User:Earfetish1/Metaphor, Ideological Point of View in Lord of the Flies

ES1. Analyse the use of metaphor in a novel (with reference to authorial style, characters mind styles, characterisation, or ideological point of view).

Analysis of Metaphor in terms of Ideological Point of View, in William Golding’s Lord of the Flies

Abstract I will attempt to show how an analysis of the metaphors used that relate to an ideological point of view results in concrete evidence for the common consensus of the symbolism in the Lord of the Flies. Common metaphorical patterns have been studied and used to understand the viewpoints of characters, and how they change. Allegorical and thematic patterns have been studied and attempts have been made to get a good understanding of each noted character, their ideology, and how the conflicting ideologies results in the famous narrative.

1. Introduction Metaphors are comparisons that draw upon similarities between two largely separate concepts and emphasise their similarities in the mind of the reader³. The most exciting and relevant metaphors make novel comparisons or extend normal comparisons in novel manners, and these tend to give you the greatest understanding into a particular concept. Conceptional metaphor theory states it is possible to understand the manner in which someone views the world by the metaphors they choose to use, this enhancing some aspects of things and hiding others. Lord of the Flies is one of the most studied novels of all time, and its reliance on metaphor for a successfully allegorical tale is one of the reasons why. There are many different interpretations of the intentions of the allegory in Lord of the Flies, but it is generally agreed that the book claims that humanity is a construct and, left to our own devices, we will become tribalist savages. The island is viewed as a microcosm of greater society, and parallels are drawn between the actions on the island and those of the outside world. Modern metaphor and ideological mind-style theories amalgamate perfectly. When one considers ideology as being the manner in which someone conceptualises reality, and conceptual metaphor theory as using conceptual metaphors to highlight or emphasise particular aspects of reality, it becomes quite feasible to join the two studies together and analyse how metaphor promotes the realisation of certain ideologies. In this, I will show how critical understandings of Lord of the Flies can be enhanced by considering metaphor in terms of ideological point of view, and will demonstrate that such an analysis promotes certain areas of the more disputed understandings of the novel. There is also great purpose in considering how the intense atmosphere of the island is promoted through the use of metaphor in terms of ideological point of view and how the different characteristics can be observed to build up through shared metaphors and novel extended metaphors.

2. Literature Review Lord of the Flies can be considered a product of its time.⁶ The world had just come out of World War 2 and was shuddering into the Cold War, and there was a lot of thought into the potential savagery of mankind, our innate tendency to destroy ourselves, and what separated us from the beasts – the Theory of Evolution was still a ripe wound in humanity’s common understanding. The British Imperial Empire was quite clearly in the process of decline, yet nationalism was still widespread and the idea of the British being innately civil was still in currency. Golding attempted to challenge these prejudices; however he still displayed some elements of the same. There are elements of the apocalypse in his book and lots of reference to the savagery and animalism of mankind. The book containing young boys stranded at sea and becoming brutal gave the book an extra sinister edge and extra ferocity in its argument. The Christian narrative, as it is today, was still a fundamental tool in allegory in the 1950s, and it is argued that, to some extent, this book plays on Christian imagery. I will discuss the extent later. In this analysis, quotations will be given by page number. The publication used is found in the references section.² 2.1 Metaphor In ‘Metaphor in Discourse³,’ Semino defines metaphor as “the phenomenon whereby we talk and, potentially, think about something in terms of something else.”⁴ Aristotle described a command of metaphor as “the mark of a genius,” and Golding’s genius in this novel is at least partly explained by metaphor use. The dominant paradigm in metaphor theory at the moment is ‘Conceptual Metaphor Theory’. This states that target domains (or ‘vehicle’) are abstract or difficult, such as ‘life’, and source domains (or ‘tenor’) are familiar and concrete, such as ‘journey’. Also, the ‘life is a journey’ metaphor can be further broken down into ‘life goals are destinations’, ‘action is movement’, and ‘direction is life-path’. These conceptual metaphors can be linguistically realised in cliché phrases such as “I don’t know where I’m going in life.” That it is hard to recognise this as a metaphor shows the ubiquity of this phrase and of that particular conceptual metaphor, however it is argued that these are still ideologically-loaded and it is feasible to understand someone’s ideological point of view through these metaphors too. However, familiar conceptual metaphors can be realised in novel manners, such as ‘how many roads must a man walk down before you can call him a man?’, or in instances when a conceptual metaphor is extended, creating intratextual patterns, such as “I took a crossroads in life and now I’m lost”, or in any instance of patterning or foregrounding. Chains of metaphors can be observed to take many forms; clustering involves many source domains close together, extension involves many together from the same source domain or semantic field, combination and mixing are different metaphors from different source domains working together, and literal-metaphorical oppositions, or topic-triggered metaphors, occur when the source domain relates to the literal meanings described in the text. Metaphors can also be signalled, such as ‘this is literally a nightmare’. Unorthodox metaphors assist the comprehension of a character’s ideology, for instance ‘I’ve had a full life,” or “get the most out of life,” containing the conceptual metaphor of ‘life is a container’, are conventional conceptual metaphors, and would not assist us in comprehending a character by themselves; however when these are extended as linguistic metaphors in exciting manners then they can add a lot to our understanding. In the aforementioned situations, it is worth analysing the metaphor particularly closely as it has been highlighted as being particularly relevant. To understand a particular character’s mind-style, it is also worth examining what conceptual metaphors they use with frequency and any novel comparisons they make. 2.1.1 Metaphor and ideology Conceptional metaphor theory³ illustrates that metaphors highlight some aspects of the target domain and hide others. Personification, for instance, highlights the humanistic aspects of the ascribed object and hides its mundane qualities. Metaphors make an implicit value judgement upon the target domain through the qualities of the source domain. In cognitive terms, the reflector is conceiving of the target domain in a certain manner. As, it is argued, we all understand the world in terms of metaphor, conceptual metaphors do not inherently reflect a great deal. According to Dirven, Frank and Putz, it is not just the choice of a particular conceptual metaphor but “the various linguistic devices and expressions instigating the underlying conceptual metaphor.” When alternative conventional metaphors for the same target domain, or completely novel metaphors are used, we understand novel ways of comprehending particular experiences. This aids our understanding of a character’s ideology. Ideology has been defined as³, “A system of beliefs and values based on a set of cognitive models, i.e. mental representations... of recurrent phenomena and their interpretations.” Van Dijk similarly defined it as “the basis of the socio-cultural representations shared by members of a group.”