barriers, such as sun- energy, source of life.
2. General symbol which appears to smaller evidence but which contains more associative meaning.
3. The Private symbol or authorial, or contextual is created in author’s imagination any convey any number in guiding context.
Another theory comes from Robert and Jacobs in Fiction on Introduction to Reading and Writing who say that the private, authorial, or contextual symbols are descriptions that are not universally. Recognized as symbols, they are developed as symbols only in scope of the individual works. These kinds of symbols achieve their meaning within context or the specific work (1987: 280).
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an action, or some other items that have a literal meaning as well (Perrine, 1974: 211). From this statement it can be concluded that to be called a symbol, an item must suggest a meaning different in kinds from its literal meaning. A symbol is something more than the representative of a class or type.
Abrams said in A Glossary of Literary Terms, symbol is anything, which signifies something else; in this sense, all words are symbols. In discussing literature, the term symbol is applied only to a word or phrase that signifies an object or an event that in turn signifies something, or has a range of reference (Abrams, 1971:195).
C. Theoretical Framework
16 A. Object of the Study
The object of this study is a novel of William Golding entitled Lord of the Flies. Lord of the Flies which is Golding’s first novel is regarded as the best seller and the greatest success novel. It is Golding’s first novel which achieves immediate success soon after its publication in 1954. The book used as the source of this analysis is the one being published by Faber and Faber in a Paper Covered Edition in 1962. this novel is consist of 223 pages which is divided into 12 chapters and completed with an introduction and notes to the book by Ian Gregor and Mark Kinkead-Weekers of the Faculty of Humanity, University of Kent at Cantetbury.
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Executive Producer Lewis Allen Producer Ross Milloy. (http://www.gradesaver.com/classicNotes/title/lord of the flies/about)
William Golding’s Lord of the Flies is a story tells about a group of British young boys. They are about 6 up to 12 years old. They are in the plane when their plane is shot down during a war and the plane crashes on a deserted island on the Pacific Ocean during World War II. There are no adult to in charge. The starting point in this story is the election of Ralph as the leader of the group of the stranded boys. He makes the rules that anyone who wants to talk has to hold the conch, a shell-like object that projects a monotonous tone when it is blown. By using the specs of Piggy’s glasses Ralph believes that if they keep a fire going all the time, which first on the beach and later on the mountain, they will be rescued. He assigns two shelters and gathers food. A spark of hatred starts between Jack and Ralph. Jack believes that they should hunt pigs and have many foods while Ralph believes that the most important thing is to be found and rescued. They find that it is very frustrating to use the “conch system” as a way to talk and soon its gets out of hand.
Then, Jack’s tribe attacks Ralph’s camp and steals Piggy glasses to make a fire. Piggy is furious and with the help of Ralph and Samneric goes to Jack’s fortress and begs him to give his glasses back. Jack comes out with his hunters, and starts pushing Piggy around. The fight gets out of hand and Piggy fall from the cliff and dies. Jack tells his hunter to tie Samaeric up and bring them inside, while Ralph runs away. Ralph becomes alone. Jack’s tribe hunts him while he hides in some bushes. Ralph starts running faster and faster with the tribe right behind him. Finally, he reaches the forest line and is stopped by a man in white sailor suit.
B. The Approach
Lord of the Flies deals with many symbols, and each of those symbols can be used as the key in understanding the novel deeper. As Golding stated that “the whole novel is a symbolic except for the rescue at the end”. (www.123help.com)
To analyze this novel, the writer uses the exponential approach. In this analysis the exponential approach is probably the most appropriate to be used. This approach is used because this approach focused on symbols and images as the exponent of literary works are explore deeper.
