There are two major themes of William Golding's The Lord of the Flies. His book contains many metaphors and much symbolism, and the book has several themes inside it's pages, but two stand out as major and vital messages that the author wanted to get across to the reader.
	The first theme, is about how the boy's are civilized children, but when isolated on an island, they transform into primitive, violent savages. Golding is trying to show that it is very easy to slip away from the rest of the world, because there are only a few things which make us civilized. These are rules, which keep us in order, and grownups or mentors to help people and role model for others. When the boys first landed on the island, they were immediately without grownups telling them what to do, so they decided to set rules for themselves. Almost like a miniature government. The boys had rules for quite some time, but then they started to realize that there was nobody to penalize them if they broke or didnt follow the rules. No cops or authorities would chase them down and lock them in a cell like in real civilization. So most of the boys ended up disobeying, and not caring for the rules they had set up themselves, and this is what makes the boys go from civilized children into ruthless savages.If this novel was only about good versus evil, then the evil in this book is savagery and the good in this book would have to be the ordered way of life known as civilization.
	The second most important theme in The Lord of the Flies would have to be that ignorance leads to fear. The beast in the story was never there, it was fake. When the littluns first started talking about a beast which came from the water during the night, all the bigguns thought it was just their imagination, but this idea still stayed in everyone's head. They never forgot it, and as they saw something moving in the darkness, such as the parachutist's parachute flowing in the wind, they would run away before takign a closer look. The boys were too ignorant and therefore they were afraid of the unknown. The boys all riled eachother up into thinking there was a beast, and it even got to a point where the character Simon was killed, because he was mistaken for the beast in the darkness. Without ever looking further, you will never really know what the truth is, and Simon knew this, which is why he discovered the parachutist's body.
	Golding has created an excellent metaphoric novel, with many themes and ideas, as well as morals. Through his literature he taught us how boys can turn to savages and believe in something that they have never really seen. Golding is an excellent novelist who wrote thought provoking themes into his book.