³ Fowler¹ defines ideology as a method of simplifying cultural phenomena and making it comprehensible through ‘common sense’. The overlying theme of these definitions seems to be that the world is conceived of with certain mental representations, closely related to cognitive theories of metaphor. 2.1.2 Metaphor in Lord of the Flies There are standard interpretations for the overriding metaphors in Lord of the Flies⁴: Piggy represents intellect, calm thoughtfulness, clear-sightedness, and similar rational virtues needed in normal society. Events that hinder this, such as the gradual destruction of his glasses and the loss of the group’s faith in him, reflect the gradual death of this virtue on the island. Ralph represents leadership and government. Ralph is democracy, diplomacy and order, and is a somewhat weak but decisive leader who generally commands respect. Ralph’s downfall is allegorical to the downfall of man when faced with savagery. Simon is representative of religion. He understands the island and the nature of the Beast, and views the happenings on the island with placid, peaceful comprehension. Along with Piggy and Simon, they represent the leadership roles in the adult world – teachers, government and religion. However, their authority is far more tenuous than is found in civilisation, and the reader sees the transition from order to chaos through the erosion of their authority by Jack and the other ‘dark boys’. Jack is the main antagonist in the novel and shows the ease with which the heart of darkness can overwhelm someone. He starts off disciplined and organised, with his own personal army, and then descends into violence and savagery. The Beast represents the Heart of Darkness. That he is a soldier in the war demonstrates the parallels that Golding is trying to draw between the tribalism on this island and tribalism in the wider world. Hence, the mythical Beast, the hunters, the dead parachutist, and the dead pig’s head on a stick, all represent the metaphorical ‘darkness within’ and the phrase ‘the Beast’ is used by the boys to describe all three. Parallels have been drawn between the allegory of the Lord of the Flies and that found in Joseph Conrad’s ‘Heart of Darkness’. Allegory has been defined as where “the whole narrative is devoted to the development of the metaphorical source domain,”³ and the allegory of the Lord of the Flies will be explored in great detail in the analysis section below. I will attempt to display how this cursory knowledge of Lord of the Flies’ symbolism can be utilised in conjunction with a study on metaphor to further understand the novel and its allegorical purposes. 2.2 Ideological Point of View Ideological point of view has been defined as “the way in which a text mediates a set of particular ideological beliefs through either character, narrator or author.”⁵ Golding spends some time encouraging the reader to understand the ideologies of the main boys in the book; Piggy, Jack, Simon, and Ralph, as well as the ideology of the narrator. The narrator is omniscient but restricted, at some points by the experiences of the characters, such as in the chapter ‘The Sound of the Shell’, where we follow the characters climbing the mountain and discovering that they were on an island, but at other times, such as the chapter ‘Beast from Air’, the narrator is still restricted by the island but is observing things the children are not. As the narrator is external to the narrative, the book is heterodiegetic.⁵ It can be difficult to ascertain what is point of view and what is a more general author’s style⁴. Fowler understands that it is possible for narrators to also portray an ideological point of view,¹ evaluative modalities can be used to challenge the assumption of authorial objectivity. It is possible to determine what features of text are demonstrating point of view through two stylistic cues. The first is through the semantic principle of deixis, positioning the speaking voice in a physical space. This creates a deictic centre from which we can judge things by their distance to the reflector. The second is through the use of the grammatical adjunct, a prepositional or adverb phrase, which expresses location, i.e., ‘up the road’. Where point of view is limited, for instance to an island, or to the point of view of a particular character, we experience attenuated focalisation. This is done to great effect in Melvin Burgess’ ‘Junk’, where the reader experiences the mind style of a separate character in every chapter, however it is also experienced in the Lord of the Flies, where we are restricted to the island. These techniques discover point of view on the temporal plane⁵ rather than the ideological plane, as defined by Fowler-Uspensky, but it is useful to utilise where other categories of point of view are occurring so watertight discoveries of ideological point of view can be found. A more obvious ways to discover a character’s ideological point of view is by their utterances or utterances that are attributed to them.³ Modality, especially expressions of deontic modality, also highlight a character’s point of view, by expressing their degree of certainty towards certain situations. This results in interpretations and interpolations studding the piece and offering analysis of why things occurred in the way they did. Epistemic modality, expressing degrees of obligation, are useful for foregrounding point of view, but are more likely to exist as narration than deontic modality. Ideological Point of view is a particularly well-studied area of linguistics. The differences between mind style and ideological point of view are difficult to ascertain – Fowler initially coined the phrase ‘Mind Style’ as an alternative to the cumbersome ‘ideological point of view’⁶. It is also agreed to be difficult to differentiate between narratorial point of view and a more general author’s style.