《蝇王》的象征意义研究(2)

菜单

Chapter Three Symbolism in Plot 18

3.1 Holding Meetings 18

3.2 Paint 20

3.3 Hunting 23

Conclusion 26

Works Cited 28

A Study of Symbolism Embodied in Lord of the Flies

Introduction

William Golding is a productive writer and Lord of the Flies is the most presentative novel of his. Known as the “Fable Compilation”, Golding writes realistic fables. The themes of his works are mainly the darkness of human heart. He is worried about the future of human beings: “science was clearing up the universe… the darkness was all around” (Golding William 179). “No matter how different the plots in his novels, they are based on this theme” (Liu 101). He won a Nobel Prize in Literature in 1983. As G. S. Fraser remarks: “Even at its most obscure his book has a strange, compelling force and his use of language is vivid and fresh. To bring off what he has to do would be an astonishing feat” (Fraser 18). Golding’s personal experience of World War II contributes to his great abhorrence of war. Golding, who joined the Royal Navy, served through almost the whole World War II. This experience completely shattered his optimism. “When I was young before the war, I did have some airy-fairy views about man… But I went through the war and that changed me…” (Dick 4). In his opinion, it is the evil of human nature that leads to all these. Therefore, he usually reveals and criticizes the images of evil human nature more often than admires and eulogizes beauty. The novel Lord of the Flies successfully caught the mood of post-war Europe when people seriously questioned if there could ever be a lasting peace again. More fundamentally, they wondered if the human race could come to terms with the new knowledge it had gained as the result of splitting the atom. It is consistently regarded as “an incisive and disturbing portrayal of fragility of civilization” (Drapper 1443). It is a threnody, which laments the fall of human nature. It is “a book that had captivated the imagination of a whole generation” (Reilly 3).

Lord of the Flies tells the story of a group of British schoolboys who survive a plane crash only to find themselves the sole inhabitants of an island. They are forced to hunt for food, create shelter and develop their own civilization to survive. As time passes by, they pide into different groups. Finally most of them become savages.

The topic of the paper is symbolism in the Lord of the Flies. Symbolism is a technique that expresses one abstract concept or feeling by another concrete thing. In traditional novels, symbolism is often used in some particular situation to make the work more vivid. However, in Lord of the Flies, symbolism is not a technique of expression any more. It is an overall concept of literature, a technique to shape the whole novel. So, it is meaningful to explore the symbolism embodied in the Lord of the Flies.

Since Lord of the Flies is so popular, there are many studies. Most Scholars, both home and abroad, analyze the book mainly from these aspects: the theme of “the evil of human nature”, narrative structure, feminist literary criticism, and mythos- archetypical criticism. In recent years, the studies of Lord of the Flies gradually penetrate to other fields. For example, many scholars are interested in the analysis of the book from psychology, especially Freud’s psychoanalysis theory. According to Sigmund Freud’s psychoanalytic theory of personality, personality is composed of three elements. These three elements of personality—known as the id, the ego and the superego—work together to create complex human behaviors. Simon represents superego, Ralph ego, and Jack id. They dig out the author’s description in human consciousness from the broad perspective of psychoanalysis theories of famous psychologists, such as Freud, Lacan and Le Pen. They also analyze its psychological connotation. Even Golding himself thinks that Lord of the Flies “has either theme or all themes” (Hynes 158). However, while affirming the achievement, we also can find some problems. For example, the studies mainly focus on one point, or some articles are superficial. With the development of studies, I think these problems will be solved gradually.