How could Lord of the Fliesbe described as an allegory? If it is an allegory, what message does Golding want to get across to his readers? What allegorical roles are the characters playing?
Allegory
Allegory is a form of extended metaphor, in which objects, persons, and actions in a narrative, are equated with the meanings that lie outside the narrative itself. The underlying meaning has moral, social, religious, or political significance, and characters are often personifications of abstract ideas as charity, greed, or envy. Thus an allegory is a story with two meanings, a literal meaning and a symbolic meaning.
Types of allegory 1. Political allegory 2. Social allegory 3. Religious allegory
POLITICAL ALLEGORY
Political Allegory in William Golding's Lord of the Flies’
“Lord of the Flies is an allegory on human society today, the novel's primary implication being that what we have come to call civilization is, at best, no more than skin-deep"
Though the need for civilization is focused on in this novel, the significance of political order, shown allegorically, is consistently referenced to.
When utilizing political allegory, the characters are used as symbols that, overall, represent some kind of political organization. In Lord of the Flies, the persons, or characters allegorized include Ralph, Jack, Piggy, Roger, the biguns, and the littluns; each considered an important component of their political establishments. For most every society, there is a system of government usually comprised of a certain conduct or manner. In Lord of the Flies, two political parties were established, causing conflict among the children. Ralph and Jack served as leaders for separate parties.
"Ralph is democratic man, the symbol of consent."There was a mildness about his mouth and eyes that proclaimed no devil". Ralph's rational disposition became evident after dividing authority with Jack. "Ralph looked at him [Jack], eager to offer something."The choir belongs to you, of course" SOCIAL ALLEGORY
One of the most dominant allegories in the novel is government. Golding early on establishes Ralph as chief. Within a few chapters Jack is already jockeying for power. Later on in the book there is an underlying hint that Roger is increasingly desirous of power too. With this, Golding establishes that leadership is a very tenuous string that is easily cut by those that wish to usurp its strength. The conch is a symbol of government on the island. It provides initial order and control. The boy that has the conch has the right to speak. As the novel progresses, the boys increasingly abandon the conch which was a symbol of order and control. With the later destruction of the conch, it is symbolic that government, order and control have been abandoned on the island. Through this allegory Golding conveys the fragility of government.
Piggy, with his glasses, embodies the importance of intellect in the world. Piggy is able to see the problems as see the truth from early on. He realizes the boys are acting rashly with the early lighting of the fire. He sees the growing unhappiness of Jack and views him as a threat. He understands that gathering names and shelter are important to their fledgling society. On the other hand, Piggy's intellect is not valued by the boys.
Intellect does not always come in a pretty package that sells well. Piggy was not a pretty package or an articulate messenger. He was insecure, but correct in his judgments. Ralph immediately disregarded Piggy due to his outward appearance. By the end of the book Ralph can see the value of intellect. He sees through the pretty packaging of Jack and understands that truth is not always pretty.
With this allegory, Golding establishes how society regards intellect. It is something that is disregarded as unimportant. Power trumps intellect in the society of mankind just as it does in Lord of the Flies.
Power is another level of allegory in Lord of the Flies. At the beginning of the novel, power lay in government, order and control. Increasingly power comes to lie in the ability to hunt and gather food. Jack grows in power because he has the ability to gather food for the group. The lure of food is much like a baby. A baby does care who is holding the bottle, if it is hungry it will suck. The boys represent citizens of the world. They are depicted as simply going along with the events of the world just as the boys go along with Jack just because he supplies the food. They throw their lot in with the one that they feel will benefit them the most.
As Ralph's power degenerates and Jack's power accelerates, the abuse of power becomes an increasing temptation. This level of allegory depicts that whoever is in power as letting it go to his head. Just as Ralph's power is usurped, there is a growing sense of power in Roger. Roger represents and even more extreme abuse of power: brutality and bloodlust. With the killing a Piggy and the hunting of Ralph, brutality and blood lust have trumped order and intellect.
RELIGIOUS ALLEGORY
Some of the characters in the novel suggest some parallels in the Bible. One of the most important characters who have an important impact on the moral theme of the novel is Simon. Many critics have considered Simon as a Christ figure. Simon acts morally not because of guilt or shame but because of inherent value of morality. He always helps little children and they also like him. Besides, He is the first person who realizes the problem posed by the beast and the lord of the flies. We can distinguish two types: The “rational man” and the “sinful man”. The “rational” man is manifested in the character of Piggy who desires to rationalize everything. He even tries to rationalize Simon’s murder. He tells Ralph that they are not guilty for Simon’s death. One of the seven deadly sins which is lechery is very observable in Piggy’s behavior. All his behavior shows his ignorance of God. He does not resort to God for help or anything. The sinful man is very obvious in the character of Jack who does not care for God either. However, Ralph too has a sense of cruelty and cannot be taken as the super-ego since his initial cruelty is his not asking Piggy about his real name and always calling his nickname. He has also vanity in common with Jack. In addition to Ralph and Jack, assumed to represent the two ends of a continuum, there is a different individual who works as a peace-maker between Jack and Piggy, namely, Simon. He helps the “litttluns” very much. He has a communion with the nature or the nature’s God. The communion is obscure to us but the place is like a church.
“There is something saintly in Simon but calling an eleven year old boy a saint is a little difficult. What puts Simon among the finest things in the book is his particular sensibility”.
Of course, there is an analogy between Simon and Jesus, but it is not complete. Except for his two eerie predictions of future, he lacks the supernatural connection and inspiration that Jesus and other prophets had with God. What’s more, Simon’s death does not bring salvation to the island but it plunges the island into more savagery and more guilt and crime. Another noticeable difference between Simon and Jesus is that Simon dies before he is able to in for mothers about the parachutist and all those misunderstandings. In fact, he dies without being able to spread his beliefs and the truth to others, but Jesus dies while spreading his moral philosophy. Baker states that Simon’s fate is like that of other saints. He tries to bring man a truth which we do not notice. He sacrifices himself for the salvation of others but they are not redeemed. The comparison of Simon to the Jesus can be extended to a parallel of his conversations with the Lord of the Flies to Jesus’ conversation with the Satan during his 40 days in wilderness. However, there are some differences in these two situations. That conversation, as told in the Christian Gospels, focuses on deceiving Jesus; the Satan there tries to convince Jesus to give up his beliefs, but here lord of the flies not only does not try to deceive Simon but also causes Simon to obtain very useful information about the nature of human beings and the condition of those boys in the island.
GOLDING MESSAGE

Lord of the Flies is an allegorical novel, which means that Golding conveys many of his main ideas and themes through symbolic characters and objects. He represents the conflict between civilization and savagery in the conflict between the novel’s two main characters: Ralph, the protagonist, who represents order and leadership; and Jack, the antagonist, who represents savagery and the desire for power.
As the novel progresses, Golding shows how different people feel the influences of the instincts of civilization and savagery to different degrees. Piggy, for instance, has no savage feelings, while Roger seems barely capable of comprehending the rules of civilization. Generally, however, Golding implies that the instinct of savagery is far more primal and fundamental to the human psyche than the instinct of civilization. Golding sees moral behavior, in many cases, as something that civilization forces upon the individual rather than a natural expression of human individuality. When left to their own devices, Golding implies, people naturally revert to cruelty, savagery, and barbarism. This idea of innate human evil is central to Lord of the Flies, and finds expression in several important symbols, most notably the beast and the sow’s head on the stake. Among all the characters, only Simon seems to possess anything like a natural, innate goodness.