¹ 3. Analysis 3.1 Points of View in the Lord of the Flies The novel is written with attenuated focalisation, as referenced in part 2.2, with Golding telling of the experiences as unfolding through the character’s eyes but from the point of view of a distant narrator. This is particularly notable when the characters are climbing the mountain to see whether or not it was an island they had landed on, where we experience the revelation at the same time as the characters. The narrator does not initially know the boy’s names, and refers to them as “the boy with fair hair” (1) and “the fat boy” (5) until their names are disclosed to each other. The only time when this is broken is in the beginning of the chapter ‘Beast from Air’, where we see a dying parachutist (later referred to as ‘The Beast’) landing on the island and getting caught up in the trees. No character witnesses this, and they do not know what the Beast is when the readers do. 3.2 Overview of discussed metaphor The book is an analysis of how our civilised impulses break down when we are separated from savagery. This can be expressed as ‘civilisation versus savagery’. It is also expressed as a battle between good and evil. Through the language used to describe either side, including the usage of metaphors, it is apparent that civilisation is good and savagery is evil.⁶ This will be discussed in great detail below. Also, the conventional conceptional metaphor ‘evil is dark’ is used to great effect also. There is much use of metaphor to describe the inner processing of character’s minds, each one different from the other, as well as a more general metaphor of the island being an oppressive, living creature. This enhances the more novel understanding of the book in terms of the island being not only a microcosm of society, but a microcosm of how humanity lasts in savagery, with different aspects of humanity getting knocked off at different times. In this understanding, the characters could be viewed as representing different aspects of the human psyche. 4. Ralph The metaphors used by the narrator attempt to put Ralph in a deliberately positive light, in opposition to many of the other boys. Ralph is also the main character whose point of view is frequently examined by the narrator. He uses metaphor to define his views of the other boys and to examine his society from the point of view of a leader. 4.1 Ralph and Journeys Ralph begins to get a negative view of life. As he is walking along the beach (81), a topic-triggered metaphor is initiated. He uses the conventional conceptual metaphor ‘life is a journey’ but exploits it in creative and novel ways – after choosing a firm strip as his path so he doesn’t have to watch his feet, he considers “”the wearisomeness of this life, where every path was an improvisation and a considerable part of one’s waking life was spent watching one’s feet.” This expresses his depressed mindset as he considers himself as a failing leader – he considers that he’s been improvising and watching where his plans were headed using journey metaphors, and is finding it difficult to make these decisions. This is closely related to the following ‘thoughts are a journey’ metaphor. Thoughts are also confusing him, and “thoughts are a journey” is also exploited as he “loses himself in a maze of thoughts.” (81) This metaphor is again topic-triggered as he is journeying at the moment, and illustrates exactly how closely we are in Ralph’s mind at this point. This is quite a conventional use of the metaphor, however it is extended in a novel manner as “again, he lost himself in deep waters,” (82), which follows a long stream-of-consciousness through the point of view of Ralph. “Thoughts are a journey” appears again (181) as Ralph forgets what he has been “driving” at. That Ralph finds thoughts like a difficult journey reflects his growing lack of confidence in his abilities and that he is finding it exceptionally difficult to think of what to do, and that the ‘journey’ metaphor is extended so profoundly demonstrates how Ralph’s view of the scenario is like a journey with a correct path to the exit (the fire, as will be discussed later). Analysis of Ralph’s journey metaphor will appear in the next subsection. 4.1.1 Ralph and Piggy Ralph contrasts his thought processes with those of Piggy, using the conventional conceptual metaphor ‘brains’ to describe Piggy’s intelligence. (83) He also observes that Piggy can “go step by step inside that fat head of his,” (83) again using the ‘thought is a journey’ metaphor, and contrast Piggy’s stable method of thinking to his short-sighted and hazardous manner. Another contrast with Piggy is Ralph’s linguistic realisation of the conceptual metaphor ‘thoughts are a game,’ as “would treat the day’s decisions as if he was playing a game of chess” (128). This foregrounds the importance he attributes to thoughts. This is followed by “problem was he was never a good chess player” and a following thought of Piggy, insinuating he views Piggy as a good chess player in this free indirect thought passage. We can observe that Ralph views thoughts as being decisive actions that have consequences through the metaphors he uses to describe them (journey, games) and his view that Piggy is better at this kind of thought than he is. In conjunction with ‘life is a journey’ metaphor Ralph expands on, this highlights how he interprets his decisions as having major consequences and pays a lot of attention to them. That he attributes Piggy to be better at these metaphorical tasks than he is shows how he views Piggy as having greater abilities in rational thought than he does. The conventional conceptual metaphors ‘Life is a journey’ and ‘thoughts are a journey’ are explored in novel manners in a close connection with each other in a very unique extension and this shows how Ralph views life as a process of rational thought, where thoughts and decisions have consequences and there is always an aim. This assists his characterisation as a born leader and of Piggy as an intellectual. 4.2 Ralph and obscured thoughts The confusion previously mentioned in ‘Ralph and Journeys’ is also exploited by Ralph conceiving of a ‘thoughts are visual images’ conventional metaphor but extending this in inventive ways to demonstrate how thoughts get obscured in his mind’s eye. We twice learn this from his use of metaphors with a source domain of sight being obscured and of thoughts being visions: (117) “something fluttered in front of his mind like a bat’s wing, obscuring his idea.” (156) “Ralph was puzzled by the shutter that flickered in his brain. There was something he wanted to say; the shutter had come down.” (181) “That curtain flapped in his head... then the curtain whisked back.” (218) “He was beginning to dread the curtain that might waver in his brain, blacking out the sense of danger, making a simpleton out of him.” (219) “This was so like the curtain that flapped in his brain,” (220) “He thought the blinking was inside him.” That sights are visions and they are easily obscured not only tells us how Ralph imagines his thoughts, but also how he has difficulty with prolonged rational thought and that he views this as a handicap. Every time this phenomenon occurs, it is referred to in a metaphorical manner. This appears to validate the concept that metaphors are a way of conceiving of abstract things through concrete comparisons. His confused thoughts and ‘shoot from the hip’ life ideology are further examined through his use of the metaphor ‘decisions are fleeting objects’, from his reflection that you have to “grab at a decision” (83). Ralph’s dislike of this phenomenon demonstrates how he views rational thought at essential, how he views his brief losses of intellect negatively, how this occurs inside his mind and how he conceives of it. Therefore, we know Ralph experiences thought blackouts he conceives of as vision blackouts. 