Golding was a writer who held a strong pessimistic view towards human nature。 He thought that modern civilization, the institutions and order were fragile and temporary, and that man’s irrationality and innate evil were strong and enduring。 His primary aim in his work was to deal with the innate evil and original sin of man, which operated counter to the forces of reason and civilization。 He did not trust human nature, so we could say that he was the most pessimistic English writer after the Second World War。 

 Lord of the Flies, the first and most famous novel of William Golding, was an allegorical novel published in 1954。 This novel mainly described a group of boys aged from 6 to 12。 During a war, a plane carrying a group of British schoolboys was shot down over the Pacific。 The pilot died, but the boys survived and lived by themselves alone on an isolated island。 At the beginning, children got on well with each other。 However, without adult guidance and supervision, they had some conflicts。 Ralph, the leading figure, wanted to establish law and order, but Jack wanted to go hunting and killing。 He formed his own separate group and leaded some boys away。 Soon the two distinct notions of life and modes of behavior came to clash with one another, and things began to happen at an amazing rapidity。 First Simon was murdered。 Then, Piggy got killed by Roger。 Jack got the upper hand, and Ralph had to hide himself to get away from his hot pursuit。 The twins, Sam and Eric were threatened with torture if they refused to tell on his whereabouts。 Jack’s gang set the island on fire in order to drive Ralph out in the open。 The fire caught the attention of a passing ship, which then came over to stop their barbarism and took them back to their country。 

1。2 Literature Review

William Golding became famous for Lord of the Flies。 There were some scholars who held different viewpoints to his novel abroad and at home。 

The research about William Golding had already achieved great achievements in European。 His novel made a great influence in 20th century。 For example, the allegorical feature in Lord of the Flies was a key research aspect。 John Peter in 1957 was the first one to apply the term “fable” to Golding’s fiction (1957: 577)。 

Walter Allen, in his book The Modern Novel had the idea that in this novel Golding was showing us stripped man, man naked of all the sanctions of all the custom and civilization, man as he was alone and in his essence, or at any rate as he could be conceived in such condition(1964)。 

Jean。 E Kennard in his book William Golding : “Islanded”, also said that the original sin was the main thesis of this novel。 Golding saw man as trapped in himself。 “Islanded”, a condition he appeared to believe one inevitably with consciousness of self, with the loss of innocence。 All Golding’s major characters were men who had created the world in their own image and turned everything into themselves(1975)。

In China, many scholars and commenter who were interested in William Golding’s Lord of the Flies, had made great efforts to study the darkness of human nature in this novel。 For instance, in his master thesis Lord of the Flies: a Freudian Reading, Xiao Bin used Freudian theory to analyze three main characteristics corresponding to the id, the ego and the superego and discuss the theme of evil humanity(2005)。 Wang Yanxing and Gong Xuan also studied this novel from the psychoanalysis theory of Freud and Lacan(2005)。 Another example was Ge Xiliang’s essay, in which he analyzed the theme of this novel(1992)。

In addition, Li Yuhua pointed out that Lord of the Flies was a fairy tale of humanity evil based on the war。 In Lord of the Flies, boys didn’t build a civilized society with order and democracy, but retrogressed to the state of barbarism。 They threw over all the plans and killed Simon and Piggy who symbolized redemption and rationality。 And then they sank into the domination of absolutism。 The allegory was that the world of children was the epitome of the adult’s world(1999)。 来自优W尔Y论W文C网WWw.YoueRw.com 加QQ7520,18766