A fable is a short fictional story intended to teach a moral lesson. Best known are Aesop’s fables, which feature talking animals as the main characters and end with such truisms as “slow and steady wins the race.” The one-dimensional characters and simplistic story line of a fable leave little room for argument with the concluding proverb. It is ironic, then, that Golding considered Lord of the Flies a fable, because his novel allows much room for speculation.
Instead of using cartoonish talking animals, Golding teaches his lesson with fully developed human characters representing the dominant motifs. As the characters interact with each other and with their environment, so do the forces they represent. Using the characters to embody these forces allows Golding the opportunity to compare and contrast with rich shadings of meaning rather than with simplistic oppositions. Unlike Aesop’s animals, human beings act in ways that frequently conflict with the values they consciously hold, as is the case with Golding’s protagonist Ralph. Because Ralph finds himself participating in the same savage behavior he condemns in the other boys, he presents a realistic picture of a humane person resorting to brutality under unusual circumstances.