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mythological approach; in these sense archetypes are much the same as exponents of experience. However, rather than multiply terms and definitions and rather than use an awkward phrase like “motival approach”, we designate this method as the exponential approach because the inclusiveness of that terms suggests at once the several meanings of motif, image, symbol, and archetype.( A Handbook of Critical Approaches to Literature,1979:79)
Furthermore, he states that one of the basic steps in the full appreciation of a work, then, is recognition of such images and symbols. But recognition alone is not enough. A more important step is to consider the artistic weaving into meaningful patterns including ideational and verbal patterns of cognates, antonyms, and associated connotations that are not necessarily dependent on images (but may coexist with them) (1979:195-196).
C. Method of The Study
The writer used the library research or desk research as the method of the study. It is very helpful to find some relevant theories that support the analysis. The writer conducted library research to collect data relating to the object and topic of the story. The major source of the study was the novel itself, namely Lord of the Flies. In this novel, the writer found the symbols are the important aspects to be analyzed deeper in this study. The second sources were used to gather that support the study. They are the theory books such as A Glossary of Literary Terms, Theory of Literature, Reading and Writing about
To do the analysis, the writer needs some steps to be done in order to answer the questions, which are stated on the problem formulation in this analysis. The first step that the writer did for this study was reads the work of William Golding entitled Lord of the Flies to understand the content of the story and made the novel as the primary data to be analyzed. When the writer reads the novel, the writer is interested in the intrinsic elements of the story; they are symbols and the theme. The process of reading itself was repeated for several times to have a deeper understanding about the primary data.
The second step, the writer determined the topic of the analysis and arranged the problem formulations which later became the key concepts to do the analysis. In this step, the writer tried to finds the elements of the literary works, which were the elements of the novel itself.
The third, the writer just searched the secondary data according to the research problem. It could be about the theories, which were related to this study, also could be many criticisms, essays, book reviews or journal which was supported this analysis or any other kinds of data which was needed and helped the writer to solve the problem of the study. These kinds of data could be found by searching the Internet and from the library observation.
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This chapter deals with the analysis of the problem formulated in William Golding’s Lord of the Flies, which is divided into two parts. The first part is concerning with the description of symbols found in the novel, and the second one is the discussion of the symbols representation. Symbolism played an important part in the development of story. This narrative technique is used to give significance to certain people or objects, which represent some other figure.
First, we must understand that the boys are living on the uninhabited island. Although one cannot be sure of Golding’s motives for choosing the island setting, it’s probably because it works best to have the characters isolated, where the laws of their governments cannot reach them. Golding choose children instead of adolescents, or even adults most likely because children have not yet been fully conditioned by society to understand right from wrong, and thus in this ignorance, most of them are guided by their instinct and what is inherent within them. If older, more knowledgeable characters were chosen, the events of the novel may not occur as they do.
Golding was influenced by events during the time period that the book was written, which was around World War II. Golding uses a lot of symbolism in Lord of the Flies.
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The author also already created the simple way to the reader by categorizing the novel into a several subtitle or guide lines to make easier to read by the reader. For example: at first, the sound of the shell, the fire in the mountain and the hunts on the beach or the shelters indicated as the settings, the war paint, the beast, and the title itself the lord of the flies. In this point the author arrange what he wants to say by giving the subtitle on the each part of the novel.
Golding uses many symbols as literal devices in constructing his Lord of the Flies. Those symbols can be expressed in the form of place or objects.
A. The Symbols found in the Story
1) Conch Shell
As Mayer and Simms’s theories this conch shell can be concluded into their definition of symbols, which are the private and cultural symbols. Can be called the private symbol because according to Mayer and Simms this symbol is created by the author at the first time and later it would lead to the next symbol or in other words this conch shell has a great impact to the next symbols in the novel. The conch can be said as the central symbol that the author made. Second, according to Stanton’s theory that this conch shell can be said as a symbol because it often repeated in several time by the author, which is indicated or reminds to us that this was the important symbol.
