Lord of the Flies, one of the masterpieces of the British novelist William Golding, was published in 1954. Since its publication, it has aroused widespread concerns in the literatus and Golding himself won the Nobel Prize for Literature for in 1983. The analysis of the themes of symbolic metaphor and the dark side of human nature has long drawn the attention of the academic community. Many literary writers and critics at home and abroad have conducted in-depth research from different perspectives on the novel to explore and reveal the traditional theme in Golding’s work --human evil.

In the article Savagery and the Heart of Darkness in William Golding's Lord of the Flies, Afaf Ahmed Hasan Al-Saidi revealed the central idea of Golding through the analysis of the character's behaviors and speeches, namely there is no difference between children and adults in the struggle with brutal impulse. They are as naturally flawed as adults, and in a given situation they will also lose their innocence and become dangerous. For the author, the jungle on the island is a prototype of death and decay, and it is also a beast's lair, symbolizing the darkness of human hearts. Therefore, the children living on the island are destined to share the same fate as the beasts in the jungle.

As a typical adventure of desert islands in the New Age, it has also attracted many scholars to do some related researches. Wei Yingchao mentioned that the story takes place in the hypothetical future in Lord of the Flies and British adventures in desert islands. He believes that the tentacles of modern civilization have reached the Arctic Ocean and Antarctica. We cannot envisage whether people can still find a similar island. The seemingly absurd live drama that Ralph and Jack performed was a shock to the numb reader. However, Theodore Dalrymple bluntly stated in his Desert-island Reading that "there is savagery in all of us, civilization is a thin and fragile veneer". For those scholars, desert island is only a carrier. Its real foundation is hidden in the philosophical thinking and in the deep concern for humanity and the future of mankind.

Chang Wenge in his thesis, Darkness in the depths of human nature-Analysis of the image of Golding's Lord of the Flies, has focused on analyzing the moral implications of the main characters and the manifestations of human evil in them. Ralph, who symbolizes civilization and reason, and Piggy, a representative of science, and Jack, who have a very strong desire for power, and Simon, the one who knows the truth, have together pointed out that the degeneration of human nature is unavoidable. However, the dark side in the depths of human reminds us that good moral and legal constraint are indispensable to keep the freedom, civilization, and reason.

From a traditional perspective, "human evil" has been interpreted in different perspectives in Chinese literature. Huang Xueying proposed a new concept of "secondary sin" in the article Original Sin or 'Secondary Sin'. She believes that human evil has its own roots in the society, and children's evil is not "original sin". In addition, Wang Lina's thesis Good and Evil of Lord of the Flies classifies children into two parts"human civilization" and "human nature" discussing the role of human civilization in human nature to reveal the significance of the progress of human civilization. As for Golding, he reflected the original sin of the entire humanity with the depravity of the children and explained the malpractice of the society with defects in human nature. The meaning is extremely profound.

In the thesis On the Construction of the Symbol in Lord of the Flies, Zhou Yan analyzes each symbol separately. Through the changes of the main characters and the comparison between the two factions, the ugliness of human nature is fully revealed. The crushing of the conch indicates the breaking of order. The final fire symbolizes the destruction of hope. The beast exposes the impulse of human beings and the instinct for bloodthirsty. All these symbols reveal the survival rule in human society and the essence of human nature, which renders readers to contemplate on social defects and human nature.