Mirror Of War-Torn Adult World--On Symbolism In Lord Of The Flies

Lord of the Flies, William Golding's first and most remarkable representative novel, secured him an important position in modern English literary history. The story derives from human nuclear war. The meditation on human nature aroused by the two world wars, in particular. World War II. is the creative source of the author. The story of Lord of the Flies demonstrates the bestiality in a tragic picture, in which a group of boys-evacuees from a war-varying in age from six to about twelve tn to manage themselves in a condition without the company and the discipline of grown-ups and far from the authorities. The author convincingly tells us about the degeneration into savages and evil in human nature and irremediable situation, in particular the end of innocence of the children and vicious deeds without control of law and civilization. Golding once commented on Lord of the Flies: "The theme is an attempt to trace the defects of society back to the defects of human nature." A very important feature of the work is the superb use of symbolism. The world of children is a microcosm from the adult world, indeed, a history of mankind itself.The present paper probes and discusses the vivid use of symbolism in setting, characterization and plot development to show how the technique helps to deepen the theme.The paper is mainly divided into three parts. Chapter One analyzes the author's symbolic description in setting. At first, the island is compared to Eden, but in the end the whole island is "shuddering with flame.'" Through the analysis of the setting, this chapter tries to probe how Golding reflectsthe change of human society by that of the island. The world in which humanity experienced was war-torn with gunfire. If they were not fully awake to the danger they are in, they would certainly suffer the great calamity of war. Chapter Two mainly analyzes the author's use of symbolism with irony in characterization. The characters in the novel are almost the adults in miniature. They are respectively the embodiments of responsibility, reason, cruelty, saintliness and virtue, thus form authentic, vivid and full characters. Chapter Three is concentrated on the development of the main plots-a series of "hunts", to illustrate the struggle between democracy and dictatorship, civilization, reason and barbarism. In a word. Golding stresses the theme of human defects and social defects by combination of symbolism and realistic method. Golding successfully unites characters, plots and themes in an allegorical way to describe a war-torn adult world vividly.