Numerous studies on Lord of the Flies have already been made by lots of scholars so far, among which some of them have studied the writing techniques of this novel as an allegory targeting at the society and human being or as a desert island fiction, and fewer as both.

First of all, some scholars have studied the writing techniques of this novel by its allegoric and symbolic features.

Zhang Bei put forward that ”allegoric novels focus on literal expression, the arrangement of structure and the expression of thoughts and feelings, rather than the descriptions of the events.” (69) She believed that allegory can better inspire readers#8217; imagination and the words used in an allegory should be intriguing and featured with phonetic effects. Besides, she also mentioned that symbolism and metaphor were frequently adopted in this novel. She pointed out that not only the characters but also the plots in the story were all symbolic. Here Zhang Bei took it as an allegory and mentioned the writing techniques of symbolism, metaphor and words with phonetic effects.

Like Zhang Bei, Xu Ming believed that the characters in an allegory were inevitably symbolic. And he said that ”allegory is an old literary form which conveys underlying truths through narration and description.” (75) He pointed out that with the rich experience from years of teaching, the author devoted a lot in the authenticity and objectivity of the specific events happened in the story, even in the very tiny details, thus making the description lively. He also noticed the importance of language in the portrayal of characters. Here Xu Ming mainly focused on the writing techniques of symbolism and objective description.

In his another article, Xu Ming also pointed out that ”one of the most outstanding features in Lord of the Flies is its symbolic techniques” and ”it came from three segments: natural objects, characters and plots”. (112) Here he considered the natural objects were also symbolic, which haven#8217;t been clearly pointed out in previous ones. And also, he believed that the symbolism was used together with other techniques of expression like irony and comparison and with the expression of the theme, the development of the story and the portrayal of the characters in this novel. Here Xu Ming mainly focused on the symbolic features in this novel.

Zhao Ai-hua compared Lord of the Flies and Robinson Crusoe to conclude the former#8217;s features of allegory and symbolism. And by symbolism, she found that both the characters and the usual objects were of symbolism and contained multiple meanings. Different from the previous scholars, she noticed that ”the author was good at describing the objective environments in which embodied his feelings. By describing the objective environment, Golding heightened the atmosphere and rendered emotions, thus driving the development of the story.” (49) She believed that the description of the objective environment all served for the portrayal of the characters. Here apart from the symbolic features, Zhao Ai-hua focused on the description of the objective environment.

Apart from the perspective of its allegoric and symbolic features, some scholars also saw another feature of this story as a desert island novel.

Yu Jing pointed out from the very beginning that ”the theme of Lord of the Flies as a desert island fiction has been totally different from that of those traditional ones.” (15) She said that ”traditional desert island fictions were the reflections of the development of English politics and economies, which showed the characteristics of English people and their optimistic spirits.” (15) Thus the model of ”a desert island turning into a paradise” came to be the traditional structure model. However, Golding created a different desert island by introducing his idea of evil humanity. According to her study, Golding created a brand new desert island adventurous story with the techniques of allegory and symbolism by using the traditional desert island which the readers liked. Here she also mentioned the features of symbolism and allegory but mainly focused on its features as a non-traditional desert island story.

Like Yu Jing, Xue Jiabao also noticed that Lord of the Flies was a breakthrough comparing to the traditional model of ”a desert island turning into a paradise”. And he believed that the story portrayed an ironic plot. He believed that ”the desert island was used as a mirror by Golding to show the evil nature of humanity.” (99) Apart from the allegory and symbolism mentioned, here Xue Jiabao mainly discussed about the ironic technique used in this novel.

Apart from these two aspects, to see the superb writing techniques of Golding, the study of the specific original text is necessary. And to study the text, we have to study the words and settings used in the novel.