An allegorical fable is a story told to represent another
instance in time with several symbols and levels of association between the two
storylines.
Golding claims to have written this as a
response to a book called Coral Island: A Tale of the Pacific
Ocean. The work demonstrated the truth of that which most children believe: a
world without adults is a superior world. This may be a major reason Golding decided to
try to write in a parallel format, he saw a world going through tremendous trial, fear,
and chaos which had great need for reformers.
Many teachers
and students today look at the work as a parallel to regular societies that with the
removal of our civilized infrastructures might revert to barbarianism. The "Lord of the
Flies" represent the Devil himself and given the circumstances to leave the comfort of
our present situations, many hypothesize that Golding was saying we would go about a
violent means to achieve our own selfish aims.
Thus, is
this a real allegorical fable? Maybe. It seems there are many symbols that represent
either society or a fight between good and evil. There are even some direct references
Golding himself applied to insist there is connection to another resource. However, I
think it is up to the reader to draw several connections from one source to another. I
would assert that this is not near the allegorical fable that Animal
Farm has become. Those connections are obvious and blatant. The conclusions
are also very simply drawn. These connections are a bit more of a stretch in
Lord of the Flies.
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