4.3 Ralph and the place of assembly, arguments Ralph views the place of assembly as being essential for the retaining of civilisation on the island. He observes the pointless arguing over the beast and the ignorance of his purposes as ‘the break up of sanity,’ (95) creating the novel metaphor ‘the assembly is sanity’ and emphasising the importance he holds to it and how he views it as comparable to civilisation. Metaphors to do with construction and organisation are utilised in his hopes for the assembly: he hopes the debate is “laid out clearly,” (84) using a conventional conceptual metaphor of “arguments are structures.” The previously mentioned ‘break up’ extends this metaphor, as does Ralph’s later observation that “the careful plan of this assembly had broken down.” It is particularly interesting that he uses this metaphor rather than the more common ‘argument is war’ metaphor and it shows how he conceives of debate in a constructive manner, and how one of his aims is to keep the island functioning and the fire burning through the constructive medium of diplomatic debate. This contributes to the overriding allegory of the tale, where the narrator’s ideology of savagery’s potential wins out and diplomacy dies. 4.4 Ralph and animalistic metaphor Ralph gradually becomes more animal-like in his behaviours later in the novel and this is reflected in the metaphors he chooses. Metaphors relating to his point of view become directly related to animals: “The blood roared again in Ralph’s ears, confused images chased each other through his mind. A composite of these things was prowling round the shelters.” (184) The final chapter ‘Cry of the Hunters’(203) is unique in that Ralph displays a very peculiar animal-like ideology in parts and it is focused on his internal monologue far more. At this point, his tribe has been destroyed and he is an outcast on the island. That he begins behaving like a savage demonstrates that savagery has won at this point, it has invaded every character’s mind and civilisation is doomed on this island. All metaphors relating to the fellow savages have a similar animal source domain. What is most remarkable about this ideology is how similar it is to that of the ‘dark boys’ discussed later, and it shows that the blackness in their hearts is in his too. “Ralph wormed his way out of the ferns,” (203) “Here, then, was the night’s lair,” (212) “was worming his way into the thicket,” (213), “wormed his way in... squealing like a pig,” (214) “he raised his spear, snarled a little,” (216) “Ralph launched himself like a cat, snarling with the spear” (217) “shied like a horse... till he was panting,” (218) “The screams became continuous, and foaming... was in the open, screaming, snarling, bloody.” What is notable about these animal source domains is that they are wild animals when he is attacking but are lowly animals (worms) when he is hiding. This may display how Ralph has also taken an ego knocking by this point; however that Ralph is viewing himself and his fellow savages as animals in this passage is undisputable, and this reflects how we can all become animals, or indeed are all already animals due to evolution. That Golding pays so much attention to describing the way Ralph views the world emphasises the importance the reader ascribes to his thought processes and how his narrative arc reflects an overall greater narrative story; that of savagery versus civilisation. Ralph portrays leadership in civilisation and he is the last member of civilisation to still be civil. 5. Piggy Piggy is generally viewed as representing intellect and rational thought on the island⁶. As was previously discussed in ‘Ralph and Journeys’, Ralph views Piggy as having an extraordinarily enviable ability of clear thought and rational argument. In the deaths of both Piggy and Simon, their points of view are taken at the moment of death. This results in a heightening of how they would comprehend their death and how the reader is to understand how they view it. 5.1 Piggy and reality I will attempt to show how Piggy’s viewpoint of the events unfolding correlates with the reality of the events, the narrator’s viewpoint, and the viewpoint of wider society at the time of writing. Piggy views life in a scientific manner. This is explicitly stated, ““Life,” said Piggy, “is scientific.” (90) He observes with a critical eye, “He looked critically at Ralph.” (5) Piggy’s logical world-view is realised further in the description of his death (200-201). The metaphor and similes chosen; “his head opened and stuff came out and turned red. Piggy’s arms and legs twitched a bit, like a pig’s after it has been killed,’ are very basic and non-descriptive, hinting at his clear-sighted and straight-to-the-point ideology. Interesting is the comparison of Piggy’s death to that of a pig, dehumanising Piggy or conversely humanising pigs. This will be discussed further later. Piggy is also taken in by a sea that is described as living; this is similar to Simon’s death, which will be discussed in ‘Simon’, as well as in ‘The Sea’. Piggy’s death brings up parallels with religious works, which will be explored later under ‘Simon’ and ‘the Dark Boys’. The boulder is seen as a ‘monstrous red thing’, and ascribing the rock the characteristic of an evil intent and referring to it as ‘red’ creates the parallel of Satan. Piggy calls Jack’s tribe ‘a bunch of painted niggers’. (200) This reflects the ideological point of view of Piggy, coming from his mouth and comparing the tribe to black people, with the ground being ‘their shared savagery’. It also reflects how Piggy views the tribe as being less civil than his tribe and his view of the inherent superiority of civilisation. That Piggy is a sympathetic character shows that using such a metaphor was not considered taboo or untoward when the book was written (1950s) and was likely a common thought; however nowadays such a metaphor would be unthinkable. 5.2 Piggy and Air At one point, Piggy has an asthma attack. This passage shows us how Piggy views his breath as a graspable object. This is a conventional conceptual metaphor, linguistically realised as ‘hold your breath,’ however this is extended. He “held his breath,” “let out his breath with a gasp,” “reached for it again and failed.” (111) Piggy’s perception of air as a fleeting object that is hard to grasp demonstrates how he views breath as a more essential commodity than the other boys, that it is hard for him to maintain breathing, and that it is somewhat more precious. That Golding chooses to extend this metaphor at this time and to describe one of Piggy’s asthma attacks demonstrates how he is a weak character with little potential of savage survival. 6. Simon Simon is one of the key reasons scholars argue that there exists a kind of warped Biblical arch in the Lord of the Flies.⁶ Differences occur in that Simon does not cause salvation and is never said specifically to be Godly, however the Biblical parallels became quite apparent when analysing metaphor. 