“---a conch; ever so expensive…
This conch shell is the first symbol that came up in the novel. It shows up at the beginning of the story, found by the main characters, Ralph and Piggy, and then Piggy told to Ralph the idea to use it to call the other boys and next thing is to hold a meeting. This is a very important symbol trough out the whole novel. As the novel progresses the conch-shell becomes a powerful symbol in the civilization and order in the novel. The whole novel revolves around this central symbol. The shell is also used firstly when they decide to vote for a chief.
“What’s that?”
Ralph had stopped smiling and was pointing into the lagoon. Something creamy lay among the ferny weeds.
“A stone” “No a shell”
“S’right. It’s a shell. I have seen one like that before. On someone’s back wall. A conch he called it. He used to blow it and then his mum will come. It’s ever so valuable--- (p.16)
The quotations above explain that the shell was the first thing that they found on the beach. Ralph and Piggy curious and then they found how to use it, Ralph start to blow that thing he realizes he can use the sound produced from the shell to call the other boys.
Later, Ralph and Piggy’s idea is to hold a meeting, by using the sound of the shell they are calling for the other child.
“He blew from down here.”
Ralph grasped the idea and hit the shell with air from his diaphragm. Immediately the thing sounded. (p. 18)
The shell is also used firstly when they decide to vote for a chief.
“And another thing. We cannot have everybody talking at once. We’ll have to have hands up like at school.”
He held the conch before his face and glace around the mouth. “Then I’ll give him the conch.”
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“That’s what this shell called. I’ll give to the next person to speak. He can hold it when he was speaking.” (p. 36)
From these lines, the writer knows how important the conch for the boys is. To avoid speaking all at once, Ralph makes his first rule for the boys to follow.
2) Glasses
Stanton’s theory can be applied to this glasses symbol because according to the theory, something can be called a symbol if developed as a scope that achieves their meaning within the novel. The glasses might be a common thing or object which is helping people to see clearer. This idea guide the author to give description to the reader that the glasses is not just kind of things to help people able to see clearer, but in this novel the glasses can be used as the object to help people survive on the uninhabited island. This novel is also had kind of scientific part or technological things.
As the glasses are developed into an important symbol, later it also related with the goal of using the glass which is the fire. It is Piggy who is the boy with the glasses. It came out at the beginning when Jack pointed at Piggy’s glass to use them as a tool to make a fire. The symbol of glasses is getting clearer when the boys use the lens from Piggy’s glasses to focus the sunlight to start a fire. When the boys realize that they have no matches to make the fire, Jack shout that Piggy’s glasses can used as matches.
Ralph shouted at him, Piggy! Have you got any matches? My! You have made a big heap, haven’t you?
Jack pointed suddenly.
The glasses are very important for Piggy, because he can only see things clearly if he wears them. When Ralph suggests them to make a signal fire, which would be necessary if they hope to get rescued, the boys scramble off to gather wood to build a fire. The glasses are helpfully on the way the boys create the fire. Without the glasses they could not light up the fire and would be no chance of being rescued.
3) Signal Fire
As said before that the glasses are related to the next symbol, the signal fire. The characters of the novel had learns one of the most important thing in surviving on the island while waiting for the rescue that is making the signal fire. Long time ago, the ancient people are already use the signal fire first to survive, during waiting for the help, and then it stated as the best tings assumed as that they were a “life” on the island.
The symbols came out after the boys used Piggy’s lens on making the fire. At the first time the boys could not make a fire, but after they realize that Piggy’s glasses can be used to light on the fire they start to use it. These both glasses and signal fire got tight relation, and they both gradually become the most important symbols after the conch shell breaks up on the island.
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“There’s another thing. We can help them to find us. If a ship comes near the island, they might not notice us. So we must make a smoke on the top of the mountain. We must make a fire.” (p. 41)
The quotation above shows that the signal fire is the only way that could be done to be rescued from the island. It is the only way out to attract the passes ship that might be seen from the ocean. As long that the signal fire not burning out they could be rescued.
