"The Lord of the Flies", published in 1954, remains being one of the most important pieces of literature in history. This adventurous tale of a group of young boys reveals harsh truth about the reality of mankind's dark heart and the minimal amounts of innocence that exists in our world today. Through characterisation and symbolism, it is evident that religious undertones are present, the most notable being the numerous parallels found between the novel and the biblical story of "The Garden of Eden". Golding uses "The Lord of the Flies" as an allegory to "The" Garden of Eden" through the sow's head, the loss of innocence, and the island's setting. .
Savagery in the novel is displayed in many different ways, including the grotesque methods they use in hunting the sow and leaving her head as a sacrifice for the beast. The lord of flies is allegorical to the snake who persuaded Eve in the story of The Garden of Eden, primarily, they are both representations of the devil. . This sacrificial object comes alive in Simon's imagination and delivers the truth about the nature of the darkness all the boys on the island have within them. The pig's head, which is really a physical manifestation of the "beast" that lies within Simon, reveals the truth about the beast all the boys were afraid of. This being is the boys' evils in the flesh, an incarnated version of their internal darkness's just as the snake was to Eve and her vices. The snake in The Garden of Eden was the main source of temptation for humans which ultimately tarnished the innocence and the serenity of the Garden. Alike, the knowledge that the Lord of the Flies gave Simon in turn stole his child-like ignorance and he was no longer naive about the goodness that exists in mankind. Furthermore, in the process of trying to share this newly found knowledge, innocence becomes even more of a foreign virtue to the rest of the boys.