6.1 Nature working for Simon Simon is one of the most sensible characters and realises the truth of the matter very regularly. He also personifies the surroundings in a more positive light than the other characters, in such a manner as it appears that things are working in his favour. In some situations this becomes an extended metaphor for Simon’s interaction with nature. The creepers “form a great mat” for him, “walls,” and a “little cabin” that he sits in (58) The open space has “woven” a “great mat” he sits inside (146). It has been argued that Simon’s interaction with nature is similar to Adam in the Garden of Eden.⁶ That Golding creates a ‘nature is a house’ metaphor correlates with the previously mentioned biblical imagery. There is generally a lot of imagery relating to being in-touch with nature when discussing Simon’s behaviour. The scene where Simon’s body is taken out to sea (169-170) uses lots of religious imagery and metaphors that relate to religion or to Heaven and the sky, emphasising Simon’s Christ-like qualities upon his death. The scenery and the world is personified as helpful and angelic. Sea creatures are referred to as ‘moonbeam-bodied’. Simon becomes ‘sculptured marble’, like a statue, making him appear immortal and iconic. The Sun and the Moon “pull” Simon too, metaphorically referring to the movements of the Earth as the movements of the planets and using skyward source domains to provide assistance to Simon. The creatures and moonlight all assist Simon in his transition; the creatures “busied” themselves, the tide “touched” the bloodstains, the water “accepted” sand grains, again with nature working for Simon. It could be argued that this personification more accurately reflects how nature views Simon rather than how Simon views nature. Nature appears to work to deliberately work to assist Simon and accept him into it. This is explicitly realised when Simon dies; we experience the taking out of Simon’s body from the point of view of nature. This enhances the idea that Simon is a religious figure and the external forces on the island, or God, like and wish to assist Simon. Simon’s discussion with the Lord of the Flies is also integral to the comprehension of both thematic characters, and this will be discussed later in ‘Lord of the Flies’. 6.2 Simon and Debate Simon dislikes debate and distrusts himself. In a further passage of free indirect thought, Simon considers the “pressure of personality” to describe his feelings on assembly (112). He repeats this metaphor, (141), “again the pressure of the assembly took his voice away.” This uses the metaphor ‘people are an oppressive force’ to highlight some of Simon’s motives, such as his dislike of conflict or of people challenging him by comparing the awkwardness of debate speaking to a claustrophobic force. 7. The dark boys The initial presentation of the boys in the choir as seen from the point of view of ‘the good boys’ (15) is ‘something dark’, playing on the common theme of dark things being evil, and later ‘the darkness was not all shadow’. This vision is also twice referred to as a ‘creature’, initially using animal metaphors to refer to them. This becomes a generative metaphor, with animal metaphors frequently being applied to Jack and the choir’s behaviour throughout. That the choir is initially viewed as ‘something dark’ relates their initial appearance to the black smudge the Beast could be generally viewed as being. The visual image of the boys as a dark bundle of objects is repeated after the unsuccessful assembly wherein civilisation begins to look tenuous. The leaving boys are “a dense black mass that revolved. (99) This particular description is quite appropriate, as it is later used to describe more explicitly evil characters. This enhances the view that the boys are inherently evil. Jack is viewed by Ralph as “a stain that was Jack,” that, “detached itself from the darkness” (132), using the lowly metaphor ‘Jack is a dark stain’ to dehumanise him and using the verb ‘detached’, saying ‘Jack is a part of the darkness’ to explicitly state that he looked like a part of the darkness but to implicitly state that he is dark inside. This is repeated when Jack and Roger change from “ink stains” to distinguishable figures (124). That darkness is something you can hide behind (like a mask, which will be discussed later) is considered, “if it were light shame would burn them at admitting these things. But the night was dark.” (209) Ralph views him and the other boys as “plate-like shadows,” (192), demonstrating how Ralph at this point recognises that there is an inherent potential for savagery and being a ‘dark boy’. The consistent repetition of ‘dark’ to describe the boys plays on the common conceptual metaphor that ‘dark is bad’. This conforms with the overall theme of savagery also being bad. The darkness that is inside them is also personified, in conjunction with the Beast; Jack “tried to convey the compulsion to track down and kill that was swallowing his soul.” (51). This leads to the typical allegorical understanding of the tale, where the Beast is the darkness found in the Heart of Man. Literal darkness will also be discussed further in ‘darkness’ and further darkness personified in ‘the Beast’. 7.1 Jack Jack initially appears as a very disciplined and superior character.⁴ His choir is collectively viewed as being particularly uniform and parallel upon their first sight (15) and Jack is said to have “controlled” them. The visual metaphor of uniformity and conformity is in sharp contrast to his later appearance. Jack calls their real-world names “Kid’s names,” again highlighting his superior status to the other boys. Jack’s transition from his uptight behaviour in this earlier passage is well expected due to the large generative metaphor of the boys as ‘something dark’, as was discussed in 7.0. Later, he observes how his choir has fallen. He considers how they their voices had “used to be the songs of angels,” (146) and this emphasis highlights their difference, inferring presumably that they are now more demonic. It is unknown what the behaviour of the choir was like before they arrived on the island. Jack views Ralph and Piggy with disdain and has no affection for their civil characteristics. Piggy is called ‘a fat slug’ by Jack (98), dehumanising Piggy in Jack’s mind and conversely dehumanising Jack in the reader’s mind. Jack’s disdain for Piggy is apparent, and this is reflected in our disdain for Jack. 7.1.1 Jack as an animal Jack quickly is viewed by the narrator using animalistic metaphors. In the first scene where Jack is acting in a distinctly animalistic manner, he is referred to as “dog like” and “ape like” (46-47). This passage refers to the movements of Jack, follows his deictic position, and describes his sensations, “these droppings were warm,” so it is possible to assume this is also somewhat how Jack views himself. In this same passage he is called “less a hunter than a furtive thing,” using the conventional conceptual metaphor ‘fewer is worse’ in conjunction with the ‘Jack is an animal’ metaphor, an example of combination and mixing with metaphor to illustrate Jack as being worse for his change. There are also many dehumanising metaphors associated with the dark boys. Ralph observes the ‘filthy objects’ in front of him, (191) highlighting that he doesn’t fully view them as human. Comparing Jack to an animal presumes that savagery is closer to animal behaviour than civilisation and that Jack is succumbing to animal instincts. This corresponds with the notion of Mankind having a potentially savage heart and the overall allegorical understanding of the novel. Jack’s animal-like behaviour is viewed through Ralph’s ideology (and Piggy’s) as being ‘lesser’ and presumably through Golding’s and the reader’s ideologies too. We therefore get a moral understanding of this behaviour being undesirable. 