Golding presents aspects of human nature as themes in the book. It alerts us to our potential to descend from order to chaos, good to evil, civilization to savagery. They are explored through how innate evil can be brought out in certain situations, the dangers in not addressing our own fears and the battle between civilization and anarchy.

Most importantly, Golding achieved the above using metaphorical and didactic writing techniques that unquestionably shocked his readers - and still shocks them today. "Lord of the Flies" is essentially an allegory. It reveals how people can descend into barbarism in an atmosphere of chaos.

The main issues in the novel are that of the divide between civilization...