What Does the Scar Symbolize in 'Lord of the Flies': Critical Essay

Topics:	Lord of The FliesWilliam Golding
Words:	423
Page:	1 This essay sample was donated by a student to help the academic community. Papers provided by EduBirdie writers usually outdo students' samples.
Updated:	07.01.2026

Cite this essay

Download

In Lord of the Flies, the author, William Golding, creates the novel to show the behaviors he noticed during the time of World War II. He depicts the different inner designs of the human body and soul. Golding helps detect one's inner savagery and civility. Golding demonstrates that the children are not conditioned by society to act evil or, that a satanic force is driving them towards such a malevolent and nefarious demeanor; it is an innate evil within that is causing them to act this way.

Golding creates specific characters to represent our society. The characters are used to depict the different innate needs for savagery and civility. Ralph is represented as civility and Jack is represented as savagery. Golding also creates a character named Simon who represents a similar type of civility, natural goodness. Humans mirror these archetypes that Golding uses in the novel. The beast scares the boys throughout the novel, but only Simon realizes that the fear of the beast was created to hide the real beast which lived inside each of them. As the boys become more savage, the beast grows stronger. The boys’ behavior is what brings the beast into existence, so the more savagely the boys act, the more real the beast seems to become.

Save your time!
We can take care of your essay

Proper editing and formatting
Free revision, title page, and bibliography
Flexible prices and money-back guarantee

Place an order

The boys are thrown into a situation where they are alone on an island with no parents or rules. Golding uses this to give the idea of human nature in not only boys but in all of society. The boys represent how far humans will go in order to survive and what they will do to suppress the evil they carry within. Golding underlies the idea that men will destroy not only themselves but the people and area around them, almost as second nature. At the end of the novel, Jack destroys the island by burning it down; which adds to the fact the boys once had a beautiful island to call home yet quickly turned it into a wreckage. “Someone called out. ‘Too many things.’ There came a mutter of agreement. Ralph overrode them. ‘And another thing’” (Golding 88). Ralph wanted the island to be a good, functioning society, but the other boys were tired of all the work and rules that were placed on them. The only boys who still truly understood the importance of the rules were not able to convince the rest to agree. This marks the downfall of Ralph’s orderly and clean society. Ralph displays the positive side of human nature with his realistic planning and firm leadership.

Did you like this example?

Yes

Critical Essay on Simon’s Personality in ‘Lord of the Flies’

Essay on What Does Piggy’s Death Symbolize

Cite this paper

APA
MLA
Harvard
Vancouver

What Does the Scar Symbolize in ‘Lord of the Flies’: Critical Essay. (2023, November 15). Edubirdie. Retrieved June 25, 2026, from https://hub.edubirdie.com/examples/what-does-the-scar-symbolize-in-lord-of-the-flies-critical-essay/

“What Does the Scar Symbolize in ‘Lord of the Flies’: Critical Essay.” Edubirdie, 15 Nov. 2023, hub.edubirdie.com/examples/what-does-the-scar-symbolize-in-lord-of-the-flies-critical-essay/

What Does the Scar Symbolize in ‘Lord of the Flies’: Critical Essay. [online]. Available at: <https://hub.edubirdie.com/examples/what-does-the-scar-symbolize-in-lord-of-the-flies-critical-essay/> [Accessed 25 Jun. 2026].

What Does the Scar Symbolize in ‘Lord of the Flies’: Critical Essay [Internet]. Edubirdie. 2023 Nov 15 [cited 2026 Jun 25]. Available from: https://hub.edubirdie.com/examples/what-does-the-scar-symbolize-in-lord-of-the-flies-critical-essay/

copy