Lord of the Flies

Water, Water, Everywhere 9th Grade

In the novel Lord of the Flies, William Golding explores the savagery and bloodlust in humanity. Written right after the end of World War II, this narrative depicts roughly 40 children as they try to stay alive on a desert island in the middle of a new war. As the story progresses, the children turn to violence and fear to solve their problems, and in the midst of all the chaos and death, there is always the presence of water, like a beast lurking in the shadows. On the other hand, water enlightens and preservers life around the island, like a motherly figure. In Lord of the Flies, the prevalent water imagery expresses the theme that duality exists in everyone and everything.

Water, like humanity, can quickly change from a placid and nurturing force to an agent of destruction. As Ralph and Jack, two 14-year-old boys who lead the rest of the boys, look for the beast, they stumble across a lagoon. They search for the beast in order to find and kill it to ensure the comfort and safety of the other kids. Golding says, “Then the sleeping leviathan breathed out the waters rose, the weed streamed, and the water boiled over the table rock with a roar. There was no sense of the passage of waves’ only this minute-long fall and rise and...

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