Symbolism Essay We all like to think that we are good people inside, but William Golding shows how there is a beast inside everyone ready to come out into darkness. In his novel, Lord of the Flies, he uses symbols to show how the boys emerge from innocence to their more primitive beast state through the clothes they ware with their hair, and how they think there is a beast that lives on the island with them. When the boys are introduced, most of the time their description includes the state of their clothes and hair. When Ralph is introduced it says, "He had taken off his school sweater… his grey shirt [sticks] to him." (7). Here he has all his clothes that are new, clean and probably with out any holes. This is symbolizing his innocence's and how he is from a civilized area with rules and expectations. After he takes control of the group of boys and things have happened that would make someone fall apart it says, "With [a] filthy body,[and] matted hair" (223). This slow progression as their hair becoming more worn and ragged is the symbol of how the boys are becoming the "beast" that is on the island. Ralph was once a proper English boy, but through out the novel he becomes a hungry savage that is trying to control a group of savages on an island all by themselves. After all the boys have met up and there is a plan on what to do, they all have a job. After they have a meeting, a scared little boy who saw a snake like animal thinks it's going to come in the night and eat them. This then sparks a debate on whether or not there is a beast on the island. After this another little boy says, "Maybe there is a beast… maybe it's only us" (80). Here Golding is foreshadowing that fact that all the boys will become this beast the little boy is talking about. It's also symbolizing that they are
