SHORT OF THE GLORY OF GOD 37 William Golding, the author of Lord of the Flies, was in the Royal Navy in World War II. He served on a destroyer and was part of the Normandy invasion of June 6, 1944. Golding commanded a landing craft. Golding saw, in the face of war, the best and the worst of humans: good and evil, bravery and cruelty. Lord of the Flies demonstrates the same thing. There is ingenuity as the boys use Piggy’s glasses to start a fire, and bravery when Simon tries to persuade them the only monster on the island is found in their own hearts. There is also horror and gore as blood is spilled and death is celebrated. Human nature is complicated. Still in God’s image, we are capable of majestic deeds, but riddled with sin, we are also capable of great wickedness. Many things prevent us from being as evil as we might be, even in our daily lives. Civilization, rules or laws, and duty are just some of those things, and we should be thankful whenever we find these medicines to manage our “essential illness.”
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