Golding uses the island to mirror the progression of events in the novel. He cleverly uses natural phenomena to portend any major calamities within the plot. For example the fire on the mountain starts off as playful, the simile “one patch touched a tree trunk and scrambled up like a bright squirrel” almost evokes a smile from the reader. However as it gets more dangerous the metaphor “The flames, as though they were a kind of wild life, crept as a jaguar creeps on its belly” shows the decreasing control the boys have on the fire, Golding uses personification and animal imagery in “crept” to show the fire taking on a life of its own and its leap from being likened to a harmless squirrel to the more predatory jaguar. The transformation of the fire foreshadows the death of the boy with mulberry shaped birthmark. Another example is the storm that begins to build before and during Simon’s demise, “Over the island the build-up of clouds continued”. Golding describes “revolving masses of gas piled up static until the air was ready to explode”, the use of the verb “explode” implies that a climactic event is imminent. The phrase “build-up” is also a reference to the rising tension between Jack and Ralph, hinting that it will soon come to a head. In the course of Simon’s death “the clouds opened and let down the rain like a waterfall”, it is almost as if nature weeps at the loss of Golding’s saint. William Golding chose to set “Lord of the Flies” on an island so he could create an isolated geographical microcosm where nature parallels human endeavours.
The island reflects the split human psyche, having a “good” side and a “bad” side. The lagoon is a safe place for the boys, Ralph “noted the coolness and shade” of it almost as soon as he arrived. The events that occur at the lagoon also reflect this; the boys keep their childlike qualities here, “the warm salt water of the bathing pool and the shouting and the splashing and the laughing”. The cluster of three in “and the shouting and the splashing and the laughing” is reminiscent of a playground, again reinforcing the innocence of childhood. Their “shelters” also show the presumed safety of the lagoon, the adjective “shelter” is a reference to wartime, inferring an undercurrent of violence. On the other hand there is Castle rock, the dangerous side of the island, which in stark contrast has “the densest tangle on the island, a mass of twisted stems, black and green and impenetrable.” It is the lair of the painted savages and most of the violent events occur at Castle rock, such as Piggy’s death and the final hunt for Ralph. After Piggy is murdered, castle rock is described as “the death rock”, “the water breathed around the death rock”. The personification in “breathed” reminds the reader that as civilization is decimated, nature is the only thing to remain truly alive. The boys’ personalities are strongly influenced by their location on the island. For example whilst Jack and Ralph’s arguments are verbal on the lagoon- “They were both red in the face and found looking at each other difficult”, Castle rock precipitates physical conflict- “They were chest to chest, breathing fiercely, pushing and glaring”. Extending the biblical allegory, Golding makes the comparison of the lagoon vs. castle rock to “Heaven vs. hell”. William Golding chose to set “Lord of the Flies” on an island in the novel because he wanted to create a setting that would enable him to show the different sides of human nature.
In conclusion Golding chose to set “Lord of the Flies” on and island so that he could isolate not just his protagonists but nature itself, which could be manipulated to reflect the events in the novel. He uses it as a biblical allusion to the “Garden of Eden” and the temptation that leads to the fall of man. Nature is used to parallel the complexities in the plot. Golding also separates the island into to two halves, the “good” side and the “bad” side to mirror human psyche. Lastly the irony of a “boat-shaped” island is not lost on the reader with a boat being the one thing they want and need but cannot get.
By Isha Shukla