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Foreshadowing
Chapter 2
Explanation and Analysis:
Although the book is about children and plays with the idea of a children's adventure novel, the events of the story are sufficiently heavy that this cannot be classed as a children's book. Because the book deals with questions of human nature by having the characters undergo certain situations, it could be called a parable or an allegory.
While the allegory is not so rigid that each character stands in for a certain real-world person or ideas, there are lines that can be drawn between the book's plot and real events. In a certain reading of the book, the group of British boys can represent British civilization in general, and the conch shell can represent either civilization or the futile idea of it. The book seems at first to belong in the adventure novel genre, as the boys themselves mention in Chapter 2:
“It’s like in a book.” At once there was a clamor. “Treasure Island—” “Swallows and Amazons—” “Coral Island—” Ralph waved the conch. “This is our island. It’s a good island. Until the grownups come to fetch us we’ll have fun.”
But, as readers realize further into the book, this is not an adventure novel like Treasure Island or Coral Island. The tone is darker, and the story has a pessimistic moral: human nature inclines toward savagery, not civilization.
Related Themes:
