"The truth about man is not merely that he is, by nature, savage and afraid, but that he refuses deliverance, and murders the messenger of light"(Dick, "Criticism" 197). This view of our nature as human beings is based on the teachings of the Christian doctrine of original sin, a theory that has been used as a theme in many works of literature. One of these is William Golding's novel, Lord of the Flies. Throughout the work, Golding conveys his faith in the theory of original sin through the use of vivid Christian symbolism. He takes his characters, a group of British schoolboys marooned during a futuristic nuclear war, and places them on a small island, establishing a microcosm in which the reader can study and analyze the regressive and savage behavior of mankind as he returns to his primitive state. As an author who is convinced of original sin, Golding shows the gradual effacement of societal values on the island, and the change of the boys from proper, innocent schoolboys, into young savages (Baker, "Essays" 17). Golding wrote the novel as a Christian allegory, and thus presented numerous Christian symbols including a Christ-figure, the clairvoyant Simon (Swisher 36). Through his development of characters and plot in the novel, Golding attempts to teach the reader about the darkness that lies within us all and how we can protect ourselves from and contain this "beast." The Christian symbolism is used as a mechanism to show how Christianity, and religion as a whole, can offer protection from the evils of human nature.
             Lord of the Flies is said to "open in Eden," because the perfect and untouched nature of the island upon the boys' arrival is comparable to that of Adam and Eve's Garden of Eden (Swisher 65). Fruit hangs from all the trees, fresh water flows abundantly from the mountain, and the tropical climate prompts the boys to take off their clothes. They...