As well as his use of metaphor and simile, Golding's use of epithets for the boys is significant. Immediately Ralph, the golden-haired leader, delights in a name that the fat boy abhors: Piggy. Thenceforth, the boy who looks adultlike with his myopia and thinning hair is known by this epithet. This name is extremely symbolic too, as Piggy, like the sow, in Chapter 11 is slaughtered. His death signifies the total rejection of adult-like society, reason, and order. Another boy, the one with the mulberry mark who is immediately lost is not even named, and the indistinguishable twins, are given an elided epithet, Samneric denoting the insignifiance of their individuality. There are simply manipulated by the older boys, specifically Jack who terrifies them (they "protested out of the heart of civilization"--metaphor) and forces them to join with the hunters. Then, as Jack degenerates into savagery, Golding uses such epithets for him as "savage" and "the green and black mask" (mask is also a metaphor for the savage nature covering the civilized one). Even Ralph calls Jack "a beast and a swine and a bloody, bloody thief" and the others "painted fools." (Ch 11)
An interesting metaphor is the description of the water as a "leviathan," (ch 6) hitting the rocks sending a "thunderous plume of spray leaping half-way up the cliff." The rocks and spray as metaphor for a whale come to mind later when Piggy is killed and his head dashes against this rock and water--so powerful--that takes Piggy's life.
Of course, the final simile, uttered in dramatic irony by the rescuing officer, is his surmising that the boys have experienced an adventure "Like the Coral Island," a children's adventure story.
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