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 at both ends, which originally comes from the story of David and Goliath in the Bible. The head of the monster is cut off and put on a stick sharpened at both ends after David kills Goliath to scare away enemies, in the same way that Jack cuts off the head of the sow to frighten his enemies. All of the religious prospects in Lord of the Flies make the reader interpret the clues into Golding foresight and consider the ideas put forward.

Simon was the character most in touch with nature, who, as a lover of beauty was represented as a philosopher, prophet and visionary. When all was bad Simon saw good, which we can see makes him the parallel to Jesus. Both Simon and Jesus spent their last night alive on top of a mountain, and both turned away from evil. Simon "turned away from them and went where the just perceptible path led him...he came to a place where more sunshine fell". Simon and Jesus both saw the vision of man's sin, and new redemption was possible - trying to convey this knowledge to his friends. Instead, both Simon and Jesus were persecuted for their beliefs. The boys saw Simon as their own sins and their inner beast, which expresses the ideas of the paragraph in chapter 8, "Fancy thinking the beast was something you could hunt and kill ... You knew didn't you? I'm part of you? Close, close, close! I'm the reason why it's no go? Why things are the way they are?" spoken by the sows head. Both Simon and Jesus believed that the others could have their sins redeemed, because they foresaw the evil of mans heart escaping. Finally, as Simon's body floats out to sea the fluorescent sea creatures around his head glow as if imitating a halo, while he is given a funeral by nature.

Many people were deeply troubled by the Holocaust, including William Golding. Piggy is portrayed