Henry David Thoreau and William Golding both use nature to isolate the characters and as the setting of Walden and The Lord of the Flies. However, they reveal hidden qualities that are completely opposite of each other. Also different is their view of the necessity of society. Even though the books have some similarities, they are completely different in the idea they are trying to get to the reader.
             In Thoreau's Walden, Thoreau has set himself away from everyone using nature to divide him and society; this decision leaves him to fend for himself. He builds a log cabin near a pond in Pennsylvania and separates himself from the rest of the world for many years. In this time period, Thoreau finds many hidden characteristics that seemed new to him. Also in Golding's The Lord of the Flies the children are isolated form the outside world by a plane crash on a secluded island. They have no way to contact outsiders except for the slim possibility of a signal fire being seen by a plane or ship.
             Also similar between the two pieces is the use of nature as the setting. Thoreau uses the log cabin in the woods outside of Massachusetts. He writes most of his works while he is at this pond. Golding places the boys in this story on a tropical island. They must learn to survive in the woods by themselves.
             In Thoreau's Walden and in Golding's The Lord of the Flies there is a hidden quality or characteristic that is revealed in each work. In Walden Thoreau is trying to find his inner self and his inner light; he states "I went to the woods because I wished to live deliberately...and see if I could not learn what it had to teach, and not, When I came to die, discover that I had not lived ( ). However Golding shows a different hidden quality. He states that the boys in The Lord of the Flies need society and because of the seclusion that the boys savage quality comes out and takes control of their lives on the island. Both authors w...