In the Lord of the Flies, Golding uses a lot of symbolism. He uses different objects in the story to symbolize the boy's conditions. The conch, glasses, fire, and the hair growth are .
examples of some of the symbols in the story. Golding uses the condition of the fire, glasses,.
and conch to symbolize the condition of the boy's civilization.
To begin, Golding uses the condition of the fire to represent the condition of the boy's civilization. First, the boys work together and get the fire started; at this time the boys are acting as a civil group. The fire, when going, symbolizes them as a civilized group of kids. For example, when the boys have the fire going, they work together and assign each other different responsibilities. Here, Ralph is assigning jobs to the boys: "Ralph, I'll split up the choir "my hunters, that is "into groups, and we'll be responsible for keeping the fire going ""(Golding 43). When the fire is lit, the boys are civilized and work together without fighting. As civil school boys would do, they figure out what needs to be done for survival, such as keeping the fire going, finding food, and building shelters. Also, they all get along very well when the fire is going. They do not get mad when making suggestions about things that need to be done. However, when the fire is not going, the boys are not working together and they start to break apart slowly. Every time the fire is not going, somebody gets mad and something bad ends up happening. For instance, when Jack and his hunters are having a party in the rain, the fire is not lit and they are acting like savages. They are running around the unlit fire doing their hunting dance. They end up killing Simon because they think he is the beast coming down from the mountain: The circle became a horseshoe. A thing was crawling out of the forest. It came darkly, uncertainly. The shrill screaming rose before the beast was like a pain.