The concept that George R. R Martin talks about is a very similar concept to that of Lord of the Flies, a novel by William Golding. The novel is about how a group of young English boys get stranded on a desert island after their plane is shot down and try to figure out how to survive until they are rescued. Golding demonstrates how humans, when free from the rules of society, allow their capacity for harm to dominate their existence, through the use of symbols such as the pig's head, the beast, and clay masks. One of the most important symbols in Lord of the Flies is the pig's head. The pig's head is described by Golding as having "dim eyes, a faint smile, blood blackening between the teeth" and is covered in a "black patch of flies". (p. 137-138). Golding uses the pig's head to personify evil in boys. This is mainly shown when Simon has a conversation with the pig in his consciousness and imagines the pig saying, "You fantasize that the beast was something. You could hunt and kill! Oh you knew that, didn't you? Am I part of you?" (p. 143). After Simon wakes up and sees that what the boys thought was a beast is actually the corpse of an airman with a parachute, he attempts to tell the boys about his new discovery. However, when he arrived, the boys attack him and beat him to death. This shows how, after the boys begin to exist without the rules of society, they allow evil to control and dominate their actions and become savage. Another of the symbols used to present. the theme of the novel is the beast. The boys believed that the beast was an external source of evil although, in reality, it represents the evil within them, which is making life on the island worse even before... middle of the card... they allow evil to dominate them when they become free from the rules of society. Throughout the novel, Golding uses many different objects as symbols to illustrate this theme the pig's head, which insinuates how evil actually is within the boys. The second symbol was the beast, which actually represents internal evil away from society, rather than an external source of evil like the beast. The last symbol is the clay mask, which transforms hunters into completely different people who behave like bloodthirsty savages. Through the novel, Golding showed a truly amazing insight into human nature. Ultimately, humans are power hungry and will stop at nothing to be powerful. And the most surprising thing is that not even children are immune from evil. Works Cited Golding, William. Lord of the Flies. New York: The Berkley Publishing Group, 1954.