4) Mask or the face paint
Here the face paint can be included in the general symbol because even it appears with a little evidence; it had deep meaning that derived from it.
Jack and his tribes used the white water lilies to paint their face.
“One of them contained white clay, and the other red by them lay a stick of charcoal brought down from the fire.
“He rubbed the charcoal stick between the patches of red and white on his face. (p. 68)
hunters seem to have new personalities as they forget their old society that once restrained them from giving in to their natural urges. For example when Jack first paints his face to his satisfaction, he suddenly becomes a new savage person.
He began to dance and his laughter became bloodthirsty snarling he capered toward Bill, and the mask a thing of its own, behind which Jack hid, liberated from the shame and self-consciousness. The face of red and white and black swung through the air and jigged towards Bill. (p. 69)
From the quotations above we can see that after the boys, Jack’s and his tribes painted their face, their attitudes have change into a different child.
5) Shelters
The shelter is also can be stated into general symbol because it developed into the important part of the novel, yet it gives the strong indication that has deep meaning behind it.
The shelter was made by Ralph and Piggy while Jack and his tribes prefer to play and hunting for the pig. Actually Ralph already realized that the shelter would be useful during they are on the island waiting for the rescue.
“You wouldn’t care to help with the shelters, I suppose?” “We want meat---“
“And we don’t get it.”
“But I shall! Next time! I’ve got to get a barb on this spear! (p. 56)
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playing around, but later on when the fear and the issues developed soon they understands the important of it.
“If it rains like when we dropped in we’ll need shelters all right. And then another thing. We need shelters because of the ____” (p. 56)
From the quotation above we can see that the shelter is also used as a place to protect the boys from the fear issues.
6) Rocks
The rock symbol came out almost at the end of the novel when Jack’s tribe used for a base to state their evil purpose on destroying or kills Ralph’ tribe. This symbol has strong indication in the story when Jack’s tribe killed Piggy by throwing him the rocks until Piggy die. It is Roger who feels strong and powerful as he stands on the ledge above Piggy. “High overhead, Roger, with a sense of delirious abandonment, leaned all his weight on the lever” (p. 200). When the rock lands below, it not only strikes Piggy, but it also shatters the conch shell. However, when the rock causes both of these to cease to exist, all order on the island is brought to an end, and the boys, who express no regrets over the death of Piggy, have fully become savages.
7) Knife
“Rescue? Yes, of course! All the same, I’d like to catch a pig first__” (p.58)
“I could the pig’s throat” said Jack proudly and yet twitched as he said it. “Can I borrow yours, Ralph to make a nick in the hilt?” (p. 75)
From these statements, we can see that the boys ignore their main purpose which is being saved from the island.
8) Beast
Golding gives the universal problem that might happen to someone or people or children who lives in uninhabited island which is fear, by creating the beast as the fear factor among them. According to Mayer and Simms’s theory, this beast is included as the general symbol, meaning to say that this beast symbol appears within smaller evidence but it has deeper meaning.
Actually the fear among the children already exists within the boy’s inside but the boys are trying to ignore it by playing and forgeting the purpose of being rescued.
“Last night I had a dream, a horrid dream, fighting with things. I was outside the shelter by my self, fighting with things, those twisty things in the trees.”
“Then I was frightened and I woke up. And I was out side the shelter by myself in the dark and twisty things had gone away”
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argument over the existence of a beast, he attempts to share his insight with the others.
The beast is an unseen figure on the island, which is symbolized with the dead parachutist. The beast is being introduced early in the first part of the novel. It stands for subjective fear of mankind. Means that the imaginary beast in the novel that frightens all the boys stands for the power of savagery that exists within all human kind.
There was a speck above the island, a figure dropping swiftly beneath the parachute, a figure that hung with dangling limbs. The changing winds of various altitudes took the figure where they would. The figure fell and crumpled among the blue flowers of the mountain side, but now there was a gentle breeze at this height too and the parachute flopped and banged and pulled. So the figure, with feet that dragged behind it, slid up the mountain (p. 104)
The quotation shows firstly what was the figure is, which later this along with the fear that comes up inside all children, this issues of figure become stronger and become more real.
