Who was Golding Anyway?

-Research William Golding’s life and in a 2-3 page paper, relate any details that could have influenced his writing of Lord of the Flies.


There is clear evidence of William Golding’s life throughout his book, Lord of the Flies. It is shown through the time that the story takes place, Golding’s belief that order is needed to keep humans from becoming savage, and there are many symbols in the book that are related to religion which was central in Golding’s life. These are all ideas that are related to Golding’s life and could have influenced his writing in Lord of the Flies.

Lord of the Flies takes place throughout World War Two. At the very beginning of this war, the boys crash-land on an island. The boys are rescued by a naval officer a couple months later. The Lord of the Flies was published in 1954, which is 10 years after World War two ended. Golding probably wrote this book looking back at what had happened during the War. After all, he did take part in it; he joined the Royal Navy and was involved in the sinking of a German ship called Bismarck. So the fact that he was involved in World War two is most likely why his book takes place during that time.

Golding believes that an ordered democracy or other form of leadership is needed to keep order and contain behavior like which occurred in the book. Almost all the boys act like savages by hunting pigs and murdering a couple boys who live among them. This happened because there was no order on the island that they were on. Without order, they became uncivilized and did not make good decisions. “The rock struck Piggy, a glancing blow from chin to knee. He fell forty feet and landed on his back across the square red rock in the sea.”(181). Roger pushed the rock that hit Piggy intending to murder him, which he did. Obviously, this was not a good decision for Roger to make because of the consequences that would happen later on.

When Ralph was chief, there was order, the boys didn’t kill each other, and while they were focused on getting water and food, they were also focused on keeping up a signal fire to get rescued. There was also a way of bringing everyone together to give instructions and discuss what should be done next by using the conch to call an assembly. “This meeting must not be fun, but business.” (76).

Based on his book, you can tell that Golding thinks that we are all evil and it is order and society that keep us civilized. Ralph does his best to maintain order, but he soon loses it and the boys begin to act like savages. The boys commit crimes such as murdering two of their fellow schoolmates on the island; Simon and Piggy. Even though it may have only taken one of the boys to actually kill him, all the boys took part in Simon’s murder since none of them did anything to keep it from happening. The longer they are away from society, they become more and more savage and begin to lose their reason, logic, and their morals, as well.

In Lord of the Flies, Golding makes a lot of connections to religion through symbolism. The beast could represent God because the boys make offerings to him and God also talked to Jesus whom Simon symbolizes. The beast could also symbolize the Devil because it is feared by the boys and is evil.

Simon is the only boy on the island to realize that the beast symbolizes the evil within each person. Golding believed in the basic philosophy of good versus evil and it is the person’s decision to either choose to be evil or good. This could have influenced Golding’s writing of Lord of the Flies because in the book’s case, Simon, Piggy, and Ralph had chosen to be good while Jack chose to turn against them and be evil.

Evidence of William Golding’s life is clearly shown throughout the novel. He is from England and was involved in World War Two, which is when the book took place. Golding believes that order is needed to keep us from becoming uncivilized and it is clearly shown in the book, that without order, everything falls apart. Because of this, the boys begin to lose their logic, reason, and do not make good decisions. Golding is talking about religion through symbolism in the story, as if organized religion was not respected by Golding.