摘 要

《蝇王》是著名英国小说家威廉. 戈尔丁的巨著之一，它描写了一群被困在荒岛上的孩童从文明理性之人堕落成野蛮无情之人的故事。本文旨在分析《蝇王》中的三类象征：人物象征、实物象征和意境象征, 以期更好地理解主题。主要人物暗含两种意味：拉尔夫、西蒙和猪崽子是理性和道德的象征，而杰克则象征了不理性和野蛮。蝇王、海螺和火也都富含象征意蕴。此外，故事发生的背景荒岛也是一种象征。正是通过对象征手法应用的分析，本论文揭示了戈尔丁所要表达的人性本恶的思想主题。

关键词：威廉.戈尔丁；《蝇王》；人性；象征

Contents

1.Introduction………………………………………………………………………….1

2. Demonstration………………………………………………………………………2

2.1. Characters as symbols…………………………………………………………….2

2.1.1.Symbols of goodness…………………………………………………...………..3

2.1.1.1. Ralph—symbol of rationality and morality……………………………..........3

2.1.1.2. Simon—symbol of virtue and truth ………………………………………......4

2.1.1.3. Piggy—symbol of science and wisdom …………………….......…................6

2.1.2. Jack—symbol of evilness…………………………………………………...…..7

2.2. Objects as symbols………………………………………………………………..9

2.2.1.The title—the symbol of evilness and corruption…………………………..…...9

2.2.2. The conch—the symbol of power, order and democracy …………………….11

2.2.3. The fire—the symbol of hope and disaster.…………………………………...12

2.3. Setting—the island—as a symbol……………………………………………….14

3. Conclusion…………………………………………………………………………15

Notes………………………………………………………………………………….17

Works Cited………………………………………………………………………......18

Bibliography……………………………………………………………………….....19

A Study of the Symbols in Lord of the Flies

1. Introduction

As a prestigious English novelist and poet, William Golding won the Noble Prize for his masterpiece Lord of the Flies in 1983. During his whole life, he took up a variety of different jobs among which he devoted himself to literature for a long time. He was always considered as a great master good at dealing with eternal theme of human nature. His first novel Lord of the Flies was published in 1954, which made a great flutter at that time and he therefore enjoyed an international fame. This novel has been translated into many different versions and received popularity over several years. At one time it ranked the best seller among western readers and scholars and at present Lord of the Flies gains a high reputation as the model of modern British literature.

The fictitious story of Lord of the Flies happened in world war Ⅲ. A group of boys aged from six to twelve years old are cast away in a desert island in the Pacific Ocean because of the air crash. At first, they can live in harmony with each other; however, they gradually begin to kill each other then. In the meantime, this plot designation also portrays the inner world of characters in order to make readers see the process of how originally civilized human beings are gradually degenerated into immorality.

Without adult supervision and protection, these children start to learn to live by themselves on the island. At the beginning, they elect Ralph as their leader because he adopts the way of human civilization and lead them to carry out civilized activities such as keeping fire for rescues, setting stakes, picking wild fruit and building public toilet etc., meanwhile Jack leads a group of children to conduct activities like hunting. The whole island kind of serves as an Eden Garden at first， but as time goes on, the tranquility and harmony of this island are broken, and the boys are gradually separated into two camps due to the so-called “beast”: the goodness and the evilness. The goodness camp insists the significance of civilization and firmly believes that they will sometime be rescued while the other one give up being rescued and is indulgent in hunting activities. As their conflicts become even more intense, the children gradually step into the abyss of “evil”.

Later on, facing the peril of survival, human beings fully reveal their evil nature in humanity and eventually get to kill each other. Deeply poring into this novel, we know that Simon is killed, Piggy is bullied and Ralph is counterattacked until the navy officers come to rescue them. Although it’s an ordinary piece of child literature, the process of humanity degeneration is showed vividly and profoundly with the development of the plot, which shocks readers and stimulates them to face and understand their own nature. Also, it enlightens people to contemplate the fierce battle between goodness and beastliness of human nature in primitive state. Through a quite unique allegorical art, Lord of the Flies extends the theme very alarmingly, and demonstrates a very characteristic symbolic world for readers as well.