9) Lord of the Flies
In A Glossary of Literary Terms states that symbol is anything, which signifies something else; in this sense, all words are symbols. In discussing literature, the term symbol is applied only to a word or phrase that signifies an object or an event that in turn signifies something, or has a range of reference (Abrams, 1981:195). From this statement it can be concluded that to be called a symbol, an item must suggest a meaning different in kinds from its literal meaning. Applied to this theory, the title of this novel is precisely.
Golding's description of the slaughtered animal's head on a spear is very graphic and even frightening. The pig's head is depicted as "dim-eyed, grinning faintly, blood blackening between the teeth," and the "obscene thing" is covered with a "black blob of flies" that "tickled under his nostrils" (p. 137). As a result of this detailed, striking image, the reader becomes aware of the great evil and darkness represented by the Lord of the Flies
The sow’s head in the jungle seems telling him that evil lies within every human heart and the sow’s head promising to have fun with him.
“There isn’t anyone to help you. Only me. And I’m the beast.” Simon mouth labored, brought forth audible words.
“Pig’s head on a stick”
….we are going to have fun on this island. Understand? We are going to have fun on this island! So don’t try it on, my poor misguided boy, or else---“(p. 158-159)
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10)Island
The setting of the novel according to Mayer and Simms’s theory can be considered as the general symbol because even it just appears with the smaller beach. As for the jungle, this is the place when the boys’ fear grows after they got the issues from one of the littluns that the ever seen a beast on the jungle. This issues next also supported by Sam and Eric, the twins that also see the figure of the beast among of the tall trees in the jungle.
“It was furry. There was something moving behind its head-wings. “The beast moved too—“
“That’s a reef. A coral reef. I’ve seen picture like that” (p.30)
Second, the sea, it is also symbolic things that function as something that stays unchanged and provide comfort in time of distress and in which things that makes one forget bad and painful experiences. Playing on the beach is the first thing they did, while they waiting for the rescue. They do not realize that afterward they would found others dilemma among them.
The shore was fledged with palm trees. Those stood or leaned or reclined against the light and their green feathers were a hundred feet up in the air. The ground beneath them was a bank covered with coarse grass, torn everywhere by the upheavals of fallen trees, scattered with decaying coco-nuts and palm saplings (p. 10)
From the quotation above, we can see that Golding create a comfort place on the island while they are living on the isolated island. The description of the setting is form a beautiful view.
B. The Significance of the Symbols
Golding’s statement “the whole novel is symbolic except for the rescue at the end.” Lord of the Flies is a symbolic novel that goes beyond a group of English schoolboys who are stranded on an island and the boys have to survive on their own. Golding did an excellent job of characterization and symbols through the novel. The symbols that he included related each other and the symbols give that found in the novel has turned to an important element of the whole novel.
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characters found in the novel represent certain qualities of mankind in general, they can also be expressed in the form of place or other objects.
The objects that the boys used during on the island play important role in supporting their activities. Later, these objects can be identified as symbols due to their frequent appearances.
The symbols behind the objects are contextual symbol due to only by reading the novel thoroughly, the writer is able to conclude that each of these object symbolizes something.
1. The Conch
The conch is a big shell which we can usually see and find it at the sea shore. The Oxford Dictionary and Thesaurus defines the conch as “thick, heavy spiral shell, occasionally bearing long projections, of various marine gastropod mollusk of the family “strombidae” (1996: 289). A conch shell will produce long hearing sound if we blow it. Long time ago, the ancient people use the conch to communicate or to invite people or making them gathers around.