7.2 Roger Roger is initially referred to as “the dark boy,” (18), a reference to his later behaviour as he becomes a key figure in the second tribe. The source for this metaphor is ‘dark is evil’, one that is exploited continually throughout the novel. Roger takes a back role for most of the story, but later emerges as one of the key savages. His ideology reflects that of a psychopath, or at least someone who has little empathy for their fellow humans, and this is shown in his use of metaphor. Just before he kills Piggy, Roger views Ralph and Piggy as “a shock of hair... and a blob of fat,” (199) preceded by a deictic marker of ‘below him’. That Roger chooses such metaphors to refer to Ralph and Piggy, with the target domain of their appearance and the source domain of waste products, shows how he dehumanises them. This provokes consideration of whether ‘below him’ is also using the conventional conceptual metaphor of ‘worse beings are positioned lower’ as well as marking Roger’s point of view. However, this is foregrounded in the reader’s mind as they view Piggy and Ralph as being superior and the contrast between our conceptions of these characters and Roger’s highlight’s how disagreeable we find him. 7.3 Masks Masks are also personified by the wearer throughout the book, creating discourse systemacity where all the boys view the mask in the same way. On the first instance of someone wearing a mask, Jack plans his “new face,”, and then observes himself as an “awesome stranger.” The mask becomes “a thing on its own, behind which Jack hid,” and the mask even has the ability to “compel” (66-67). The boys are later “freed by the paint.” (194) This creates the sense of the reflector hiding behind the mask or being controlled by the mask. Metonymy is also used to describe the masks, demonstrating how the reflectors increasingly become aware of the masks as controlling the wearer. “A painted face spoke with the voice of Roger.” (195) Ralph “cried out hopelessly against the black and green mask.” (198) Both of these metaphorical uses combine to personify the mask in such a way as it is a thing to hide behind and to remove morality. This suggests that anonymity may provoke chaos. This relates to the overall theme of how tenuous society is and how it could potentially fall. Using metonymy by referring to the boys as masks particularly enhances the concept of the masks controlling the boys. 7.4. The Lord of the Flies The pig’s head on a stick, henceforth referred to as the Lord of the Flies, is a reference to Satan⁶. The similar metaphors used for the Dark Boys, the Lord of the Flies, and the Beast, assist the understanding of the book that all these refer to the same overlying allegorical concept - the potential for Man to be savage. The repeated metaphors are those with a source domain of ‘a black blob’: Simon views the guts of the pig as “a black blob of flies,” the mouth as “a blackness within, a blackness that spreads’. These are comparable to “something black,” and “a black mass that revolved”(151, 158). These ‘amorphous black’ metaphors are discussed further in ‘the dark boys’, ‘fire’, and ‘the Beast’ and suggests these are all part of the same overall idea – the heart of darkness in mankind. 7.4.1 Simon and the Lord of the Flies The metaphors used when Simon encounters the Lord of the Flies) bring forth a very strong opposition between the two and reflect Simon’s repulsion and the Lord of the Flies’ expansion and dominating nature. However, the excessive humanising of the Lord of the Flies allows Simon to engage with it and makes it explicitly a metaphorical device. The flies “found Simon” and “played leap-frog on his thighs,” (152), showing the flies to be closer to humanity than one would usually assume. This correlates with the overall theme of humanity and animals being closer than presumed. The Lord of the Flies also says that he is ‘the Beast’ and he is ‘part of you, close, close’, ‘the reason why it’s no-go’, explicitly stating that the Beast, the Lord of the Flies, and savagery, are a part of each other (152). The previously-discussed Christ-like metaphors relating to Simon and the Satanic-like references made to the Lord of the Flies (the Lord of the Flies is generally considered to be a direct reference to Satan)⁶ make the showdowns between the Lord of the Flies and Simon appear like showdowns between good and evil. 7.4.2 Ralph and the Lord of the Flies Ralph also personifies the Lord of the Flies as a satanic character; “the teeth grinned, the empty sockets seemed to hold his gaze masterfully,” consider ‘masterfully’ to dictate skills in the dead skull, “the skull regarded Ralph like one who knows all the answers and won’t tell. Ralph hit out at the filthy thing... came back, still grinning at his face... lay grinning at the sky.” Overall, as was discussed earlier in ‘Simon’ also, the Lord of the Flies is personified as a conversational, welcoming, leering, evil being with many human characteristics. These are characteristics one would also ascribe to sin, and to Satan, and to Jack, again suggesting through this repeated metaphor that these things share fundamental attributes. 7.5. The Beast The Beast is three separate explicit objects in the novel, both working in conjunction with each other to enable the allegory of ‘in the heart of man lies savagery’ to be understood. The Beast is therefore both a dead parachutist who lands in the island after fighting in the unnamed war external to the island (103), the increasing savagery of the boys on the island, and an imagined monster. The beast shares many similar metaphors with ‘the dark boys’. Animalistic metaphors and dark metaphors are used to describe the Beast, again emphasising savagery and evil. This is such before the parachutist has arrived but after the boys are aware of a ‘beast’ on the island: “a thing, a dark thing, a beast, some sort of animal.” The same metaphors and similes that were used to refer to Jack on page 48 and previously discussed (ape-like, creature) are repeated to refer to the dead parachutist: (135) “something like a great ape was sitting asleep... the creature lifted its head.” That the Beast is a dark thing positioned somewhere between humanity and the animal kingdom suggests that Golding is trying to show that it, Jack, and the Lord of the Flies, are one and the same. 8. Personification of the surroundings All of the boys view the island and the surrounding scenery as a living, breathing organism, with rather oppressive qualities, and