A STUDY OF SYMBOLS IN GOLDING’S LORD OF THE FLIES

  A STUDY OF SYMBOLS IN GOLDING’S LORD OF THE FLIES AN UNDERGRADUATE THESIS

  Presented in Partial Fulfillment of The Requirements to Obtain Sarjana Sastra Degree in English Letters

  By Wisnu Nurcahyo Student Number: 994214115 ENGLISH LETTERS DEPARTMENT FACULTY OF LETTERS SANATA DHARMA UNIVERSITY YOGYAKARTA A Sarjana Sastra Undergraduate Thesis

  

A STUDY OF SYMBOLS IN

GOLDING’S LORD OF THE FLIES

  By

WISNU NURCAHYO

  Student number: 994214115 Approved by

  Tatang Iskarna S.S., M. Hum

  12 June 2007 Advisor Adventina Putranti, S.S

  12 June 2007 Co-Advisor

  A Sarjana Sastra Undergraduate Thesis

  

A STUDY OF SYMBOLS AS SEEN IN

GOLDING’S LORD OF THE FLIES

  By

  

WISNU NURCAHYO

  Student number : 994214115 Defended before the Board of Examiners on June 29, 2007 and Declared Acceptable

  

BOARD OF EXAMINERS

Name Signature

  Chairman: Dr. Fr. Alip, M. Pd., M. ------------------------------- Secretary: Drs.Hirmawan Wijanarka, M.Hum. ------------------------------- Member: P. Sarwoto, S, S M.A ------------------------------- Member: Tatang Iskarna S.S., M. Hum. ------------------------------- Member: Adventina Putranti, S.S.,M.Hum -------------------------------

  Yogyakarta, June 29, 2007 Faculty of Letters

  Sanata Dharma University Dean

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• S S u u s s a a n n P P o o l l i i s s S S c c h h u u t t z z - -

Dedicated To:

   My Beloved Father and Mother & Big Family  My Brother and Family  My Beloved Brother  All of My Friends

  

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

  First of all, I would like to thank Allah SWT’s love and blessings are the greatest guidance in finishing this thesis. After and until this time I could pass all the troubles.

  My gratitude goes to my advisor, Tatang Iskarna S.S., M. Hum and my co-advisor, Adventina Putranti, S.S who have read, re-read, criticized, and corrected my undergraduate thesis. I truly appreciate their help, support, time, valuable suggestions and opinions during my undergraduate thesis writing. Their sincere guidance has encouraged me to make my thesis better and better up to the end.

  I also would like to give my deepest gratitude to my beloved parents. From the bottom of my heart, I thank them for their love, patience, understanding and all of the financial support throughout the years so that this thesis is being done. I finally can pass all of this!!! And to my beloved brother‘s family, my nephew”Athaya Malik Abinaya” just be a good boy, OK.

  My next gratitude is given to my friends in “Cantel 353”, Hendro “Ebo” Thank you man for the support, Nickholas “Itho”, Danaz “Mletik”, Dody “Bahjury”, Dady “Betet”, Dony “Adhon”, Awal “Awenk”, Chico, Rolieb “Genthong” and Udin “Pelor”, I thank them for the wonderful moment we share together. I will never forget those moments’ guys. Thanks a lot!!!

  To lovely friends in Sanata Dharma University; Genter, Ebo, Itut, Agung, Lita, and Amel King-Kong, etc. I thank them for being such nice friends. I really admire their sincere love to make my study full of hue and happiness.

  I would like to say thank for all friends that I’ve ever met, for fulfilling my live with sadness or happiness until this time. To Akbar”BOW” & Adhi “Keep on Rock n Roll” guys, thanks for the happy moments that we share together.

  Wisnu Nurcahyo

  

TABLE OF CONTENTS

  TITLE PAGE ............................................................................................... i APPROVAL PAGE ...................................................................................... ii ACCEPTANCE PAGE ................................................................................. iii MOTTO PAGE ............................................................................................ iv DEDICATION PAGE .................................................................................. v ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS .......................................................................... vi TABLE OF CONTENTS.............................................................................. viii ABSTRACT ................................................................................................. x ABSTRAK ................................................................................................... xi CHAPTER I INTRODUCTION ................................................................