The conch shell symbolizes the law and order of adult world, this is a very important symbol trough out the whole novel. As Ralph and Piggy discover the conch-shell on the beach at the start at the novel and use it to call the boys together after the crash separate them. Piggy is the one who has an idea to use the conch shell to call their lost friends, but since he has asthma, he can not blow it. He asks for Ralph’s help.
Piggy’s idea is brilliant, moreover, after Ralph blew the conch, one by one their lost friends appears.
“He blew from down here.”
Ralph grasped the idea and hit the shell with air from his diaphragm. Immediately, the thing sounded. A deep, harsh note boomed under the palms, spread through the intricacies of the forest and echoed back from the pink granite of the mountain. (p. 18)
Used in the capacity, the conch-shell becomes a powerful symbol in the civilization and order in the novel. As it always stands for authority on which they hold in their meeting. The shell is also used firstly when they decide to vote for a chief.
“And another thing. We cannot have everybody talking at once. We’ll have to have hands up like at school.”
He held the conch before his face and glace around the mouth. “Then I’ll give him the conch.”
“Conch?”
“That’s what this shell called. I’ll give to the next person to speak. He can hold it when he was speaking.” (p. 36)
From these lines, the writer knows how important the conch for the boys is. To avoid speaking all at once, Ralph makes his first rule for the boys to follow.
The conch-shell effectively governs the boys meeting. For the boys who hold the conch, hold the right to speak. Because of this, the conch-shell is more than a symbol but it also a tool that show the important means of political influence and democratic power. But later, when the boys descent into savagery, the conch-shell loses its power and influence among them.
“How about us Ralph?”
“You haven’t got the conch. Here.”
“I mean how about us? Suppose the beast comes when you’re all away. I can’t see proper, and if I get scared…..”
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“I got the conch”
“Conch! Conch!” shouted Jack “we don’t need the conch anymore!” (p. 111)
The whole novel revolves around the central symbol as the intensive power struggle and also a struggle to control the conch. Jack has a very close related to the conch because in one hand he revolves against it and on the other hand he always struggles to take it over. It shows when he has formed his own gang.
“I’m not going to play any longer. Not with you!’ Most of the boys were looking down now at the grass at their feet. Jack clears his throat again. “I’m not going to be part of Ralph’s lot-“(p. 140)
Later, the power of conch-shell collapses, when Ralph clutched the shell desperately when he talks about his rule in murdering Simon. The other boys ignore Ralph and throw stone at him when he attempts to blow the conch in the Jack’s camp. And the fact that the conch exploded into tiny pieces at the very moment when Piggy is killed, signifying the demise of civilized and the symbol of authority.
2. The Glasses
In Longman Dictionary of English Language and Culture, glasses are two pieces of especially cut glass in frame, worm in front of the eyes for improving a person ability to see (1992:551).
The glasses symbolize the voice of reason and logic among the boys. Piggy keeps the glasses even more than the conch because he is the on among the boys whom wear glasses. The glass is also developed into an important symbol. It symbolizes the power of intellectual person of Piggy. The symbol of glasses is clear in the start of the novel, when the boys use the lens from Piggy’s glasses to focus the sunlight to start a fire. When the boys realize that they have no matches to make the fire, Jack shout that Piggy’s glasses can used as matches.
Ralph shouted at him, Piggy! Have you got any matches? My! You have made a big heap, haven’t you?
Jack pointed suddenly.
His specs! Use them as burning glasses! (p. 44)
The glasses are very important for Piggy, because he can only see things clearly if he wears them. When Ralph suggests them to make a signal fire, which would be necessary if they hope to be rescued, the boys scramble off to gather wood to build a fire. Unsure how to light it, they finally grab Piggy’s and focus the sunlight to ignite the fire.
“Here... let me go!” His voice rose to a shriek as Jack snatched the glasses off his face. Mind out! Give them back! I can hardly see.