this reflects the overall mood of the islands and the boy’s desperation to get off it. The island is described in terms appropriate for a mythical beast that was omnipresent and oppressive, creating an overall sense of the island being controlled by Satan. Words used to describe parts of the animal are generally used to describe parts of living beings and not as parts of islands. This can be seen in “long scar,” (1) “neck” (215), a rock spit is called ‘the tail end’ of the island (112). That the island is a living thing enhances the idea that this is a microcosm of society, which is also a living thing. Simon initially puts moral qualities on to the island, humanising it as a whole. “As if it wasn’t a good island,” he says, (53) putting this in conjunction with “the beastie, or the snake thing.” Ralph humanises the island as acting violent in an essentially human way; he observes the mountain “punched” up a hole of blackness (133). Furthermore, as the boys climb the mountain, they observe “some unknown force had wrenched and shattered {rocks}.” (23) The ‘wrench’ metaphor initially would refer to the tool ‘wrench’ but is more generally concerned with strong human force. The island being an animal is deliberate narratorial ideological point of view, and the features listed weakly hint towards the creature being a demon. I hope in later analysis in this section I can expand upon my theory. However, from the source domains chosen, of human violence, of the beast, and of an animal, it appears clear that the island shares a lot in common with the savagery of mankind. 8.1 Humanising trees Ralph leaves the jungle and observes, “[the palm trees] stood or leaned or reclined against the light, and their green feathers were a hundred feet up in the air,” (4) invoking a bird to describe the height of the trees. Metaphorically comparing palm leaves to feathers is repeated (108), “the feathery tops of the palm were green.” Initially, the trees are being described with animalistic metaphor relating to birds but this changes to humanistic metaphor. Creepers “cradled” dead trees while new saplings “searched for a way up.” (38) These both humanise the trees and the ecosystem of the forest; logs are referred to in a particularly novel metaphor as “limbs” that “yielded passionately” to the fire. These humanising metaphors such as “cradled,” and “limbs” that “yield” add particularly emotive elements to the trees. As the story progresses the metaphors become more explicitly sinister. “A flurry of wind made the palms talk... two grey trunks rubbed by each other with an evil squeaking.” (96-97) Using ‘the wind through trees is a voice’ conceptual metaphor is quite conventional, such as the phrase ‘whistling willows’, however the linguistic realisation of this as ‘palms talk’ and ‘an evil squeaking’ is very novel and characterises the voices of the trees as being threatening. The trees repeat this behaviour (106), “the trees of the forest sighed, then roared.” (219) “The grumble of the forest.” That the trees are humanised as a sinister force assists the oppressive and fierce nature of the island and also advances the theory that even the trees are also the Beast of sorts, as a violent humanised animal. 8.2 Humanising Pigs The darkest overall metaphor for their brutality lies in the pigs. The ‘dark boys’ continually try to kill and eat pigs, which the narrator uses humanising metaphors towards. This can be seen in using the metaphor ‘voice’ to refer to the pig’s noises, and to call the sound it makes a “scream.” (28) These associate the pig’s emotions with those of a human through the narrator’s ideological point of view and thereby encouraging the reader to associate the violence with pigs with human violence. Even Jack humanises the pigs somewhat; although he initially uses metaphors relating to food to describe the pigs: “bloated bags of fat,”(147) however one’s position is described as being “sunk in deep maternal bliss,” and it is “mad” (147-148). Bestowing human emotion to the behaviour of an animal is typical personification. When pigs are dead, they still “seem to search for something,” which humanises the pig despite its death. Killing the humanised pigs demonstrates that these boys have the potential to kill a human, which they later do. Humanising animals assists with the overall allegory of humans being an animal-like creature with the tenuous fabric of society holding us up. Humanising pigs continues throughout, accumulating darkly with the previously mentioned encounter between Simon and the Lord of the Flies. 8.3 Humanising the Sea The sea is also personified as a mysterious living force. The sounds of the sea are compared to a voice by all the boys: “heard silently the sough and whisper from the reef.” (94) Ralph considers the sea in depth (115), extending the ‘sea is an animal’ metaphor quite dramatically and emphasising its great size and fearsome potential. Sound is considered; “breathing of some stupendous creature... [waters] whispering like the wind ... sucking down.... the sleeping leviathan breathed out... the water boiled over the table rock with a roar.” The sound is considered by itself (roared) as well as in conjunction with the up-and-down movement (breathing, sucking) – itself a novel realisation of this metaphor. This is in parallel with metaphors relating the sea to a potentially dangerous creature, (stupendous creature, sleeping leviathan) and assists the realisation of the trapped, scared point of view. The fierceness of the sea and that it is depicted almost as a sleeping monster demonstrates how the boys view it negatively – it is keeping them in – and how they recognise how quickly they could die in the sea. The “suck... breathe... boil” chain of metaphors is repeated throughout the book as the typical behaviour of the sea, using animal metaphors as a source for the behaviour of the sea and emphasising its wild but patterned nature. “The low suck-down of the sea and boil of the return,” (119) “The sea would suck down... plaster down the seaweed like shining hair, pause, gather and rise with a roar,”(120-121)) “the gully boiled up.” (127) These same metaphors are used when Piggy dies, (201) “The sea breathed again in a long slow sigh, the water boiled white and pink over the rock, and when it went, sucking back again, the body of Piggy was gone.” That Piggy’s final conception is that of the sea in this oft-described manner assists the characterisation of Piggy’s ideology as one of rational thought, as discussed earlier in ‘Piggy’. As was discussed in ‘Simon’, the contrast of how much more helpful the sea was to Simon also enhances his religious status. 