Abstract

Lord of the Flies is a masterpiece and a magnum opus written by William Golding, who is the most famous novelist in British literature of the day and also the winner of Nobel Literature Prize in 1983. The story describes the real situation of human beings, expressing the concerns and helplessness for human survival and the environment. Golding exposes this hideous nature in Lord of the Flies by depicting the children’s innocence and dramatizes fundamental struggles between good and evil in human nature. Although Lord of the Flies has been thought as one of the most classic works of evil human nature which deeply rooted in people’s minds, its achievements owe mainly to the use of symbolism. In this novel, many ordinary things like natural objects, characters and storyline have been given profound symbolic meanings which have played a role in theme expression, development of the plot and the creation of the characters. This paper will analyze the novel from three aspects of symbolism to interpret the opinion that Golding expressed about human nature and good and evil existed in human society.

Keywords: human nature; civilization; savagery; symbolism

Contents

Abstract

摘要

1 Introduction1

2 Literature Review.2

2.1 Introduction.2

2.2 Review.2

2.3 Conclusion3

3 Symbol of Characters..3

3.1 Ralph3

3.2 Piggy4

3.3 Simon.5

3.4 Jack.6

4 Symbol of Objects8

4.1 Glasses and fire.8

4.2 Conch shell.9

4.3 Forest9

4.4 Snake, beast and lord of the flies.10 

5 Symbol of Affair11

5.1 The fear of beast11

5.2 The death of Simon.11

5.3 The death of Piggy12

5.4 The cry of Ralph.12

6 Conclusion..12

References14