Lord Of The Flies
...Lord of the Flies."
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Microcosm, as defined by the Encarta World English Dictionary, is a miniature copy of something, especially when it represents or stands for a larger whole. Microcosms are used in many works of literature. A prime example of this is in the book Animal Farm by George Orwell, in which a group of farm animals is used to symbolize the idea of communism. In this book the animals symbolized people and groups of people in their bid for power. A word regularly associated with microcosm is allegory which, also defined by the Encarta World English Dictionary, is a work in which the characters and events are to be understood as representing other things and symbolically expressing a deeper, often spiritual, moral, or political meaning. Though microcosm and allegory are almost identical, microcosms are usually associated with a larger picture, for example the way a group of friends acts could be a microcosm of World War II because they show the many aspects of the war in there arguments or friendships, also a microcosm usually does not go into large amounts of profundity and usually stays with general topics and does not, usually go into much depth. While an allegory goes into more detail, for example an argument representing a battle, and the death of an individual representing the death of another person, or people. One well known book, known for its use of microcosm and allegory, is Lord of the Flies by William Golding. Set around World War II, Lord of the Flies is the story of a group of boys that gets stranded on an island and is forced to form their own form of government. Using the allegory between his book and the real world Golding is able to talk about his opinions about good and evil. In the book Lord of The Flies, Golding uses the island and its many characters to form an allegory of society during...
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