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Unit 27: William Golding — Lord of the Flies: Themes and Characterization

incarnation of the “beast” that, eventually, will provoke paranoia and division among the Notes
group. It also explicitly recalls the snake from the Garden of Eden, the embodiment of Satan
who causes Adam and Eve’s fall from grace. The boys’ increasing belief in the beast indicates
their gradual loss of innocence, a descent that culminates in tragedy. We may also note that
the landscape of the island itself shifts from an Edenic space to a hellish one, as marked by
Ralph’s observation of the ocean tide as an impenetrable wall, and by the storm that follows
Simon’s murder.
The forest glade that Simon retreats to in Chapter Three is another example of how the boys’
loss of innocence is registered on the natural landscape of the island. Simon first appreciates
the clearing as peaceful and beautiful, but when he returns, he finds The Lord of the Flies
impaled at its center, a powerful symbol of how the innocence of childhood has been corrupted
by fear and savagery.

Even the most sympathetic boys develop along a character arc that traces a fall from innocence
(or, as we might euphemize, a journey into maturity). When Ralph is first introduced, he is
acting like a child, splashing in the water, mocking Piggy, and laughing. He tells Piggy that
he is certain that his father, a naval commander, will rescue him, a conviction that the reader
understands as the wishful thinking of a little boy. Ralph repeats his belief in their rescue
throughout the novel, shifting his hope that his own father will discover them to the far more
realistic premise that a passing ship will be attracted by the signal fire on the island. By the
end of the novel, he has lost hope in the boys’ rescue altogether. The progression of Ralph’s
character from idealism to pessimistic realism expresses the extent to which life on the island
has eradicated his childhood.

27.1.7 The Negative Consequences of War

In addition to its other resonances, Lord of the Flies is in part an allegory of the Cold War.
Thus, it is deeply concerned with the negative effects of war on individuals and for social
relationships. Composed during the Cold War, the novel’s action unfolds from a hypothetical
atomic war between England and “the Reds,” which was a clear word for communists. Golding
thus presents the non-violent tensions that were unfolding during the 1950s as culminating
into a fatal conflict-a narrative strategy that establishes the novel as a cautionary tale against
the dangers of ideological, or “cold,” warfare, becoming hot. Moreover, we may understand
the conflict among the boys on the island as a reflection of the conflict between the democratic
powers of the West and the communist presence throughout China, Eastern Europe, and the
Soviet Union. Ralph, an embodiment of democracy, clashes tragically with Jack, a character
who represents a style of military dictatorship similar to the West’s perception of communist
leaders such as Joseph Stalin and Mao Zedong. Dressed in a black cape and cap, with flaming
red hair, Jack also visually evokes the “Reds” in the fictional world of the novel and the
historical U.S.S.R., whose signature colors were red and black. As the tension between the
boys comes to a bloody head, the reader sees the dangerous consequences of ideological
conflict.
The arrival of the naval officer at the conclusion of the narrative underscores these allegorical
points. The officer embodies war and militaristic thinking, and as such, he is symbolically
linked to the brutal Jack. The officer is also English and thus linked to the democratic side of
the Cold War, which the novel vehemently defends. The implications of the officer’s presence
are provocative: Golding suggests that even a war waged in the name of civilization can
reduce humanity to a state of barbarism. The ultimate scene of the novel, in which the boys
weep with grief for the loss of their innocence, implicates contemporary readers in the boys’
tragedy. The boys are representatives, however immature and untutored, of the wartime impulses
of the period.

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