Two separate illustrations of an animal head and a fire on a mountain

Lord of the Flies

by William Golding

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The significance of the "scar" in Lord of the Flies

Summary:

The "scar" in Lord of the Flies symbolizes the destructive human impact on nature. It represents the boys' initial crash landing on the island, marking the beginning of their descent into savagery and the disruption of the island's pristine environment.

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What does the scar symbolize in Lord of the Flies?

A scar generally refers to a mark, blemish or indentation left on the skin or an object after it has been damaged. In the case of the island in Lord of the Flies, it refers to the mark left by the planes' fuselage when it crashes after being shot down. It is later washed away by the sea.

The first reference to the scar is found at the beginning of chapter one when Ralph is introduced as "the boy with fair hair":

All round him the long scar smashed into the jungle was a bath of heat.

The scar is quite extensive, and the word "smashed" indicates a violent encounter that caused damage. The story is set during a war, and the boys have been evacuated when their plane is damaged. The pilots are killed and the plane crashes onto the island. Most of the boys (as far as we can...

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ascertain) survive. Ralph appears to be quite pleased, and whenPiggy sees him he is standing on his head.

In the middle of the scar he stood on his head and grinned at the reversed fat boy.

When the two start speaking Piggy attempts to explain what has happened and provides a brief explanation of the crash and how they came to be there:

He looked up and down the scar.
“And this is what the cabin done.”

Golding's numerous references to the scar emphasize its significance. The scar is symbolic of a disruption in nature. The peaceful, calm and probably pristine nature of the island has been damaged by the sudden and violent arrival of humans. It suggests that man's intervention causes harm.   

The presence of a scar also suggests that the damage is permanent.The scar will never disappear and will become an indelible indication of the harm that was done. Although the forest and plants will heal, there will always be evidence of what happened.

Furthermore, the scar foreshadows further disruption and destruction. The boys, for example, destroy a large section of the forest when their first signal fire goes out of control. At the end of the novel, a fire rages on the island and, ironically, becomes a signal for rescue. The boys are saved from their own destruction and that of the island. Other examples of destruction to come are the bloodthirsty hunts conducted by Jack and his hunters; the boys' general loss of civilized behavior; the adoption of savagery; and, eventually, the deaths of Simon and Piggy.  

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In Lord of the Flies, what is the significance of the scar?

William Golding's novel Lord of the Flies is quite symbolic, so anything which plays a significant role in the novel also has a significant symbolism to be examined. The answer above, given by tropicof, is excellent; I would only add several other considerations.

The first description of the jungle which Golding gives us is the image of the scar: "All round him the long scar smashed into the jungle was a bath of heat." Despite the lush beauty of this tropical setting, it is the scar which Golding immediately highlights, setting the tone for the rest of the novel.

The three boys who explore the mountain (Ralph, Jack, and Simon) can clearly see the scar from above; throughout the novel, these three characters are the most aware that something is wrong on this island. Ralph has trouble articulating the evil he senses, but he knows it exists, like the scar. Simon, too, recognizes the evil and is able to identify it as themselves; however, no one listens to him. Jack is less obviously aware that things are not right on the island (probably because he is the primary cause of the evil), but he has just been shocked that he was not elected chief (something which was a given in his mind), so he is wounded and aggressive.

The scar is also a symbol of what happens when something beautiful is destroyed, and other examples of that can be found throughout the novel: the innocent little boy with the mulberry birthmark who died in the initial fire, the sensitive Simon who only wanted to share his revelation with everyone, the intelligent boy (Piggy) who was ignored and tormented because of physical attributes, some of which were beyond his control.

The other children will go on to live their lives but will always carry the scars of this experience.

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In *Lord of the Flies*, what is the "scar"?

The scar refers to the area of the island that is damaged when the plane carrying the boys crashes into it.  The plane makes an indention on the beach that continues into the trees at its edge.  Symbolically, the scar represents the encroachment of civilization into the previously natural and undisturbed island.  If the island is a microcosm of the world and the boys of society in general, then Golding is commenting on the ways in which society has corrupted and destroyed the natural world.  This makes sense in the context of the backdrop of the novel, which is one of a society at war.  The boys are trying to escape the war when they find themselves on the island; and ironically, it is this war, with its patrolling ships, that leads to the boys' rescue.

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What is the "scar" mentioned in Lord of the Flies?

The scar was caused by the plane crashing.

The boys are on the island because their plane crashed.  They were being evacuated from the war, and their plane crash-landed on the island.  All adults were killed.  There are several descriptions of the crash site, and it is called the “scar” because it must have scraped when it crashed.

 Beyond falls and cliffs there was a gash visible in the trees; there were the splintered trunks and then the drag, leaving only a fringe of palm between the scar and the sea. There, too, jutting into the lagoon, was the platform, with insect-like figures moving near it. (Ch. 1)

Calling the crash the “scar” is just another way of ignoring reality.  The boys never talk about the crash, or the world they left behind.  They occasionally talk about rescue as an abstract concept, but they never talk about the plane itself after the initial crash.

The only time the plane crash or the cause of the scar is mentioned is in the very beginning of the book.

