Lord of the Flies: Biblical Allegory or Anti-Religious Critique?
Golding’s Lord of the Flies is a critique of religion as a social construct and as a faith, a novel that seems to
portray a lack of hope in humanity, due to innate evil present in all humans. Golding displays a pessimistic
view alluding to the fact that no ‘Beast’ has embedded evil in society but it has always been here and is now
uncontrollable as humans continue to push boundaries.Golding even juxtaposes the presentation of Simon as
a beacon of hope for the boys by murdering him to convey how not even God has the ability to ‘save’ us or
even those loyal to him; the fact that none of the boys feels remorse for his brutal death, and tries to excuse
their behaviour is used by Golding to display how deeply flawed humanity is as we are too far gone to see
how devilish we are. Golding embodies himself through his presentation of Piggy’s confusion; he
understands the reality of humanity, and similar to Eve, he gains the knowledge of good and bad; but unlike
Piggy Golding decides to demonstrate this to the public. Therefore, he uses children to contrast the
conceptions of innocence associated with children, as well as the biblical connotations of holy gifts from God.
Golding rather portrays them as imitators of violence throughout society, perhaps even alluding to the fact
that they will further increase the destruction and evil present in society; as the world descends further into
savagery over time. Perhaps Golding insinuates that God created us as evil beings, as the further the boys get
away from what is ‘civilised’ the closer the parallels are to Adam and Eve; the symbolic nature of nakedness
representing their savage nature recalls the nudity in the Garden of Eden. In fact, Adam and Eve only begin
to wear clothing to hide their guilt at their disobedience and now feel ashamed at the way God created them;
could Golding be suggesting that God created us with this evil and has now abandoned us to discover how to
cope with the problem of existing together?
Golding’s Lord of the Flies is a critique of religion as a social construct and as a faith, a novel that seems to
portray a lack of hope in humanity, due to innate evil present in all humans. Golding displays a pessimistic
view alluding to the fact that no ‘Beast’ has embedded evil in society but it has always been here and is now
uncontrollable as humans continue to push boundaries.Golding even juxtaposes the presentation of Simon as
a beacon of hope for the boys by murdering him to convey how not even God has the ability to ‘save’ us or
even those loyal to him; the fact that none of the boys feels remorse for his brutal death, and tries to excuse
their behaviour is used by Golding to display how deeply flawed humanity is as we are too far gone to see
how devilish we are. Golding embodies himself through his presentation of Piggy’s confusion; he
understands the reality of humanity, and similar to Eve, he gains the knowledge of good and bad; but unlike
Piggy Golding decides to demonstrate this to the public. Therefore, he uses children to contrast the
conceptions of innocence associated with children, as well as the biblical connotations of holy gifts from God.
Golding rather portrays them as imitators of violence throughout society, perhaps even alluding to the fact
that they will further increase the destruction and evil present in society; as the world descends further into
savagery over time. Perhaps Golding insinuates that God created us as evil beings, as the further the boys get
away from what is ‘civilised’ the closer the parallels are to Adam and Eve; the symbolic nature of nakedness
representing their savage nature recalls the nudity in the Garden of Eden. In fact, Adam and Eve only begin
to wear clothing to hide their guilt at their disobedience and now feel ashamed at the way God created them;
could Golding be suggesting that God created us with this evil and has now abandoned us to discover how to
cope with the problem of existing together?