  1 A. Background of the study..............................................................

  1 B. Problem Formulation...................................................................

  5 C. Objective of the study..................................................................

  5 D. Definition of terms ......................................................................

  6 CHAPTER II THEORITICAL REVIEW.................................................

  7 A. Review of Related Study .............................................................

  7 B. Review of Related Theories.........................................................

  10 B.1. Theory on Symbols ..............................................................

  11 C. Theoretical Framework................................................................

  15 CHAPTER III METHODOLOGY ............................................................

  16 A. Object of the Study......................................................................

  16 B. Approach of the study .................................................................

  18 C. Method of the Study ....................................................................

  19 CHAPTER IV ANALYSIS.........................................................................

  22 A. The Symbols found in the Story...................................................

  23 A.1. The Conch Shell ................................................................

  23 A.2. The Glasses........................................................................ 25 A.3. The Signal Fire .................................................................. 26 A.4. The Mask or the Face Paint ................................................ 27 A.5. The Shelters .......................................................................

  28 A.6. The Rocks ......................................................................... 29 A.7. The Knife...........................................................................

  29 A.8. The Beast........................................................................... 30 A.9. The Lord of the Flies..........................................................

  31 A.10. The Island ..........................................................................

  33 B. The Symbols meaning .................................................................

  33 B.1. The Conch Shell.................................................................

  35 B.2. The Glasses........................................................................

  38

  B.4. The Mask or the Face Paint ................................................

  41 B.5. The Shelters .......................................................................

  43 B.6. The Rocks ..........................................................................

  44 B.7. The Knife...........................................................................

  44 B.8. The Beast ...........................................................................

  45 B.9. The Lord of the Flies..........................................................

  48 B.10. The Island ..........................................................................

  49 CHAPTER V CONCLUSION....................................................................

  51 BIBLIOGRAPHY.......................................................................................

  55

  

ABSTRACT

The Lord of the Flies

  

WISNU NURCAHYO. Willliam Golding’s : A

LORD OF THE FLIES

  STUDY OF SYMBOLS IN GOLDING’S

Yogyakarta: Departement of English Letters, Faculty of Letters, Sanata

Dharma University, 2007.

  This thesis is talking about a study of Symbols in William Golding’s The

  

Lord of the Flies. The object of the analysis is a famous novel which dealing with

  a lot of symbols since the author Golding makes use of symbolism to represent his idea. In this novel, symbols takes great part to the whole story. Symbols which are found on the novel most of them are desribed the world at that time, which is in a war. And war was a great misfortune which brings disaster and misery to people’s life. On the analysis, there were so many symbols found and this analysis wants to study more of those symbols, so that they will helps to understand the writer’s idea. The novel’s setting is in the end of the Second World War of English society. The main characters of this novel most of them are children age between six to twelve years old.

  There are two questions that emerge as the problem of this thesis. The two questions are: 1) what are the symbols found in the novel 2) what do the symbols signify.

  This thesis uses the library research as the method of the study. Theories of symbol are used to do the analysis. The theories of symbol by Rohgberger, Holman, Myers and Simms are also used since this thesis is going to discuss the symbols deeper. The method of the gathering data used in this thesis is library research. The writer uses a novel from William Golding Lord of the Flies and several books to collect information about literature and its element. In order to analyze the two problems, the writer uses an exponential approach, since this approach pays more attention to the symbols and images in the literary work.

   The symbols found in the story are: The Conch Shell, Island, Glasses,

  Signal Fire, The Mask or The Face Paint, Beast, Lord of The Flies, Shelters, Rock, and Knife. Those symbols can be concluded as the important symbols in the story because of their appearance capacity in the story, yet those symbols are connected one and another so they are form a great and interesting story to the reader.

  

ABSTRAK

  WISNU NURCAHYO. Willliam Golding’s The Lord of the Flies: A STUDY

  

OF SYMBOLS IN GOLDING’S LORD OF THE FLIES Yogyakarta:

  Departement of English Letters, Faculty of Letters, Sanata Dharma University, 2007.

  Skripsi ini membahas tentang analisis simbol-simbol dari novel William Golding yang berjudul The Lord of the Flies. Objek dari analisi ini adalah novel terkenal , yang berhubungan dengan simbol-simbol yang mana pengarangnya, Golding, menggunakan simbol-simbol tersebut untuk merepresentasikan idea-idenya. Dalam novel ini, simbol-simbol sangat mendominasi pada keseluruhan cerita. Simbol-simbol yang ditemukan dalam novel ini sebagian besar menbggambarkan keadaan dunia pada waktu itu, dalam keadaan atau masa perang. Dan hanya mendatangkan bencana dan kesedihan bagi masyarakat. Dalam analisi ditemukan begitu banyak simbol yang dapat dan sangat membantu untuk memahami lebih dalam isi atau makna novel ini. Novel ini berlatarbelakang pada pasca berakhirnya Perang Dunia II pada masyarakat Inggris. Sebagian besar karakter utama dalam novel ini adalah anak –anak usia 6 sampai 12 tahun.