“When we was coming down I looked through one of them windows. I saw the other part of the plane. There were flames coming out of it.”

He looked up and down the scar.

“And this is what the cabin done.” (Ch. 1)

After this, it is as if reality takes a backseat to the reality that the boys build for themselves on the island.  They develop their own civilization, apart from the one of the adult world, and it slowly breaks down into a savage mess until two boys are killed.

When the boys are finally rescued, all Ralph can do is cry when he finally sees an adult.  There is no way for him to explain yet what happened to those boys on that island.  Order descended into chaos so quickly.

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The "scar" that is repeatedly mentioned throughout the book Lord of the Flies is a giant gash that has been torn from the forest.  When the plane that the student's were originally on was crashing it dropped down really low and ripped through the jungle before finishing up out at sea.  What it left behind was a line through the trees where everything was sort of ripped out...leaving a "scar."  In most interpretations I have seen, the scar is between the mountain and the platform and looks a bit like what you would expect if a tornado hit the area.

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What is the "scar" on the island in Lord of the Flies?

Chapter one of William Golding's Lord of the Flies is full of little bits of information which must be pieced together by the reader, and the scar to which you refer is one of them. Though it is one of the first things Golding describes for us, we are not sure what it is for several more pages. 

Ralph is the first of the boys we meet, and he is walking near the scar when he meets another boy, also walking near the scar.

All round him the long scar smashed into the jungle was a bath of heat. He [Ralph] was clambering heavily among the creepers and broken trunks when a bird, a vision of red and yellow, flashed upwards with a witch-like cry; and this cry was echoed by another.
“Hi!” it said. “Wait a minute!” The undergrowth at the side of the scar was shaken and a multitude of raindrops fell pattering.

Though the jungle foliage is obviously thick around them, some tree trunks are broken and heat is emanating from the scar, which is obviously a clearing smashed through the middle of the jungle. 

The two boys, Ralph and Piggy, talk about what caused them to be here on this island, and it is the same incident which created the scar. They were on an airplane, there was a man with a megaphone, and there were other boys on the plane. Piggy wonders where the pilot is, and Ralph gives his opinion:

“He must have flown off after he dropped us. He couldn’t land here. Not in a place with wheels.”

“We was attacked [said Piggy]! When we was coming down I looked through one of them windows. I saw the other part of the plane. There were flames coming out of it.” He looked up and down the scar. “And this is what the cabin done.”

The fair boy [Ralph] reached out and touched the jagged end of a trunk.... “What happened to it?” he asked. “Where’s it got to now?”
“That storm dragged it out to sea. It wasn’t half dangerous with all them tree trunks falling.”

So, the scar is the result of the plane, or at least the cabin of the plane, crashing through the jungle on its way to its final resting place in the ocean. The plane had been hit by something in some kind of an attack (Piggy later says he heard about an atom bomb, which reveals the setting of the story as World War I); the pilot somehow managed to deposit the boys on the island but was unable to save himself or "the man with the megaphone."

In truth, the logistics of such an airplane crash are a little confusing, since all the boys managed to get out of the plane safely (and no one mentions parachutes), yet the plane was moving with enough velocity and force to create a huge gash in the trees and foliage of the jungle. (Ralph stands on his head in the scar when he realizes there are no adults on the island, so it is a substantial clearing.) This is a symbolic novel, however, and the most important things are that the boys are stranded here without any adults, they are here because of a war raging off the island (the boys were at boarding school and were being evacuated as the war encroached), and there is a great scar on the island--the very first symbol and foreshadowing of trouble ahead for these boys. 

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What do the changes in the scar in Lord of the Flies represent?

It is certainly purposeful on the part of author William Golding that the line of destruction through the pristine island that the damaged plane makes is referred to as "the scar"; for, it is an unnatural demarcation, caused by the ruin of trees and other vegetation. And, as the narrative of Lord of the Flies progresses, the boys themselves wreak more destruction and scarring: they burn much of the island, they turn over and send giant granite boulders crashing to the ground, they put their waste anywhere, and, finally, they nearly destroy the entire island.

In Chapter One, as the boys explore and climb the mountain, Jack Merridew points down, saying, "That's where we landed." As the boys look out over falls and cliffs, they see 

a gash visible in the trees; there were splintered trunks and then the drag, leaving only a fringe of palms between the scar and the sea.

Later, in Chapter Eleven after Piggy is killed, Ralph must flee. In the final chapter, Ralph is pursued and his life is threatened as the savages set fire to the island. The scar which has some new growth and fallen, decaying trees is now threatened with fire, as well. No longer is there a "gash" in the island; the entire island burns and is threatened with destruction.

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What is the significance of the scar in Lord of the Flies?

The boys find themselves surrounded by natural beauty on the island:

This was filled with a blue flower ... and hung down the vent and spilled lavishly among the canopy of the forest. The air was thick with butterflies, lifting, fluttering, settling ... clambering among the pink rocks, with the sea on either side, and the crystal heights of air, they had known by some instinct that the sea lay on every side.

