Lord of the Flies Theme of Wisdom and
Knowledge
Knowledge in Lord of the Flies is more about awareness and wisdom than anything else. There
are certain important truths that some characters are privy to and others are not. The characters
that are “in the know” seem to have possession of these truths innately, as though by some
spiritual means. The boys left in the dark are simply at odds with their more savvy counterparts;
they fail to understand these wiser children (like Simon) and instead of trying to learn from them,
violently lash out at them. It seems then, that the wisest boys are sacrificed, made martyrs for the
very key knowledge they possess. The irony is that, by killing these knowing boys, the naïve
characters are keeping themselves in the dark.
Lord of the Flies Theme of Religion
Lord of the Flies can be read, at least in part, as a religious allegory. It features the character
Simon as a Christ-figure who is killed by the other boys. Following this train of thought, the
island can be seen as the Garden of Eden, before it was corrupted by mankind and his evil
activities (as represented by the beast) (the “snake-thing”). On a less complex level, there are
many generally religious or superstitious images in the novel: Jack as the god, garlanded and
sitting on a log as he presides over his feast, the name “the Lord of the Flies,” the rituals that the
boys engage in as they replay the pig hunts over and over, and the sacrifice that they leave for the
beast. The pig head, impaled on a stake, seems to be a kind of god itself. Scholars disagree as to
whether the novel argues for Christianity and civilization, in opposition to “primitive” rituals, or
whether Lord of the Flies criticizes any kind of religion, organized or no.
Questions About Religion
1. If Simon can be seen as a Christ-figure in Lord of the Flies, what Biblical characters
might Ralph and Jack be compared to?
2. What is the difference between religion and superstition in Lord of the Flies?
3. Is Simon aware of all the religious symbolism that we claim he’s associated with?
Lord of the Flies Theme of Identity
As the boys in Lord of the Flies grow more violent, they begin painting their faces with clay,
supposedly so the pigs won’t see them, but in reality to make themselves feel better about their
atrocious acts. As the boys grow more savage and less like their normal selves, we see this
change manifest itself physically in their appearances. Unsurprisingly, the looks match the
insides: the boys are becoming more primitive, so they shed their clothes and decorate
themselves with war paint. It’s also important that the paint makes them look very similar to one
another; they no longer have names or individual identities of their own. This allows them to
shed their civilized selves and become nameless creatures that kill and murder. They feel no need
to control themselves, since they no longer have “selves” to control.
Questions About Identity
1. What does the face-painting have to do with the boys becoming more violent?
2. Are the boys reverting to their true identities on the island, or leaving their true identities
behind as they become more primitive?
How does Simon identify the pig’s head? What does he mean when he thinks “the Lord of the
Flies?” Does he even know?
Theme as Explained by the Author
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In a publicity release prepared for American publishers of The Lord of the Flies, William Golding
explained the theme of his book as follows:
The theme is an attempt to trace the defects of society back to the defects of human nature. The moral is
that the shape of a society must depend on the ethical nature of the individual and not on any political
system however apparently logical or respectable. The whole book is symbolic in nature except the
rescue in the end where adult life appears, dignified and capable, but in reality enmeshed in the same evil
as the symbolic life of the children on the island. The officer, having interrupted a man-hunt, prepares to
take the children off the island in a cruiser which will presently be hunting its enemy in the same
implacable way. And who will rescue the adult and his cruiser? (E.L. Epstein. "Notes on Lord of the Flies."
The Lord of the Flies, by William Golding. New York: Berkley Publishing Group, 1954, Page 204)