Purpose and Significance of the Study

William Golding, one of the most accomplished contemporary British novelists who emerged in the 1950s, won the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1983. He experienced World War II and witnessed the darkness of western society in the twentieth century. Due to all his experiences, he fell into thinking of human problems. And later, from the point of human nature, he created a series of masterpieces. Lord of the Flies is his first and the most famous novel.

Golding argues that it is dangerous for modern people not to realize their own nature, because they can not consciously suppress the dark side of nature. In a conversation with Jack I. Biles, Golding said: "The primary responsibility of the modern people is to face up to their true colors," and the writer's mission is to "make people understand their own nature." The nature of children is the most natural manifestation of human nature. Through the novel Lord of the Flies, Golding depicted a group of children living in the desert island by accident, exposing the darkness side of the people. Therefore, critic Leighton Hadson praised the novel, "Closely grasping the post-war thinking of potential violence in human nature.

The good and evil of human nature is always an unavoidable argument in the history of human development. Since modern times, with the continuous development of science and technology, human beings are full of optimism about the future, and they increasingly believe that the power of science and democracy can conquer everything: human#8217;s reason and wisdom is invincible; But the two wars in the twentieth century, especially the Second World War, gave mankind an almost devastating catastrophe, which had to cause humanity to begin to reflect. Therefore, to re-study Lord of the Flies has a very profound and practical significance. On the basis of predecessors' researched, this thesis analyzes the theme of good and evil and the shape of characters in the novel from the perspective of symbolism.

Literature Review

Lord of the Flies is the masterpiece of William Golding, a British contemporary novelist, published in 1954. Soon after the advent of the novel caused a sensation and became the best-selling books in Europe and America. It was translated into nearly 30 kinds of versions. This modern novel, which looks like a child's story, not only appeal to readers, but also favored by literary critics.

In recent years, especially in 1983, since Golding won the Nobel Prize in Literature, Lord of the Flies has aroused widespread concern of scholars at home and abroad, who published hundreds of reviews from the various perspectives, which achieved tremendous fruitful and meaning research results.

1.　The Definition of Symbolism

Here the symbolism is narrow and refers to a method of artistic expression. This kind of artistic expression, directly describes the image of a person, a thing with a hidden meaning, linked together by metaphor. The description of the image means itself superficially, but indeed means the deep implication, which has similarities associated with social reality, so as to express the author#8217;s desire and emotion implicitly, euphemistically and profoundly.