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Lord Of The Flies Religious Allegory

Decent Essays

Religion is part of peoples’ everyday lives and its imagery is often seen throughout literature. The novel Lord of the Flies is about young boys who endure a plane crash and become stranded on an island without adults. Religious imagery can be found in the novel and the novel is frequently referred to as a biblical allegory. In the novel Lord of the Flies, religious symbolism is represented through characters, setting, and circumstances reflecting Christian parallels. In the novel, one of the main characters, Simon, has many attributes that make him a Christ-like figure. Simon represents Christ’s overall goodness. Simon is the most caring and insightful boys on the island. He seeks to gain truth and understanding, while attempting to share it with the rest of the boys. Simon’s conversation with The Lord of the Flies alludes to Jesus’ conversation with the Devil during his forty days and nights in the desert. In the end, Simon’s understanding of the truth that “…maybe [the beast is] only [the boys]” (Golding 126) scared the others. Simon’s and Jesus’ deaths are similar in that way; they were both misunderstood and killed by their peers because of what they believed in. …show more content…

Similar to the devil, The Lord of the Flies is the root of all evil in the novel. In fact, “Lord of the Flies” is a translation from the Greek word “Beelzebub,” meaning “devil.” The Lord of the Flies is powerful and Simon explains it as having “the voice of a schoolmaster” (Golding 206). For the boys, the pig head on a stick becomes the symbol for their savage behavior. The Lord of the Flies can also be paralleled to the devil through Simon’s conversation with it. The conversation is similar to that of the one between Jesus and the Devil during Jesus’ forty days and nights in the desert. Through the characteristics given to The Lord of the Flies, a devil component is

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