A Fall Through the Air of Truth: A Comparative Reading of William Golding’s Lord of the Flies and John Milton’s Paradise Lost

Abstract

This paper offers a comparative reading of Paradise Lost and Lord of the Flies, covering a few common elements these works share concerning the shape of the beasts, the name of the Devil, the imagery of darkness, snakes, and the theme of food. The outcome is that, as the two texts complimentarily mirror each other and shed a fresh understanding of the works themselves, readers might look at the two pieces side by side, and attain an insightful understanding of the origins of one persona, and how one 17th century persona might have been viewed and developed to be reborn as a20th century persona by WilliamGolding. This paper imagines that two counterparts (the Devils in Milton’s Paradise Lost and the beasts in Lord of the Flies) meet and grow alongside the other on the coral island - one mocking, and the other mocked.