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| cc from en.wikipedia.com 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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| cc from flickr.com |
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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