1990 Movie: "Lord of the Flies" Is Analogous to Holy Bible

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William Golding

   Author William Golding came out with a novel in 1954 called Lord of the Flies, in which two English films were made. One in 1963 by Peter Brook, the other by Harry Hook in 1990. The later film is the one I'll be talking about in this post. A couple days ago I watched this film for the second time in my life (the other time when I was a young teenager) and I was struck by the analogy it provides depicting the story of the Holy Bible and Jesus Christ.

   Of course, everything I watch and experience as a born again believer in Jesus, I relate to the Word of God anymore. This is a good thing, and I've noticed most movies leave Jesus out all-together. This movies does as well, yet I perceived it to be analogous to the story of Jesus in the New Testament. I'm not sure if this is the author's intent, or the film makers, but nevertheless I thought I would share these insights with you.

   What got me thinking about Lord of the Flies (which means Beelzabub: Satan) again, was the book by William Golding, in which I acquired from a sale somewhere. I've never read the book, but I did remember watching the movie about the young boys stranded on an island and how most of them turned into savages. Now, I'm going to spoil the movie if you've never watched it, so I suggest you watch it first (the movie is in the post). I remember how sad the movie made me when I was young, and how interesting the movie was in a sociological way.

   In the movie about 20 boys who are about 9-12 years old are stranded on a remote island after their plane crashed in the ocean (could have been their ship?). There emerges a good leader named Ralph, and a few strong characters named Piggy, Jack, and Simon. These four characters are basically what the movie revolves around. There is also an adult that they rescue from sure death from the crash, but he is incapacitated and struck with a fever.

   This is my analysis for what it's worth. Ralph represents Father God, Piggy represents the law givers and prophets, Jack represents the Anti-Christ, Simon represents Jesus Christ, and the incapacitated adult represents the Holy Spirit.

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   See, Jack is the bad boy who begins to rebel against Ralph and appeal to the children's carnal natures. He tells them they will never get off the island, sort of like the non-believers/atheist say there is no God, and that Jesus Christ will never come back or never came at all. Jack starts to hunt wild boars and wield weapons, abandoning all hope of being rescued and adapts fully to his carnal nature where rules are made from man's mind. Jack represents the fallen world without God, those who have made the world their home and have no hope in being restored to the Kingdom of God, in fact they don't believe the fall was a bad thing, and instead see it as freedom from restrictions. Jack believed this as well in the movie when he was talking with Ralph saying how he liked not having to deal with parents and authority, and how there was freedom on the island.

   Ralph represents Father God, in that he is good and just, abiding in law and order. Also, Ralph is optimistic they will be restored to the Kingdom of God and reassures the weak boys of this hope. Ralph sets up a plan to get rescued by starting a fire on a high cliff, and they set up camp on the beach to wait out the sure rescue to come. Piggy, is the nickname of the fat kid with glasses, which Jack and his crew make fun of and ridicule. Piggy agrees with Ralph and tries to speak to the children about the need to listen to Ralph and be orderly.

   Piggy represents the prophets of God, who would speak to the people and be ridiculed. The prophets were not given honor and were often killed by the evil rebellious people of whom they were speaking the messages of God to. In the movie this is the fate of Piggy as well, as at the end of the movie he is killed by the kids who were now following Jack instead of Ralph.

   See, after-awhile Jack rebelled against Ralph and started his own camp, in which they were chiefly hunters. At first about 70% of the boys went with him, and eventually every single boy except for Piggy went over to his camp, leaving Ralph. This represents how people are swayed in times of adversity to choose their carnal side and leave the blessed hope of Jesus Christ. The only boy who stayed was Piggy, and even he at the end was wavering wondering if they shouldn't just join the other boys. Ralph never wavered though and was stalwart to speak to the other boys to reason with them.

   Ralph and Piggy went to Jack's camp two times to reason with them, and both times are very significant. Jack's camp at this point has meat from the wild boar and the boys are mad with their carnal nature, running around in circles along the fire. Jack invites Ralph and Piggy to join them, and even offers them some meat, in which Piggy eats, but Ralph refuses.

   The first time Ralph and Piggy go to talk with Jack's tribe, a special character called Simon in the mean time is searching out a cave where a supposed monster is located. Simon is the caretaker of the incapacitated adult who halfway through the movie runs off mad with a fever not to be found again. Simon is the only boy who the adult would let take care of him. This cave where Simon is searching out with his green glow stick is where a supposed monster is located. Before a boy from Jack's gang ,and then Jack himself, heard this monster in this cave growl and moan. One of the boys even speared the monster before running away frightened.

   It might be a stretch to say that this adult represents the Holy Ghost, but when he disappeared one day from the camp, the camp started to split and Jack began to rebel. This adult who is mad with a fever is the monster in the cave. The carnal boys mistook it as a monster and tried to kill it, and then began to be very superstitious around the monster to even put a Boars head on a stake outside of the cave and do rituals around the fire depicting them killing the monster. The biggest enemy of the carnal boys was this monster, just like the biggest enemy of the world is the Holy Ghost.

