Lord of the Flies // Book Cover Redesign
Title – Lord of the Flies
Author – William Golding
Type of work – Novel (English)
First publication – By Faber and Faber (1954)
Genre – Allegory; adventure story; castaway fiction
Tone – Dark; violent; pessimistic; tragic; unsparing
Theme – Civilization vs. savagery; the loss of innocence; innate human evil
Motifs – Biblical parallels; natural beauty; the bullying of the weak by the strong; the outward trappings of savagery (face paint, spears, totems, chants)
About –
Lord of the Flies tells the story of the collapse of a budding society and the descent into barbarism of the children who ruled it. Free from the rules that adult society formerly imposed on them, the boys marooned on the island struggle with the conflicting human instincts that exist within each of them—the instinct to work toward civilization and order and the instinct to descend into savagery, violence, and chaos.
The novel was a reflection of Golding’s belief in regards to the inherent morality of men. First pubished in 1954, Lord of the Flies is now recognised as a classic, one of the most celebrated of all modern novels.
Redesigned Cover –
"The Lord of the Flies" is another name for Beelzebub, the devil. The pig's head with flies around it symbolizes Beelzebub, the force of evil.
This complicated symbol becomes the most important image in the novel when Simon confronts the sow’s head in the glade and it seems to speak to him, telling him that evil lies within every human heart.
Giving importance to the Beelzebub, and keeping in mind the theme and the motif, I decided to keep the background textured with blood splatters depicting savagery. Painted face, skinny tribal body with scars of the evil within the children, stuck in tropical island resembles the idea of portrayal of the small world of the island, a broader portrait of the fundamental human struggle between the civilizing instinct—the impulse to obey rules, behave morally, and act lawfully—and the savage instinct—the impulse to seek brute power over others, act selfishly, scorn moral rules, and indulge in violence.
