Lord of the Flies by William Golding

William Golding explores the vulnerability of society in a way that can be read on many different levels. A less detailed look at the book, Lord of the Flies, is a simple fable about boys stranded on an island. Another way to comprehend the book is as a statement about mans inner savage and reverting to a primitive state without societies boundaries. By examining the Lord of the Flies further, it is revealed that many themes portray Golding’s views, including a religious persecution theme.

Golding includes the theme of religious persecution to remind people of mans true nature, and by doing so alludes the fact that the next time society deteriorates, due to nuclear war, may be the last. The parallels between Goldings novel and the bible are too numerous for it to be coincidence, which we can see is mainly reflected through characters and symbolism. The first parallel is the similarity between the Garden of Eden and the Island in Lord of the Flies. Both are tropical, beautiful, pristine and untouched. However this changes once the boys have left a scar in the forest of the island, comparable to the scar Adam and Eve left in the Garden of Eden. The most difficult to discover religious element in the novel is the title. Lord of the Flies, once translated into Greek, means ‘Beelzebub’ - a name for the devil. This implies that the embodiment of religious evil is the main thought throughout the book. Another well hidden religious element is the stick sharpened