  Ada dua pertanyaan yang muncul sebagai masalah dalam skripsi ini, yaitu:1) simbol –simbol apa saja yang ada dari novel ini 2) simbol-simbol tersebut mengacu pada hal apa.

  Skripsi ini menggunakan studi pustaka sebagai metode dari penelitiannya. Teori-teori simbol digunakan dalam melakukan analisis. Teori simbol oleh Rohgberger, Holman, Myers and Simms digunakan dalam skripsi ini karena skripsi ini akan membahas simbol-simbol secara lebih mendalam. Studi pustaka adalah metode yang digunakan dalam skripsi ini. Penulis menggunakan novel dari William Golding Lord of the Flies dan beberapa buku lainnya untuk menggumpulkan informasi-informasi tentang sastra dan elemen-elemen yang ada di dalamnya. Untuk menganalisis kedua permasalahan diatas, penulis menggunakan pendekatan eksponential, dikarenakan pendekatan ini lebih mengacu pada simbol-simbol dan images dalam suatu karya sastra.

  Simbol-simbol yang ditemukan dalam novel ini antara lain The Conch

  

Shell, The Island, The Glasses, The Signal Fire, The Mask or The Face Paint,

Beast, The Lord of The Flies, The Shelters, The Rock, and The Knife. Simbol-

  simbol tersebut dapat digolongkan sebagai symbol-simbol yang penting dalam novel ini karena kapasitasnya yang sering muncul dan symbol-simbol tersebut saling berhubungan satu dengan yang lainnya.Sehingga symbol-simbol itu membentuk suatu alur cerita yang menarik bagi pembacanya.

CHAPTER I INTRODUCTION A. Background of the Study Literary works are men’s creation in the form of writings that are valued

  as works of art such as essay, short story, novel, drama and poetry. Fictions are included as literary work because fictions are purely the reflection of human beings life that is influenced by their imagination. Literary works are in contrast with technical works, newspapers, and magazines because they represent human being’s life and are influenced by the author’s ideology, morality, social background, education and religion. Literary works also offer something that makes them different from technical books. In technical books they just offer something that is real and certain but literary works offer more than that, that is also useful for human’s life (Wellek and Warren, 1962:58)

  Literature is one of the great creative and comprehensive ways of communicating the emotional, spiritual, or the intellectual apprehension of mankind. It can help the readers to develop their intelligence and also their personality by read and understand the literature itself.. Literature also provides an objective base on the reader’s knowledge and understanding.

  The best way to understand and analyze literature is to begin by involving ourselves deeply in the work and experiencing it on its own terms. That is, when we read, we should let ourselves get caught up on the story, the language, and the emotion. Then we will find it easier to go back for a second or third reading in which we concentrate more on identifying the major ideas.

  We can analyze literature by discussing about the theme, plot, character, or other elements of literary work. Symbol is one of the important elements on literary. By learning and understand its meaning in contributing the story, we can get the authors purpose. In analyzing Golding’s Lord of the Flies, we can see a lot of symbols that can be found.

  This thesis will discuss one important element in a novel. That is symbol. Symbol is a term, name, or even a picture that may be familiar to daily life, yet it implies something rogue, unknown, or hidden from us.

  In A Glossary of Literary Terms states that symbol is anything, which signifies something else; in this sense, all words are symbols. In discussing literature, the term symbol is applied only to a word or phrase that signifies an object or an event that in turn signifies something, or has a range of reference (Abrams, 1971:195).

  Further more this thesis will explain how the symbols can be used in determining the significance of possible meaning both in the story and real life.

  This topic is chosen because the symbols came and there is a very close relationship between one and another. This supported by Stanton’s theory that symbol have three usual effects, depending upon how it is used. First, a symbol that appears during an important moment of the story underlines the significance of that moment. Second, a symbol repeated several time remind us of some constant element in the story. And the third, a symbol in the story helps us to define or clarify the purpose of the story (1965:32).

