There are many different types of people in our world. These people attempt to work through life’s everyday problems in peace. Lord of the Flies illustrates what happens when people cannot work together peacefully. Wars break out and people are hurt and even killed. In William Golding’s novel, Lord of the Flies, Golding demonstrates the effects of people on each other through a microcosm of society.

By using a microcosm of society, Golding uses characters to symbolize types of people. Ralph is the leader because he has many ideas that are useful to the tribe, such as starting a fire so ships could possibly see the plume of smoke and rescue them. Jack is the bully of the group because he is mean. He wants to control people, and he feels contempt for anybody who disagrees with him. Simon symbolizes Christ and is the friendly one of the group. He is always merciful and gives to others. “Simon, sitting between the kids and Piggy, wiped his mouth and shoved his piece of meat over the rocks to Piggy, who grabbed it” (Golding 68). In this quote, Piggy is ravenously hungry and Simon gives him some of the sensuous meat so that he does not starve. The officer and pilot are the teachers of the group because they are adults. Piggy is the smart one because he can think ahead. “‘Why do you hate me?’” (Golding 109). Piggy asked the question to Jack. Jack hates Piggy because he is smart, and Jack will never be that smart. The rest of the children are followers. Therefore, they do whatever people tell them to do.

The novel was written by Golding about the events that occurred during World War Two. The war was between democratic and totalitarian governments. By using an allegory, Ralph and Piggy symbolized democracy, Jack symbolized totalitarianism, and Simon was in between the two. This type of thing is occurring in the world today between the terrorists and the United States. Golding’s novel emphasizes that people should try to work out there differences peacefully, because fighting solves nothing. Golding is trying to show us that if history repeats itself, man may not survive because, ironically, man’s worst enemy is man.

In Lord of the Flies, by William Golding, the author demonstrates how people treat each other through a microcosm of society. Golding shows that when people disagree and order disappears, there is complete chaos. War breaks out and people are hunted, hurt, and even killed, which is very ineffective because nothing really gets solved. Men and governments should overcome their disagreements in peace, like civilized people, instead of going to war, like savages.