You’ll break the conch
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Both the glasses and the conch are considered as dangerous instrument in the hands of Jack’s gang. So when Jack’s hunter raid Ralph’s camp and steal the glasses, the savage effectively take power to make a fire, leaving Ralph’s group helpless. And that is why Jack takes such pair to destroy them both together with Piggy.
What’ll we use for lightning the fire?
The chief’s blush was hidden by the white and red clay. Into his silent, the tribe spill their murmur once more. The n the chief held up his hand. “We shall take fire from the other. Tomorrow we will hunt and get meat. To-night I will go along with two hunters who will come?”
Maurice and Roger put up their hand. “Maurice---“
Where was the fire?
“Back at the old place by the fire rock.” The Chief nodded (p. 178).
rescue the boys. In order to be rescued by the Navy, Ralph finds the solution for all of them. It seen through the lines:
“There’s another thing. We can help them to find us. If a ship comes near the island, they might not notice us. So we must make a smoke on the top of the mountain. We must make a fire.” (p. 41)
It is obvious that Ralph knows how to attract the Navy. It might be come from his father as the Navy commander. The signal fire might become their last chance; therefore, Ralph asks the littluns to keep an eye on it. When Ralph and the other boys are swimming in the bathing pool later on, the smoke from a ship is spotted in the distance. Ralph shouts anxiously” Smoke! Smoke!”’ as he sees a ship passing on the horizon (p.71). It is what they have longed for since their arrival on the island, but the ship passes by because they have no signal fire. Ralph is very sad and cries out “God, oh God” (p. 73). Ralph is really mad and hopeless because the signal fire was out at the same time when the Navy’ ship tries to find out them. Neither Ralph nor the other boys are so hopeless. Notice that the signal fire is very important to them, Ralph asks the boys to watch for the fire. Last experience has given them too many disappointments and Ralph does not want to do it again.
“Your only hope is keeping a signal fire going as long as there’s light to see.
Then may be a ship will notice the smoke and come and rescued us and takes us home. But without that smoke….” (p. 197)
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desire to be rescued and have accepted their savage live on the island. Showed when the twin, Sam and Eric later, Jack let the fire die out.
“How can you expect to be rescued if you don’t put first thing first and act proper?” (p. 50)
They were twins, on duty at the fire. In theory, one should have been asleep and one on watch. But they could never manage to do things sensibly if that mean acting independently, and since staying awake all night was impossible, they had both gone to sleep. (p. 105)
The quotation explained that it is only Ralph who understands the importance of the signal fire, while Jack and the other boys prefer to play and hunting for pigs than to keep the fire burns.
The signal fire function as a kind of civilization strength on the island. At the end of the novel, a signal fire finally discovered by the passing ship. It is happened after Piggy’s glasses is in the hand of Jack’s tribe and when Jack uses to make a fire to burn Ralph out of hiding place in the jungle. Ironically, it summons a ship to the island but not as the signal fire. Instead it is the fire of savagery to hunt and kill Ralph.
4. The Mask or the Face Paint
Wearing masks of green and other colors, the boys feel compelled to hunt the pig, being much brave than normal. Golding explains that with the masks, the boys were "liberated from shame and self-consciousness."
The degeneration of the boys' way of life is also very evident through the symbolic masks. When concealed by masks of clay paint, the hunters, especially Ralph, seem to have new personalities as they forget the taboos of society that once restrained them from giving in to their natural urges. For example, when Jack first paints his face to his satisfaction, he suddenly becomes a new, savage person. "He began to dance and his laughter became a bloodthirsty snarling. He capered toward Bill, and the mask was a thing of its own, behind which Jack hid, liberated from shame and self-consciousness" (p. 64). Certainly, Jack would not have acted in such a way if he had been in his home society, but behind the mask of paint, Jack feels free to act like a savage. It is also noteworthy, that the first mask that Jack creates is red, white, and black. These colors archetypically symbolize violence, terror, and evil, respectively, and in this novel, Golding uses these colors to illustrate those characteristics that are inherently present in humans.