  The reason why the writer chooses this novel is because the writer thinks that this novel has a strong indication of symbols. And these symbols are some kind of guide line to understand the whole elements in the story. And also as these symbols came through or happened on the characters whom are all children and during their long-lived on the deserted island, they can commit many actions that considered beyond the thinking of a child at their age. Moreover, the reason why the author chooses children instead of adolescents, or even adult, most likely because children have not been fully conditioned by society to understand right from wrong, and thus in ignorance. Most of them are guided by their instincts and what is inherent within them. Furthermore, in this analysis Golding makes use of symbolism which is made such a great impact to this novel. Therefore, Golding make deliberant use of symbolism, he chooses his symbols within care that will help the reader to understand his idea.

  William Golding was born on September 19, 1911, in Cornwall, England. Although he tried to write a novel, he parents urged him to study the Natural Sciences. Golding followed his parent whishes, until the second year at Oxford, when he changed his focus to English Literature. After graduating from the Oxford, he works as a director, wrote poetry, and then become a school teacher. In 1940 He joined The Royal Navy, where he served in command a rocket launcher and participated in the invasion of Normandy. After the war, Golding resumed teaching and started to write novels. Lord of the Flies was his first and greatest success novel which became a best seller in both Britain and United States. Golding was awarded the Nobel Prize for literature in 1983 and then he died in 1993.

  The writer is interested in Golding’s work, The Lord of the Flies, because the story is simple but meaningful for the reader. It is simple because the story can be enjoyed by all kinds of people with less difficulty, and it is also meaningful because in this simplicity the reader can find much moral values and lessons of life.

  Golding as the author describes how inherited can suddenly occurs to every human being. He shows that savagery can be occurred even to a child. This novel shows that Golding’s ability in writing skill, especially on boys’ fiction novel and his way in combining the setting, the symbols and the characters which create such a great story like this novel. Here the writer chooses this novel to be discussed due to interest in observing the symbols. Therefore the study will be concerned with the symbols.

  Lord of the Flies tells the story of a group of English schoolboys; they

  are about 6 up to 12 years old. They are in a plane when their plane shot down and crashes on a deserted island on the Pacific Ocean during World War II. There are no adults to be in charge. The starting point in this story is when two of the boys, Ralph and Piggy, discover a conch shell on the beach, and Piggy realizes it could be used as a horn to summon the other boys. Once assembled, the boys set about electing a leader and devising a way to be rescued. They choose Ralph as their leader, and Ralph appoints another boy, Jack, to be in charge of the boys who will hunt food for the entire group. Ralph as the chosen leader makes the rules that any one who wants to talk has to hold the conch, a shell like object that projects a monotonous tone when it is blown. But all things that Ralph made was ruined by Jack and their members, after Jack intimidate the other child by introducing the beast and when he decided to built a new tribe which elects him as the leader of that tribe. Soon after, a major confrontation between Jack and Ralph occurs on the beach. Ralph is accused of cowardice by Jack and Jack moves to remove Ralph from leader of the group of boys. He is humiliated though, as none of the boys voted for his takeover. So this becomes a battle of Jack’s tribe with Ralph’s tribe.

  But at the end of the story, Ralph wins this battle even though he must lose all of his friends.

  B. Problem Formulation

  1. What are the symbols found in the story?

  2. What do the symbols signify in the story?

  C. Objectives of the Study

  The objective of the study is focused on influential things to get better understanding of the symbol. The objectives here are the aims of this paper concerned with the questions in problem formulation. In brief this thesis aims: 1. Give explanation about what are the symbols found in the story.

  2. Give explanation about what is the significance of the symbols that found in the story.

D. Definition of Terms

  In order to give the readers a clearer understanding of the title and the analysis, the writer here will give the meaning of the complicated words: The first terms is “Symbol”, which according Stanton symbol is a single object, a physical type of object, a physical substance, a shape, a gesture, color, a sound, so forth. They may represent a human personality, futile ambition, the romanticism of youth and so on (1965:31).

CHAPTER II THEORETICAL REVIEW A. Review of Related Studies The first criticism that deals with Golding’s Lord of the Flies is stated by Velissaries Valsamas: Lord of the Flies, is a great novel in which W. Golding explaining the

  real nature of human being, which i9s not as innocent as we think. The young boys, before they have received the complete procedure of social formation, when they have to live in a world where they make the rules, they become savages and merciless like the animals. These ideas of W. Golding, game a complete explanation to the atrocities of war. War is a “game” which human knows from the beginning of his life. (http://www.goecities.com/athens/forum/6429/reviews.htm) A good novel arouses responses from other writers. Comments or criticisms might be discussing the intrinsic aspects of the novel such as plot, theme, characters and extrinsic aspects of a novel. Some criticisms which are found by searching the internet will be used in this analysis.

