The Garden Of Eden In William Golding's Lord Of The Flies

Lord of the Flies is an allegorical novel written in 1954 by William Golding. It takes place during the Cold War. While in battle, a plane filled with schoolboys is shot down and forced to land on a deserted island. The problem that they face is whether they will be rescued and when, and how they will manage to survive for the time being. During their stay, Golding reveals the boys’ savagery and inevitable urges to humanity, connecting to various stories in the Bible. The use of two well known biblical stories are of Adam and Eve, and Cain and Abel, to depict the core flaws in humanity. Lord of the Flies can be seen as a religious allegory.

Setting the scene, Golding tells us that the boys have landed on a deserted island. The island can serve as a parallel to the Garden of Eden. The resemblances that the island and the Garden of Eden share are their physical features. The two provide lush, green and natural environments filled with plentiful amounts of food. Golding describes the island as, “a great platform of pink granite thrust up uncompromisingly through forest and terrace and sand and lagoon to make a raised jetty four feet high. The top of this was covered with a thin layer of soil and coarse grass and shaded with young palm trees” (12). The island and Garden of Eden both had plentiful amounts of supplies essential for survival. The abundance was obvious in the novel when Golding describes a boy walking through the fruitful area, “He walked with an accustomed tread through the acres of fruit trees, where the least energetic could find an easy if unsatisfying meal” (56). Ralph is seen skinny dipping which can be connected as how Adam and Eve were naked, and in the manner that water and innocence equals purity and baptism....

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... heart, and the fall through the air of the true, wise friend called Piggy” (202). In Cain and Abel, Cain also cries after murdering his brother. He realizes that he has a “darkness” within him, which drives him murder his brother.

Adam and Eve were perfect human beings, just like the boys who were at one time innocent. They were both tempted by evil. In the Bible, it was the serpent who tempted Adam and Eve. In Lord of the Flies, it was the evil characteristics inside the boys that caused them to do those evil things. When the word “evil” appears, people do not think they possess that. Without a society filled with rules and regulations, people are more likely to engage in their own corrupt desires and disregard the consequences. William Golding reveals that man’s selfishness and sinful nature will be revealed when the structure of a society goes out of control.