"Any intelligent fool can make things bigger, more complex, and more violent. It takes a touch of genius -- and a lot of courage -- to move in the opposite direction."

Well, some of the more obvious symbols in Lord of the Flies are Piggy representing intelligence, logic, and scientific thought, the conch representing order and concrete society, and the island representing the human mind. It is this last symbol that I am going to focus on, as it encompasses many of the other symbols. Each character represents an emotion or characteristic, and each object represents some value. As human thought and consciousness (the airplane and the boys) crashes into the mind (the island) after some horrific accident (the shooting down of the plane), chaos starts to ensue. At first, intelligence (Piggy) is prevalent and keenly felt, and strength and bravery (Ralph) takes over, while kindness and goodness (Simon) is out and about, acting often and being a large part of the whole society of mind. But savagery and bloodlust (Jack) and evil (Roger) slowly wear away at the rest of the mind. Almost at the very beginning, innocence (the littlun with the mulberry birthmark) is lost to some early, un-thought- out act (the forest fire). Then, as bloodlust gains more and more power, it envelops some group of unsure-ness (the hunters) to go and get the first drop of blood, of lust (the sow). Then savagery completely loses itself, and throws power away from strength and intelligence and order, and the masses, the actions (the whole of the boys) follow after savagery, and kindness is held down, blamed, while savagery and evil gain power.