In the book "Lord of the Flies", the author uses many symbols to convey meaning. However, they all tie into two concepts that run parallel during the book: civilization and savagery. The two conflicting ideas are battling, with a result foreshadowed from the beginning of the book. Savagery and human evil wins. However, during the book, the meaning of the symbols representing civilization and chaos change. The first, Piggy's glasses, goes from being hope for order to confirming the victory of chaos. The second, the beast, goes from being an illusory horror to representing human nature. At first, the glasses and the civilization they represented were able to hold the beast in check, but as the book progressed evil and savagery became more powerful and destroyed civilization on the island.

In the very beginning of the book the glasses represented the hope for civilization. They were introduced with Piggy, a fat, ponderous boy who wanted reason, order and civilization. Piggy's physical aspects and actions closely identified him with adult civilization. The glasses were similarly connected with civilization. Piggy's ideas represented the hope that civilization could be main

extremely important for civilization, and they represent both the hope of rescue and the belief in civilization.

Before the taking of the glasses, the beast took over all the boys - except for Piggy, Ralph, Simon and Samneric - and the very nature of the beast was revealed. In Simon's bizarre talk with the Lord of the Flies, on pages 132 and 133, he saw what the beast is. The Lord of the Flies was taking the form of the pig's head that was given as an offering to the beast. Simon saw it, delirious from thirst, and it spoke to him. "'There isn't anyone to help you. Only me. And I'm the Beast'", it says (132). Simon tried to deny its presence, but it reveals that the beast is not something material - it is inside every boy on the island, and every person in the world. And in that realization, the reader is brought to understand that the beast is truly human nature. The beast does not symbolize external factors any more, but human beings. Simon's death at the hands of the other boys reinforces that idea. Simon was killed as the beast, despite the fact that he was clearly human. Even the boys, enthralled by the beast, cannot separate the beast from a human. The beast told Simon that he will "'only meet me down there-so don't try to escape'" - explaining that the beast is everywhere, and waiting for anyone who tries to change things (132). When Simon was killed in a ritual containing all the other boys, the beast was everywhere. From that point in the book on, the beast was inescapable by anyone.

These events represent the transgression from civilization to anarchy that happened on the island. The changing roles of the glasses and the beast show the process. When the book started out, the glasses were extremely important to the boys, but by the end of the book the ideas represented by the beast - evil and savagery - are all that mattered to the boys. In that way the

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Approximate Word count = 1278
Approximate Pages = 5 (250 words per page double spaced)