Good grief: &lt;i&gt;Lord of the Flies&lt;/i&gt; as a post-war rewriting of salvation history

M Van Vuuren

doi:10.4102/lit.v25i2.253

Abstract

Golding’s Lord of the Flies, first published in 1954, reflects a bleak sense of post-war pessimism. But with undue attention focused on its portrayal of original sin and the problem of evil, readings have often remained reductive. In this article it is argued that the novel’s symbolic narrative is polysemic and, when it is read as anagogic myth, may be seen to span Judaeo-Christian Heilsgeschichte or salvation history, rewriting its chapters of creation, Fall, the problem of evil, the failure of law, the hope of salvation, the mission of a messianic figure, and – in the clearest departure from the Biblical narrative – an ambiguous representation of his return. This study examines the novel’s often paradoxical symbolism using Frye’s phases of anagogic myth, with its poles of apocalyptic and demonic imagery. It traces the relation of symbols to their counterparts in Biblical narratives, drawn in particular from the symbolic writings of the origin and end of humanity, to elucidate Golding’s bleak but certainly not hopeless rewriting of the salvation story for a post-faith readership.

Highlights

Lord of the Flies deur William Golding het in 1954 verskyn en weerspieël die na-oorlogse pessimisme van hierdie tyd
I will argue that the symbolic narrative of Lord of the Flies is polysemic and, when read as anagogic or religious myth, spans the entire Judaeo-Christian Heilsgeschichte or salvation history[4], rewriting its chapters of creation, Fall, the problem of evil, the failure of law, the hope of salvation, the mission of a Messiah figure, and – in the clearest departure from the Biblical narrative – an ambiguous presentation of his return
While Lord of the Flies has been exhaustively analysed as archetypal myth, foregrounding the socio-political and moral content, not much attention was given to it initially as anagogic myth, but this has changed with the recognition of Golding as primarily a religious writer, and with numerous studies on intertextuality and possible mythic sources.[5]

Summary

Introduction

“It is a great pleasure to meet you, Mr Golding,” said King Carl XVI Gustaf, presenting William Golding with the Nobel Prize in 1983. While Lord of the Flies has been exhaustively analysed as archetypal myth, foregrounding the socio-political and moral content, not much attention was given to it initially as anagogic myth, but this has changed with the recognition of Golding as primarily a religious writer, and with numerous studies on intertextuality and possible mythic sources.[5] This article will examine the writer’s use of Biblical. Good grief: Lord of the Flies as a post-war rewriting of salvation history symbolism, including the anagogic tropes of fire and water, with reference to Frye’s poles of apocalyptic and demonic imagery. These poles are reflected in the novel’s dualities. The mythical return to Eden is impossible because human nature, even in children, is no longer sinless

The beast: the presence of evil

The conch and the rules: the failure of law

Fire on the mountain: hope of rescue

Simon: the Christ-figure