   Lord of the Flies can be considered a classical novel. A classic in the

  respect that the author creates special circumstances under which abnormal actions and functions mutate into everyday activity (www.sjsu.edu/depts/golding) All of these concepts and ideals are generated by Golding to finally produce a novel of both perplexity and perfection.

  The problems or the conflicts presented in a novel may interest the critics to give their opinions toward the novel. It could make the writer get stimulated to create a better book in the future.

  Many critics say that Golding’s Lord of the Flies is affected by R.M Ballantyne’s The Coral Island, a classic adventure story of young boys on a desert- island (Hudson 1969: 5). Actually, Golding himself admits, explicitly or implicitly, that this Lord of the Flies has a kick-off in Ballantyne’s The Coral

  Island. In his interview in 1980 he said:

  I think it’s possible that my books sometimes have a kick-off in other books, but only because my human experience has made me feel that, in those circumstances, I know better. Lord of the Flies had a sort of genesis in seeing how ridiculous a picture of human nature The Coral

  Island is (Haffenden 1985: 101).

  Golding uses The Coral Island as his specific source for the Lord of the

  

Flies. He admits that he even uses many elements of the novel, but he is not

  determined by it. He, on the contrary reverses it, or in Niemeyer’s word: “Golding…gives a corrective to Ballantyne’s optimism” (McEwen, 1981: 101).

  The comment is from Owen Webster in Living with Chaos, Books and

  

Art who says that Golding felt he was writing other people’s books, while what he

wanted to say needed a new story (1958: 15).

  Frank Kermode strengthens this comment. In his books, Interview with

  

Golding for BBC, on August 28, 1959, he wrote that Golding has also said that he

  sees the novel as a unique pattern that should not be repeated to order: It seems to me that there’s really very little point in writing a novel unless you do something that either you suspected you could not do, or which you are pretty certain nobody else has tried before. I don’t think there’s any point in writing two books that are like each other (1959: 23).

  Charles Monteith, the publisher stated in his article Strangers from

  Within written as attribute on Golding 75 th

  birthday, that on September 17, 1954

  

Lord of the Flies was at last published by a curious coincidence exactly a year

  after it was first submitted. He said that its early reception by reviewers was usually good, and even enthusiastic. E. M. Forster recognized the novel as the out standing novel of the years. Eliot who got the copy of the novel said that Lord of

  

the Flies is not only a splendid novel but morally and theologically impeccable

(1987:63).

  In his interview with a reporter from the New York Word-Telegram and

  

Sun printed on December 3, 1963, Golding insisted that the novel’s primary

  purpose is to serve as a warning of a man’s potential for brutality to his fellow man. It will be seen that Golding’s general statements fully express the mood and purpose of his books.

  I learn during World War II just how brutal people can be to each other. Not just Germans and Japanese, but everyone. I tried to point that ou. Some have said that the brutality of the novel is impossible. It’s not. Look at any newspaper…

  Leighton Hodson said that Golding’s novel is sufficiently naturalistic for his purpose and has been described as “naturalistic-allegorical” (1969:38)

  Lord of the Flies was a triumph for Golding but also a test-case. He has survived principally through the poetic conviction of his composition.

  Critical attitude and ideas arise when the book is finished; during the reading one is eager to know what happened next, to feel what nerve will be unerringly touched on the next rather than to assess what all those complexities add up to. Because the moralistic intention in his work Golding has been too easily pushed into the role of explainer when he is only being what one expects the novelist to be describers.

  F. E. Kearns as pointed by Hodson in Salinger and Golding; Conflict on

  

the Campus, has placed Lord of the Flies in tradition of the insuperable depravity

  of human nature which makes all human effort at justice or order futile, hoping to prove that Golding’s book is one of unrelieved pessimism (1969:33). On the other hand, Hodson stated that the message does not fit easily into the categories pessimistic or optimistic. Criticism which goes straight for the message presupposes that the author is offering solution when he is only offering an imaginative experience.

