Communications in Humanities Research
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Communications in Humanities Research
Vol. 24, 03 January 2024
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The Characters and Symbolism in Lord of the Flies
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Abstract
The Second World conflict had just ended when William Golding wrote Lord of the Flies, which exposed the brutality and evil of both human nature and conflict. Golding employs a lot of symbolism to convey his viewpoint and examination of human nature in this book, whether it is through the creation of the characters, the structuring of the plot, or the choice of language. The symbolism of the characters in Lord of the Flies will be the main topic of this study. This study explores the author's background at the time of writing, the symbolism that employed, and the significance of a number of the book's central characters, such as Ralph, who stands for democracy and civilization, Piggy, who stands for intelligence and reason, Jack, who stands for savagery and desire, and Simon, who stands for human kindness. Furthermore, the study also skims over the absence of a female gender viewpoint in Lord of the Flies.
Keywords
William Golding, Lord of the Flies, Symbolism
References
1. Lord of the Flies. Golding, William.G. P. Putnam’s Sons.1954.
2. Wilson, R. (1986). William Golding: Life And Background. In: Lord of the Flies by William Golding. Macmillan Master Guides. Palgrave, London. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-349-08348-0_1
3. Alnajm, A. A. (2015). The main themes in Lord of the Flies. International Journal of English and Literature, 6(6), 98 - 102.
4. William Golding, The Hot Gates(London:Faber and Faber, 1965) 74.
5. Boukhlala A. The Use of Symbolism in William Golding’s Lord of the Flies: dissertation (Anglo– Saxon Literature): 22.05.2016 / A. Boukhlala. – Ouargla: Kasdi Merbah University, 2016 - 51 p.
6. Qu S, Ren Y. History of Contemporary British Fiction. Shanghai Translation Publishing House, 2008.
7. Wang N.(2021). On the characters and their symbolic Meanings in Lord of the Flies. Essays Hundred (Theory)(04),43-44.
8. Liu L. (2015) "Analysis on the construction of background and character symbol system in Lord of the Flies." Journal of Anhui University of Technology (Social Science Edition) 32.03(2015):52-55.
9. Lord of the Flies: William Golding. Brian Phillips. SparkNotes. 2003.
10. McCarron, Kevin. "William Golding's Lord of the Flies and Other Early Novels." A Companion to the British and Irish Novel 1945–2000, edited by Brian W. Shaffer, Blackwell P, 2005. Blackwell Reference Online. http://www.blackwellreference.com/subscriber/tocnode.html?id=g9781405113755_chunk_g97814051137552 2. Accessed 27 August, 2023.
Data Availability
The datasets used and/or analyzed during the current study will be available from the authors upon reasonable request.
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- Volume Title
- Proceedings of the 2nd International Conference on Interdisciplinary Humanities and Communication Studies
- ISBN (Print)
- 978-1-83558-251-0
- ISBN (Online)
- 978-1-83558-252-7
- Published Date
- 03 January 2024
- Series
- Communications in Humanities Research
- ISSN (Print)
- 2753-7064
- ISSN (Online)
- 2753-7072
- DOI
- 10.54254/2753-7064/24/20231533
- Copyright
- 03 January 2024
- Open Access
- This article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) license, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited