Lord of the Flies: Symbolism

Lesson Plan - Get It!

Audio:

Welcome back, and congratulations on finishing the novel!

Your study of Lord of the Flies is not over yet! While you have looked at small sections of the novel as you read, it is important to go back and look at the novel as a whole to understand all the details and meaning.

The focus in this lesson will be the symbolism in the novel.

Symbolism is the use of an object to represent a more abstract idea within a work. Many symbols are found within Lord of the Flies. Even the quote from the beginning of the lesson suggests symbolism.

". . . maybe there is a beast. . . . maybe it's only us."

If there is no beast, then the beast referred to throughout the novel represents something else.

For more information on symbolism, watch the four videos below.

People can also be symbols representing ideas or feelings.

It was also mentioned in the videos that Lord of the Flies is an allegory, a very involved symbolic writing. This will be studied in the next lesson.

For now, continue on to the Got It? section for some practical activities!