In the novel Lord of the Flies, Golding includes many characters or objects that act as symbols. Pigs are an example that symbolizes many concepts, including the loss of civility, innocence, and the inner desire and need of humanity. To begin with, the obsession with pigs symbolizes how boys are losing their civility. Early in the book, the boys view pigs as a food source but clearly don't feel comfortable killing one, especially in the first chapter; “They knew very well why he had not done it: because of the enormity of the knife which came down and cut the living flesh; because of the unbearable blood” (Golding 31). At first, the boys are very nervous about harming another living creature, which would make sense because, in a normal society, a sane, civilized child would not want to kill on purpose. Civility towards boys begins to lose its meaning when Jack pledges to have no mercy when he murders a pig, as shown in the first chapter after he misses his chance to kill the piglet. Later, Golding writes, "the sow staggered before them, bleeding and mad, and the hunters followed her, married to her in lust, excited by the long chase and the bloodshed." The hunters brutally murder a sow without a second thought, while mockingly stabbing it, which illustrates their maddening descent into savagery. Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on “Why Violent Video Games Should Not Be Banned”?Get the original essayPigs also symbolize the loss of innocence, as shown in Chapter 8, in which the pig that the boys kill is a female who is breastfeeding. piglets. The sow and her piglets are a symbol of innocence because the construction of mother and children is always associated with purity. In a way, it's almost like these boys are murdering their mother. Mothers play an important role in a child's upbringing and are important figures in his life, and the fact that the boys mercilessly kill a mother, a harmless animal mother, demonstrates their newfound lack of civility. Their indifferent attitude towards a mother's death sentence clearly shows how desensitized they are beginning to become. At this point in the book, the sow is vulnerable, as her sole purpose is to feed her young. This fact does not affect the boys and instead incites them to murder the mother in an even more barbaric manner. The symbolism of the pig differs throughout the book because, early in the novel, the boys view pigs as a potential food source, and simply that. The reason boys want to hunt pigs is to satisfy their need for meat. However, throughout the novel the boys become more primitive in their attempts to hunt pigs. Instead of Jack hunting alone like he did in chapter three, the pig hunts become more elaborate with a huge group of hunters. In chapter eight, when the boys come upon their largest prey, a sow, Golding illustrates the hunt vividly, the kill ending with "Jack found the throat and the hot blood gushed over his hands." The group of boys, aged no more than twelve, commit a gruesome murder which, at this point in the novel, compared to Jack's hesitation at the beginning of the book to kill a pig, shows how pigs also change to become a symbol of the progress of the boys to become wilder. Amidst their bloodlust, these once-civilized English boys become more and more savage as they are drawn to the blood of the pig..