Allegory In Lord Of The Flies Critical Analysis

In The Lord of the Flies, William Golding uses allegory to portray how the boys on the island represent the corruption of man. Lawrence Friedman, in his 1997 essay “Grief, Grief, Grief: Lord of the Flies”, states that “the island opens in Eden.” He uses this to show how the boys are allusions to Adam and Eve, being in paradise, bringing sin and evil, and then ultimately destroying it. In his essay, “Good Grief: Lord of the Flies as a post war rewriting of salvation history”, Marijke van Vuuren agrees with Friedman, but also explains how the conch stands for the rules, and how boys rejecting the rules represents how man has rejected the rules of God to live their own way. In addition, not only does Golding allude to the events interpreted by Vuuren and Friedman, but he also uses the way that the boys turn their focus from escape to hunting and killing, the …show more content…
The fire that they have access to, through piggy's glasses, can serve them many purposes. The most important of these being for warmth and for signaling to other tensional rescue. One of the first things that Jack and his followers do is steal Piggy’s glasses from him, using it to make huge fires for their feasts. They also use the fire to burn down the jungle when they're hunting for Ralph. In this story the fire represents the light and knowledge, which in this example is misused for the temporary pleasure of Jack's feast. Golding uses the fire as an allegory to the free will that God has given us (van Vuuren). This is a gift meant to allow us to make our own decisions about life. Unfortunately, this can be exploited into using it for pleasures and sinful things, just as Jack uses the fire for things that are not important. They used their only means of rescue how it was not meant to be used, just as God's gifts allow us to get into heaven, but humans can be influenced into using them for their worldly