This quotation from Golding's book of collected essays, The Hot Gates, is an example of pessimism, a trend of post-war European literature. It is an excellent example of the writers' theories of man and his civilisation. Golding like many was mentally disturbed when he fought in the Second World War. He tried to explain war in his books by blaming man's biblical potential evil, what he saw during his conscription could not be explained by anything `except on the basis of original sin'. In his 1954 published novel, The Lord of the Flies, a group of English schoolboys is deserted on an island. This is from the literary convention of "Coral Island", but instead of a story of Christianity prevailing over savage tribes he shows angelic English school boys following the road of atavism.

His use of school children was deliberate for many reasons, not only because of his...