8.4 The Sun and Heat Character’s points of view of the sun differ depending on the time of day and the character, with Simon being particularly unaffected by the sun. Generally “the sun is a violent oppressive force,” but occasionally “the sun is treasured.” Ralph is ‘hit’ by the heat (4), a conventional conceptual metaphor that is repeated throughout the novel, (60) “the impending sun’s height” gave heat a momentum so it was “like a blow, that they ducked.” Ralph observes “sun-slashed faces,” (31) again adding violence to their view of the sun. The air “threatened” with heat. (146) The ‘dark boys’ sway in the “fierce light.” (15). Just before Simon is killed, he goes to his special place discussed above, where nature works for him (146). At this point, the Sun is explicitly a threatening force, it “pelts down,” using the metaphor “sunlight is an object” to highlight the force and pain of it. “The arrow of the sun fell on him,” is later said, extending this metaphor in a novel way to examine how the sun is piercing. This is an example of the unique way Golding uses novel interpretations of conceptual metaphors, whereby being hit by heat is avoidable and that the pain of the sun is related to the speed and strength of the heat. That the Sun is so frequently viewed as an oppressive and pain-inflicting force describes in a very rich manner the pain the boys feel from the sunlight and the overall oppressive nature of the island. The Sun can be a treasure. Ralph observes “the glowing slice of gold,” emphasising the colour and value of the sun. (108) He sees it as “a point of gold,” (137) “dull silver,” (144) he observes it “seemed to make conversation possible,” humanising the sun, emphasising the power it has and its ability to give life. (108) the liking of the sun may be because of their utter despising of darkness. As will soon be discussed, darkness is a key attribute of the Beast. 8.5 Darkness Darkness continually shares its source domains with oppressive or evil entities. A novel “darkness is a container” metaphor is used in conjunction with description of the beast (107) as “soon the darkness was full of claws, full of the awful unknown and menace.” The descriptions of what the darkness is full of are topic-triggered from the beast, and the mystery and dark of the beast are reflected in the mystery and dark of darkness. The darkness is “pressing in,” (181), and is a “crowding blackness,” that is “blanket thick,” (183) using the metaphor ‘darkness is an oppressive force’ to display the dislike the boys have of the darkness. Ralph considers how darkness “handicaps” them, (132) using ‘darkness is a restrictive force’ to create a metaphor personifying darkness. As discussed above, there are instances where the dark boys are seen as a part of the darkness or of shadows. That darkness is full of the Beast reflects the overall metaphor of the Beast being a dark object. 9. Fire Fire is both the hope for civilisation and a potential killer. As such, when the fire is being used harmoniously, positive metaphors are used, but when it is out of control, animalistic metaphors are used to emphasise its wild nature. 9.1 Fire as an animal When the fire first goes out of control, a large extended metaphor relating to animals is used, as the fire is watched by all the boys. (44) They relate to: a squirrel, a jaguar, and a bird, although together they create the sense of the fire being some uncontrollable and unstoppable wild animal. Fire being a wild beast is a conventional conceptual metaphor, such as ‘a roaring fire’, but the extensive creative exploitation of this metaphor in novel manners leads us to appreciate new ways of thinking about the target domain. “As they watched... small flames... crawled their way through brushwood... scrambled up like a bright squirrel... the squirrel leapt on the wings of the wind and clung to another standing tree, eating downwards.” The fire “begins to gnaw... flapped at the first of the trees... leapt nimbly across a gap... swinging” The animal conceptual metaphor is explicitly realised: “the flames, as if they were a kind of wild-life, crept as a jaguar creeps on its belly.” (44) Ralph: “Could a fire outrun a galloping horse?” (219) This can be contrasted with the more wimpish animal the fire is compared to, once it has died; “grey ashes scurried hither and thither.”(187) ‘Scurrying’ making the novel comparison “ashes move like mice.” Fire being a wild animal shows how quickly these boys view fire as getting out of control and how they have difficulty controlling the elements and, by extension, their destructive urges. 9.2 Fire as a civilising force Even when the fire is controlled, it is still a powerful, self-aware force. “The flames were mastering the branches.” (106) There are still words with a violent source domain, however these are spun differently. “Warmth radiated now, and beat pleasantly on them.” (106) Ralph thinks the fire is the key to civilisation, and compares the fire to other lifelines. To encourage people to keep the fire alight, he compares it to a ‘rope when you are drowning... a doctor said take this because if you don’t take it you’ll die’. That a lifeline and essential medicines are used as metaphors for fire shows how Ralph links fire to civilisation and to rescue. The converse of this can be found when the fire is out. It is then referred to as a “black smudge,” (187, or “darker smudge,” (104) and, as was previously discussed, if one accepts black shapeless masses are part of an overriding ‘beast’ metaphor, where the death of civilisation is the birth of the beast, then these dark smudges may also apply. The beast can therefore be extended to refer to the hope of civilisation and civility dying out and this is reflected in the death of the fire, which is their hope for civilisation. 10. Conclusion The copious amount of allegory and metaphor interwoven in the storyline makes the book very enlightening to analyse. I had also not realised exactly how explicit the religious overtones were. The Sparknotes website referenced inferred that this was controversial; however a metaphorical analysis infers quite a lot of religious overtones, including a very clear good versus evil moral with a Satanic being as evil and a religious person as good. Most interesting was the overall symbolism for the beast, as being a swirling black mass, and this metaphor being a motif in scenes involving the Lord of the Flies and the boys and implying that we all contain the beast. A very good validation of this theory was the extinguished fire being described in the same manner. The heavily oppressive and dark metaphor contributes immensely to the nightmarish quality of it. Humanity is also described in an animal-like manner, reflecting our considered place in the tree of evolution and assisting in a narrative that highlights our propensity towards violence. The other beings in the book were described in a human-like manner, blurring the line between humanity and the animals and emphasising the fragility of civility. Characterisation was enhanced greatly by this approach and a thorough understanding of the main character’s aims and motivations could be discovered.

References: 1.	Fowler, R. 1986. Linguistic Criticism, Oxford: Oxford University Press. 17, 141 2.	Golding, W. 2004. The Lord of the Flies, Kent: Faber and Faber Limited. 3.	Semino, E. 2008. Metaphor in Discourse, Cambridge: University Press. 1-81. 4.	Semino, E and Swindlehurst, K. Metaphor and mind style in Ken Kesey's One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest - Style, Spring, 1996 5.	Simpson, P. 2007. Stylistics – A Resource Book for Students, Cornwall: Routledge. 26-30, 41-45, 77-80, 92-98, 123,130, 142-148, 195, 211-218 6.	Phillips, Brian. SparkNote on Lord of the Flies. 6 Mar. 2009 http://www.sparknotes.com/lit/flies/