The Lord of the Flies is a highly symbolic novel. One of the major themes in Lord of the Flies is that of civilization turning to savagery; the destruction of all objects that represent civilization in the novel and the immortality of the beast help to develop this theme. Piggy's glasses represent our intellectual ways of life, the conch shell is symbolic of order, and the beast is representative of the savagery that is a part of all of us.

Piggy is the most intelligent and rational in the boys' group. At the beginning of the novel, the fact that Piggy is virtually useless without his glasses is established. "...I can hardly see... Jus' blurs, that's all. Hardly see my hand..." (Golding, Page 40) Piggy's glasses are symbolic of intelligence. This is shown when they are taken from Piggy, as he loses all of his lucidness and cleverness. "His...