This world exists as a paradise until the boys' arrival: and with them comes destruction. They deplete the natural resources, set fire to the beauty of the island, make brutal sport out of murdering the animals, and then resort to murdering each other.

Near this same description of the island in chapter 1, Ralph turns to the boys and proclaims: "This belongs to us." With this, he must claim the "scar" they create even from the beginning:

Beyond falls and cliffs there was a gash visible in the trees; there were the splintered trunks and then the drag, leaving only a fringe of palm between the scar and the sea.

The scar is an area which has been devastated by the plane's crash—the wreckage ripping through trees and natural beauty to destroy the paradise in that spot.

The scar then symbolizes the power of mankind to devastate the delicate and beautiful balances in nature. Sometimes, this is done through technological progress, as seen in the plane. But sometimes this is seen through mankind's quest to exert power over nature itself, as seen in the murder of the pig. Either way, nature suffers because of mankind's presence.

While Ralph's initial claims to the island project mankind's quest to rule over nature, he is also claiming the scar, and therefore the devastation, that mankind creates.

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The scare refers to the area on the island where the plane crash decimated the natural landscape. The name of the scar is both indicative of its physical appearance, as the upturned ground and smoldered foliage resembles a wound on otherwise tropical paradise, and the symbolic meaning of mankind being a scar on the tranquility of the island by bringing about violence and hatred.

The scar is also symbolic of the psychic wound that the boys have suffered by being left alone with no authority at such an early age. While at first, they feel as though they have stumbled on to paradise, it is clear that they require an established order and that the freedom for which they are not prepared has traumatized them.

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The scar represents the damage that humankind regularly does to the natural world. The plane crash is one such example, and the boys's occupation of the island is another. When the boys first crash-land on the island, they think it's some kind of demi-paradise. And they're absolutely right; but that's only because neither they, nor any other human beings, have been living there. Mother Nature was doing just fine before these entitled young hooligans showed up and proceeded to trash the place.

The physical scar left behind by the plane crash will take a long time to heal, just like the psychological scars inflicted on the boys by their descent into outright savagery. But in both cases, the recovery process, however long it takes, will start the very moment the surviving boys step off the island for what one hopes will be the last time.

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In Lord of the Flies, what is the "scar" on the island and its cause?

In Lord of the Flies, a traumatic event takes place and a group of schoolboys, ranging in age from about six to twelve, are all stranded on an apparently deserted island, with "no grown-ups' to supervise them. Piggy, the most intelligent boy on the island and the one who will guide Ralph in his attempts to be a good leader, points out to Ralph that there is no-one to take any news of the boys back to England so they can be rescued. Before the boys landed on the island, he overheard the pilot talking about an atom bomb and so it is almost certain that everyone on the plane is dead. 

The boys arrive on the island via a chute or "passenger tube" from the plane which makes a "long scar" into the landscape of the jungle. The scar has cleared away some of the dense foliage allowing Ralph to stand in the middle of it and look around. Ralph and Piggy examine the effects of the passenger tube on a "jagged end of a trunk" as it has apparently done some damage and has left a scar of its own. The chute is nowhere to be seen, however and the boys consider the possibility that it was "dragged out to sea" during a storm. It is likely that there were still some boys in it at the time but the boys try not to dwell on that possibility and they continue exploring.  

It is significant that Golding calls it a scar because a scar would normally be found on the skin during or after the healing process and so the scar on the island carries its own significance as the boys must fight the forces of evil. Those who survive will carry a psychological "scar" forever.  

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The scar was the spot where the plane crashed. It formed a scar because by crashing in pristine land it left a conspicuous spot of broken trees. The scar is also symbolic: it shows the savagery of human beings as the destruction caused to the pristine land is done by a product of man (the plane) and it occurred the moment they landed on the island. The scar also serves as a reminder of this destructive nature and can be seen to build on the plot of the story. Ralph, Jack and Simon, who together represent different human qualities, arrive at the highest point of the island and noticed its pristine nature including the “scar”. Ralph then says that “this belongs to us”. In this case he not only accepts the good which is the pristine island but also the destructive nature represented by the “scar”.

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In Lord of The Flies, what imagery creates the scar?

Right from the beginning of Lord of the Flies, the reader has an image of the scar; an indelible mark left on the landscape in this seeming paradise. It is "smashed into the landscape" and already foreshadows events that may follow as basic instinct is unleashed with no "grown ups" to moderate behavior "smashing" into everything, leaving behind a scar that will be visible forever. There is also the scar that will be left in Ralph's heart as he "weeps for the end of innocence."

“Beyond falls and cliffs there was a gash visible in the trees; there were the splintered trunks and then the drag, leaving only a fringe of palm between the scar and the sea”

The image of the scar is unmistakable and the metaphor extended. The "fall" is of course the fall of the landscape but when a person falls it will leave a "gash." The boys are taking in everything they see and only stop to reflect for a moment on Jack's comment "that's where we landed." The "scar" is seen clearly from their position. Things have already changed since their arrival.

The apparent violence that accompanied the landing - which must have been rough- causes "splintered trunks" and "drag." This imagery allows the reader to contemplate as it slows down the action, even if only briefly before the boys claim "their island; "it's all ours." 

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