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fire is, Jack and the other hunters are still occupied with thoughts of the successful, gruesome hunt in which they just participated. "There was lashings of blood,' said Jack, laughing and shuddering, you should have seen it!'" (p. 69). Also, during a later celebration over another successful hunt, the boys become carried away while reenacting the slaughter. However, the boys have become so much like savages that they are unable to control themselves, and for a moment, they mistake Simon for the beast. "The sticks fell and the mouth of the circle crunched and screamed. The beast was on its knees in the center, its arm folded over its face" (p. 152). As a result of their uncontrolled urges, the boys soon kill one of their own.
5. The Shelters
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."
6. The Rocks
In Oxford Advance Learner’s Dictionary, rock is a solid stony parts of the earths crust (Revise and Updated, 735). It has indicates something cold and brutal. It develops throughout the novel from the part when Roger does not dare to hit the little one with stones and the killing of Piggy.
The rock struck Piggy a glancing blow from chin to knee; the conch shell exploded into a thousand white fragments and ceased to exist. The rock bounded twice and was lost in the forest. Piggy fell forty feet and landed on his back across that square, red rock in the sea. Piggy’s arms and legs twitched a bit, like a pig after it has been killed. (p. 200)
The rock also develops gradually when Jack’s tribes attempt to kill Ralph with stone when Ralph flees to Jack’s tribe and the last thing is the brutality of “Castle Rock” itself where all the evil plan were created and put into practice.
Far off along the bow stave of the beach, three Figures trotted towards the Castle rock. They kept away from the forest and down by the water. Occasionally they sang softly; occasionally they turned cartwheels down by the moving streak of phosphorescence. The chief led them, trotting steadily, exulting in his achievement. He was a chief now in truth; and he made stabbing motions with his spear. From his left hand dangled Piggy’s broken glasses. (p.186)
7. The Knife
In Longman Dictionary of English Language and Culture, knife, defines as a blade fixed in a handle used for a cutting as tool or a weapon (1992; 726). Jack’s knife is a symbol of the death and destruction that accompany his every act. It is also symbol of threatening power for destructive violence.
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his knife. When Ralph tells them that they are alone on an uninhabited island, Jack quickly interrupts to insists that an army is still necessary for hunting pigs, and when they described how the piglet escaped, Jack again slams knife into a tree trunk, muttering about the ‘next time’.
“Yes. There are pigs on the island.” All three of them tried to convey the sense of the pink live thing struggling in the creepers.
From the lines above we can see that they are already wants to hunt for the pigs, and forget about the building the shelters, the making of the signal fire, and the aim of being rescued from the island.
8. The Beast
The beast is an unseen figure on the island, which is symbolized with the dead parachutist. Golding's sixth chapter starts the introduction with the issues of the beast that become real. He details the night-time 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."
of the other boys on the island. So while the law and order of the adult world is waning, childish chaos is growing exponentially.
There was speck above the island, a figure dropping swiftly beneath a parachute, a figure that hung with dangling limbs. The changing winds of various altitudes took the figure where they would. The figure fell and crumpled among the blue flowers of the mountain side, but now there was a gentle breeze at this height too and the parachute flopped and banged and pulled. So the figure, with feet that dragged behind it, slid up the mountain. Here the breeze was fitful and allowed the stings of the parachute to tangle and festoon; its helmeted head between its knees, held by a complication of lines. Then each time the wind drooped, the lines would slacken and the figure bow forward again, sinking its head between its knees. So as the stars moved across the sky, the figure sat on the mountain top and bowed and sank and bowed again (p. 104-105).
The quotation shows that the dead parachutist here started to turn out into the first signs of the beast which not really a real exist. This dead parachutist was not seeing well by the twins, so the twins prefer to believe that it was a real beast.
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 which symbolizes man’s inability to conquer the evil anarchy of the devil.
“I think we ought to climb the mountain.”
