Finally, the boys supposedly leave the island towards the end of the novel just as Adam and Eve have to leave the Garden of Eden (Spitz 28). In Genesis 3, after “the eyes of both of them were opened”, Adam and Eve “realized they were naked” and hide in shame from God (New International Version, Genesis 3:7-8). Subsequently, God discovers Adam and Eve, “banished them from the Garden of Eden” for their sin, and pessimistically ends the story of the Fall with a death sentence for humans: “for dust you are and to dust you will return” (New International Version, Genesis 3:19-24). Similarly, after “the Fall” that plunges the island into chaos, the boys in Lord of the Flies are discovered by a Naval Officer from the outside world that they are
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During the opening of the novel, the first character introduced is a boy named Ralph and he assumes the role of a primary main character (Martin 408). Ralph is the son of a Navy commander that is “old enough, twelve years and a few months, to have lost the prominent tummy of childhood, and not yet old enough for adolescence to have made him awkward” (Golding 6). He also has a charismatic personality which attracts the other boys: “there was a stillness about Ralph as he sat that marked him out” (Golding 10). This type of amiable characterization of Ralph is akin to that of Abel from the Bible whom “the Lord looked with favor” in Genesis 4:4 because of their shared protagonistic statuses (Fitzgerald 81). Comparatively, a character named Jack Merridew exemplifies qualities of Cain from the Bible. Unlike Ralph, Jack is characterized to be an authoritarian choirboy leader and is physically described as, “tall, thin, and bony; and his hair was red beneath the black cap. His face was crumpled and freckled, and ugly without silliness” (Golding 20). Hence, readers automatically conceive a relatively inferior perception of Jack to Ralph, just like the Lord “did not look with favor” upon Cain compared to Abel (New International Version, Genesis
During the opening of the novel, the first character introduced is a boy named Ralph and he assumes the role of a primary main character (Martin 408). Ralph is the son of a Navy commander that is “old enough, twelve years and a few months, to have lost the prominent tummy of childhood, and not yet old enough for adolescence to have made him awkward” (Golding 6). He also has a charismatic personality which attracts the other boys: “there was a stillness about Ralph as he sat that marked him out” (Golding 10). This type of amiable characterization of Ralph is akin to that of Abel from the Bible whom “the Lord looked with favor” in Genesis 4:4 because of their shared protagonistic statuses (Fitzgerald 81). Comparatively, a character named Jack Merridew exemplifies qualities of Cain from the Bible. Unlike Ralph, Jack is characterized to be an authoritarian choirboy leader and is physically described as, “tall, thin, and bony; and his hair was red beneath the black cap. His face was crumpled and freckled, and ugly without silliness” (Golding 20). Hence, readers automatically conceive a relatively inferior perception of Jack to Ralph, just like the Lord “did not look with favor” upon Cain compared to Abel (New International Version, Genesis