As well as being linked to Golding’s beliefs, the use of the island also enabled direct comparisons with ‘Coral Island’. Golding hated the tone and ideas of Ballantyne in ‘Coral Island’, and expressed his thoughts publicly on many occasions:
‘I decided to take the literary convention of boys on an island, only make them real boys instead of paper cut-outs with no life in them, and try to show the shape of the society they evolved would be conditioned by their diseased, their fallen nature.’
In ‘Coral Island’, the language and tone of the story is seen as arrogant and humorous, as people in the modern society do not have the same views as Ballantyne in the 19th Century. The boys lead very noble, civilized lives and generally get on very well with each other. There are no big arguments, everyone is on good terms with everyone else and the boys live in ‘uninterrupted harmony and happiness’ throughout the story. The boys in ‘Lord of the Flies’ arrive on the island with this attitude, which is shown when Jack says: ‘we’re not savages. We’re English; and the English are best at everything.’ This attitude, however, does not last. Golding’s boys gradually deteriorate from being a party of well-behaved schoolboys to the point that they become horrible murderous savages and try to brutally murder each other just out of a pure hatred that started as a small argument about who should be the ‘leader of the gang’. When a leader is chosen, a set of rules is established and everyone agrees to keep them, but they are soon forgotten about. This ties in with the world at the time the novel was written, where leadership was also an issue with Hitler and Mussolini being elected and then changing and breaking rules to drive the world into a chaotic World War.
I do not think that Golding could have successfully written this book before the Second World War, as the war modified and firmed up his beliefs and outlooks on life. He discovered exactly what one human being is capable of doing to another, and not just the ‘savages’ in Africa or Asia. Terrible things were committed with skill by well-educated people such as doctors and lawyers amongst their own equals. In the novel, Henry and Roger are also comparable to Golding’s time of life. When Roger is throwing stones at Henry, there is still:
‘a space round Henry into which he dare not throw. Here, invisible yet strong, was the taboo of the old life. Round the squatting child was the protection of parents, school, policemen and the law. Roger’s arm was conditioned by a civilisation that knew nothing of him and was in ruins.’
Roger knows here that he cannot and should not hurt others, but by the end of the story he has had a hand in the killing of Simon and has killed Piggy on his own. This ties in with the collapse of civilisation around Golding, as well as in the novel.
In the 19th century when Ballantyne wrote ‘Coral Island’, the qualities of the average ‘British Gentleman’ were generosity, courage, resourcefulness, loyalty, innocence, compassion, selflessness and decency. This is shown in the tender nursing of Ralph after the storm and the patriotism shown by the handkerchief embroidered with ‘16 pictures of Lord Nelson and a portrait of the Union Jack.’ Also, the boys say they are going to create a ‘miniature England’ on the island.
In ‘Lord of the Flies’, Golding took all of these values and subverted them, creating a novel whose theme was:
‘…Grief. Sheer Grief. Grief, grief, grief.’
The theme in ‘Coral Island’ however, is completely the opposite. In true British fashion, the boys create in idyllic society and get along fine. Even the island is perfect. A deserted island could be nothing but desolate landscape covered with thick sand and rock, but instead the boys manage to find an island full of fruit and wild animals ready to eat. Perfect. Ballantyne also includes lots of comments relating to British society in the story, such as when later on in the book he interrupts a discussion on penguins to ask if you have a bath every morning:
‘The feelings of freshness, of cleanliness, of vigour, and extreme hilarity, that always followed my bathes in the sea, and even, when in England, my ablutions in the wash-tub, were so delightful, that I would sooner have gone without my breakfast than without my bathe in cold water. My readers will forgive me for asking whether they are in the habit of bathing thus every morning; and if they answer 'No,' they will pardon me for recommending them to begin at once.’
and when Jack says:
‘We’ll rise, naturally, to the top of affairs. White men always do in savage countries’
but Ballantynes comments are personal and very obvious, whereas Golding makes small comments that you have to read more than once to notice and understand.
In ‘Lord of the Flies’, Simon is portrayed as a sort of ‘Christ Figure’ – mysterious in his ways and always trying to do well and help. In ‘Coral Island’, all the British characters are like this, especially the English missionary who appears near the end of the book and converts the native people to Christianity. When Ballantyne wrote the story, the Victorians believed that they had the monopoly on God, and that people who didn’t believe in God or were not Christian were in the wrong. Another example of these beliefs is the difference between the boys killing the pig in each story. In ‘Lord of the Flies’, a small piglet is brutally stabbed to death by a crowd of boys, each with spears trying to torture the animal. In ‘Coral Island’ however, an old pig is swiftly killed with one strike straight through it’s heart. This shows that the boys in ‘Coral Island’ wanted the animal to die as quickly and painlessly as possible, and the fact that an old pig was killed shows that the boys didn’t want to cause distress to the other pigs by killing a pig that had to raise young or killing a piglet which would be missed by the mother.
I think Golding wrote ‘Lord of the Flies’ from personal experiences to prove a point against ‘Coral Island’ and the rest of the world, especially when he says:
‘The whole book is symbolic in nature except the rescue in the end where adult life appears, dignified and capable, but in reality enmeshed in the same evil as the symbolic life of the children on the island. The officer, having interrupted a manhunt, prepares to take the children off the island in a ship which will presently be hunting its enemy in the same way. And who will rescue the officer?’
Overall, I think the main theme running throughout ‘Coral Island’ is the nobility and courage of Victorian England, that the English are innocent and that they can do nothing wrong. These views are completely turned upside down by Golding in ‘Lord of the Flies’. I think Golding makes a very clear point that society holds everyone together. Without strong government and rules, mayhem and savagery will thrive, and without policemen and schools men revert to their primitive beginnings as hunters and killers.