  It is not that man is either good or evil but simply that he is capable of becoming, and needs to become, self-aware. Golding is stating our problems, reminding us of them or even making us re-experience them, but it is too much to expect him to solve them (1969:34).

  Hodson in his book William Golding: Writers and Critics, stated that the character in the Lord of the Flies are not certainly divided into ‘goodies’ and ‘baddies’, though Jack and Simon do lie towards the extremes. It is the complexity of human nature that accommodates the possibilities of both good and evil (1969:26). As pointed by Hodson in the same book, Waltre Alen found that the burden on the children was “too unnaturally heavy for it to be possible to draw conclusion” (1969:28).

B. Review of Related Theories

  Before analyzing the symbols, the writer would like to explain some theories that will help the writer in analyzing problems. In this study, some theories will be applied to support the analysis later. The first part is the theory of symbols, which is meant to get the knowledge to study the definitions of the symbols and their traits in the story.

   B.1. Theory of Symbols

  The word “symbol” comes from Greek which means “to throw together or to compare” (The Longman Dictionary of Poetic Terms, 1989:297). More over

  

Encyclopedia of Literature defines symbol as “something used for ort regarded as

  representing something else, a material objects representing something, often something immaterial, emblem, token or sign (1995:1440).

  Symbolism is explained by Concise Dictionary of Literary Terms (1972:266) as the practice of representing objects or ideas by symbols or of giving things a symbolic (associated) character and meaning. A symbol, then, is an image so loaded with significance that it is not simply literal, and it does not simply stand for something else; it both itself and something else that it richly suggests. It is a kind of manifestation of something too complex or too elusive to be otherwise revealed (Barnet, 1969:344). The classification of symbol as explained by Rohrberger and Woods in Reading and writing about Literature (1971:16-17) are divided into two different types: public and private symbols.

  

Public, common, or conventional symbols are generally or universally recognized.

  It means that the people have agreed to accept them as standing for something other than themselves. Just as their meanings are understood in life, so are literary symbols. Two among many examples of public symbols are “the rose” that suggests “love and female beauty” and “the cross that is connected with Christianity”.

  In private symbol or personal symbolism, the symbol’ significance is only evident in the context of the work in which they appear. They can be symbols only inside the work. Consequently, the meaning of symbols should be supported by the entire context of a story. This kind of symbolism is perhaps quite misleading because no symbol is altogether private and personal.

  Symbols are not new things. Symbols are always used to convey meanings behind the objects or words that serve as symbols. The use of symbols in literature is not different to the use of symbol in the real world in the sense that they stand for something beyond themselves. The most difficult part of the study of symbol is giving the meanings to the symbols and relating one meaning to the other logically. The difficulty may arise because the meaning itself is a complex matter.

  Perrine (1974: 214-215) propose some ways to interpret the meaning of the symbols. First of all, when reading a story and analyzing the symbols there must be a sufficient evidence for as thing called to be a symbol. Secondly, the interpretation of the meaning of symbol must term from the whole context of the story. Thirdly, in accordance with the general meaning of symbol, something that stands for something else, the meaning must suggest something beyond the lexical meaning. It is also important to note that a symbol may have an ambiguous characteristic. It means that a symbol may have more than one meaning.

  Symbolism in fiction, as Stanton’s theory, has three usual effects, depending upon how it is used. First, a symbol that appears during an important moment of the story underlines the significance of that moment. Second, a symbol repeated several time remind us of some constant element in the story. And the third, a symbol in the story helps us to define or clarify the purpose of the story (1965:31). To recognize literary symbols and discover their meaning according the context of the work, reader needs to know the methods of interpreting symbols. Stanton suggests that reader has to notice the symbolic details, the symbols’ connotation, compare it to the context and its contexts to one another.

  But nevertheless, these methods need a close attention and thought of the work, such as our previous acquaintance with the author’s work, our knowledge of the plot and characters or what we know of the elements of the story (1965:32-33). It is said that the usual clue for a detail to become symbolic is that it is conspicuous for some reason other than its factual importance. For instance, it repeats or resembles certain other details. Details may also be conspicuous because they contrast with one another. The presence of any pattern linking details together may become a clue to symbolism, unless the facts of the story fully account for the pattern. Several; other ways of the author to make a detail conspicuous are describing it more fully than its factual importance deserves, making it unusual for apparent reason, or even mentioning it in the title.