   Simon though wasn't afraid of this so called monster, and he went right past the Boars head on a stake outside the cave and went inside the cave to investigate. What he found was the adult whom he took care of and loved more than all the others – dead. This disturbed him very much so, and he began to run to tell the other boys. As he was running to the tell what he found, he had the glowing green glow stick in his hands while it was dark. At this point on the beach the carnal boys with Jack were chanting and running around the fire while Ralph and Piggy were watching trying to talk sense to them. When the boys saw the glow stick coming towards them, they immediately thought it was the monster, and all went with one accord and killed Simon with their spears.

   Simon represents Jesus Christ, as he is full of the Holy Ghost (green glow stick), and he comes with the Holy Ghost to the boys who kill him before he can even explain who the “monster” really is. Simon was about to reveal to the boys that there really was no monster and that instead it was the adult who is now dead. What this would have done is take the fear of the illusion away from the boys, and also reveal to them that they needed to reconcile themselves back to Father God for killing the adult. See, many of the boys who later switched over to Jack's tribe from Ralph's camp, did so because they were afraid of this monster.

   The second time Ralph and Piggy went to Jack's camp to talk sense with them, was the last time as well. They went over this time because Jack's tribe came and stole Piggy's glasses to make fire, and now Piggy couldn't see. This time when they went over Ralph fought with Jack, and in the middle of the fight Piggy sounded the horn from a seashell, which was formally how they assembled the boys to order. They stopped fighting and everyone listened to Piggy try and talk sense to the boys about sticking together and to stop acting carnal. While he is speaking to the boys, the second in charge to Jack, dropped a large boulder on Piggy's head from the cliff above and killed him. To this Ralph was dismayed entirely and told them they will not get away with this as they started throwing rocks at him to go away. He ran away and was now alone.

   Piggy represents the prophets who tried and try to give God's message to the rebellious people. In turn they ridicule the prophets and then kill them for their message. Although what the prophets are saying makes perfect sense and is what is good, right, and just, the carnal people will not hear it and are overcome with madness as to not remember they are created by a loving God and will return to God one day.

   At the end of the movie, Ralph is being hunted by the carnal boys, so they can kill him. He is running through a burning forest and trying to escape the horror, as they surround him and chase him. Ralph is one of the largest boys, and is fast, but he is no match for all of the boys that are coming after him. As he is spotted from his hiding place, the movie shows him running desperately towards the beach as the whole tribe of carnal boys are chasing him with spears and knives. We know that he is going to be caught and killed, as he stumbles and falls onto the beach in desperation. All of a sudden he looks up and sees a Marine Captain in front of him, and he looks on to see a rescue boat full of armed Marines and a helicopter landing on the beach.

   These Marines represent Godly Angels who come back with Jesus to destroy the Anti-Christ and his army like they were little boys with spears going up against full-grown men with machine guns and modern equipment. Ralph starts to cry with relief and sadness when he sees he is going to be rescued. The other boys soon gather about awe struck by the sight of the Marines coming to rescue them. The scene is one of shame and complete surprise, that they were wrong and have behaved so badly simply because they had no faith in the blessed hope of being rescued from the remote island.

   This is where the movie ends. This movie touched me deeply when I was younger, it was such a sad movie to me, how people can act towards one another. It still affects me this way, but this time watching it I saw not only a sociological representation depicted through it's story, but also a Biblical representation. Like I said, I'm not sure if this was the intent of the author or the film maker, but to me it is intrinsic in the nature of man anyway. And, although the world wants to make believe that God is not real, and they reject his Son Jesus Christ as their Lord and Savior, instead choosing to embrace this fallen temporary world – those who are in Ralph's camp know better that there is hope, and one day we will return home to the Kingdom of God.

   Forgive me for relating this secular movie to the Gospel, I know it is a crude understanding of what is divine. Yet, I thought I would share this with you, as the movie struck me in a deep way, and helped me understand the nature of the struggle within humanity that much more. As for the movie itself being one a Christian should watch, I would say it's mostly harmless except for about two times when GD is used and then the two times where the boys are murdered. One time even Ralph says GD, so this obviously is not like Father God. That's why this is a crude representation of the Gospel, of course this movie is made from the same carnal people who are represented in Jack's tribe. I chose to suffer through this to glean this insight, when almost always I avoid Hollywood and any movie using GD.


   With this movie review in mind and the warnings given, if you do watch and see what I saw, leave a comment and discuss it with me. Know that what's most important, and the lesson we should learn, is it's worth everything to be on the side of Good, the side of Father God, Jesus Christ, and the Holy Ghost.  










William Golding's Book: Lord of the Flies









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