The Ocean
"Wave after wave, Ralph followed the rise and fall until something of the remoteness of the sea numbed his brain." - pg. 110
The ocean is a symbol in The Lord of the Flies. The ocean represents a barrier. When the boys crash landed on the island, one of the first things they did was explore and see if their was a way off the island. They discovered, to their disappointment, that it was an island, and not a peninsula. The ocean was a physical barrier to their old lives. It represented their isolation and seclusion from civilization and society.
"This was the divider, the barrier." - pg. 110
Not only is the ocean a symbol of a barrier, but it also represents the boy's fleeting hope for getting off the island. The ocean endlessly moves forward and back, constantly, mimicking a clock's ticking. It is slowly driving them mad. The mimicking of a clock is troubling. As is Ralph's realization that the boy's dirty carless appearance was a new normal. On page 111, as Ralph is starting into the ocean, getting depressed at the sight of it and thinking how big it way and how they were so minuscule in comparison, he was brought back to his conscious by Simon talking to him. The ocean represents a barrier, depression and the subconscious.
"...but here, faced by the brute obtuseness of the ocean, the miles of division, one was clamped down, one was helpless, one was condemned, one way-" - pg. 111