  The symbols in fiction may be anything. The range includes certain objects, details, characters, places, actions, or even concepts. The author can use any kind of symbols as long as he can provide them with a meaning beyond themselves and give their own objective realities that signify the specific things the author himself has intended.

  We can find symbol in conversation, religious rituals, and advertising. The problem is to recognize that certain details are the symbol but to discover to what they means is really interesting. The author can give us a description of that symbol more than its factual importance deserves, by making mentioning it in the title, or by making it unusual for no apparent reason (1965:32).

  There are three general form from Mayer and Simms (1989: 297-298):

  1. Cultural symbol in which a natural object references a limited number if interpretations that transcend cultural barriers, such as sun- energy, source of life.

  2. General symbol which appears to smaller evidence but which contains more associative meaning.

  3. The Private symbol or authorial, or contextual is created in author’s imagination any convey any number in guiding context.

  Another theory comes from Robert and Jacobs in Fiction on

  

Introduction to Reading and Writing who say that the private, authorial, or

  contextual symbols are descriptions that are not universally. Recognized as symbols, they are developed as symbols only in scope of the individual works.

  These kinds of symbols achieve their meaning within context or the specific work (1987: 280).

  In literature: Structure, Sound, and Sense, it is said that a literal symbol is something that means more than what it is. It is an object, a person, a situation, an action, or some other items that have a literal meaning as well (Perrine, 1974: 211). From this statement it can be concluded that to be called a symbol, an item must suggest a meaning different in kinds from its literal meaning. A symbol is something more than the representative of a class or type.

  Abrams said in A Glossary of Literary Terms, symbol is anything, which signifies something else; in this sense, all words are symbols. In discussing literature, the term symbol is applied only to a word or phrase that signifies an object or an event that in turn signifies something, or has a range of reference (Abrams, 1971:195).

C. Theoretical Framework

  In this section the writer wants to explain about the theory that is used and also the reason why those theories are needed in this analysis. The theory is the theory of symbol. The theory of symbol as the main theory will be used to study what kinds of symbols occurred in William Golding in Lord of the Flies.

  The theory of symbol is also used to identify and determine the symbols’ meaning that can be derived from the novel.

CHAPTER III METHODOLOGY A. Object of the Study The object of this study is a novel of William Golding entitled Lord of

  

the Flies. Lord of the Flies which is Golding’s first novel is regarded as the best

  seller and the greatest success novel. It is Golding’s first novel which achieves immediate success soon after its publication in 1954. The book used as the source of this analysis is the one being published by Faber and Faber in a Paper Covered Edition in 1962. this novel is consist of 223 pages which is divided into 12 chapters and completed with an introduction and notes to the book by Ian Gregor and Mark Kinkead-Weekers of the Faculty of Humanity, University of Kent at Cantetbury.

  Although the process is not an easy job, Lord of the Flies has been made into the movie. This adaptation to screen of Golding’s Lord of the Flies is the result of a collaborative effort by several talented person, Distributor: Columbia Pictures Starring: Balthazar Getty, Chris Furrh, Danuel Pipoly, Badgett Dale, Edward Taft, Andrew Taft Directed by: Harry Hook, Screenplay Sara Schiff, Cinematographer Martin Fuhrer, Production Designer Jamie Leonard James, Aubrey –Ralph, Tom Chapin – Jack, Hugh Edward- Piggy, Roger Elwin – Roger, Tom Gaman, Simon Sam - David Surtees, Eric - Simon Surtees. This movie which is firstly released in February 1998 is produced by Peter Newman Executive Producer Lewis Allen Producer Ross Milloy. (http://www.gradesaver.com/classicNotes/title/lord of the flies/about)

  William Golding’s Lord of the Flies is a story tells about a group of British young boys. They are about 6 up to 12 years old. They are in the plane when their plane is shot down during a war and the plane crashes on a deserted island on the Pacific Ocean during World War II. There are no adult to in charge. The starting point in this story is the election of Ralph as the leader of the group of the stranded boys. He makes the rules that anyone who wants to talk has to hold the conch, a shell-like object that projects a monotonous tone when it is blown. By using the specs of Piggy’s glasses Ralph believes that if they keep a fire going all the time, which first on the beach and later on the mountain, they will be rescued. He assigns two shelters and gathers food. A spark of hatred starts between Jack and Ralph. Jack believes that they should hunt pigs and have many foods while Ralph believes that the most important thing is to be found and rescued. They find that it is very frustrating to use the “conch system” as a way to talk and soon its gets out of hand.