Lord of the Flies

I read Lord of the Flies my freshman year in high school. Despite the fact that I was in an honors class, I was somewhat bored by the general discussion and as a result, by the time we read Lord of the Flies, I was looking for small, subversive ways to liven up the day. It made it easier that the teacher of this class was Sister Teresa, who was somewhat ornery for a nun and would periodically tell us to "go fly a kite," but deep down, she loved us.
My position was that William Golding hadn't intended any of the symbolism that people pointed to in his novel. He simply wrote a messed up little adventure story and then went along when everyone else started suggesting that the shell could mean order and the pig's head symbolized chaos.
Now, had this game existed when I was reading Lord of the Flies, I would have been much more entertained as I hunted for symbolism and studied the characters.