'The Lord of The Flies' is another name for the devil. The basic presumption Golding uses here is the Christian premise of people being born inherently evil, together with a strong Freudian vein that explores the concept of hidden frustrations and fears, manifesting in savagery and perverted sexual acts. 
 His use of a bunch of kids to do this is at once scary as well as clean and clear cut, but very simplistic. The kids land on a deserted island in the middle of what seems to be the second world war and are presumably left for dead. Their only chance is to light a fire at the highest point of the island in order to attract any ships that might pass within sighting distance. To do this they need to get organized and maintain hope of eventual rescue. But, in typical fashion, hope dissipates fast and is replaced by an irrational fear of a nameless 'monster' that roams the jungle nights. Factions emerge and the children soon resort to savagery, turn against one another and immerse themselves in primitive pagan blood rituals as a response to giving up all hope of being rescued while at the same time being consumed by fears of the unknown. 
 And ultimately this formula is all consuming and leads to the destruction of everything. 
 Aside from being an obvious allegory to war and the human condition as seen by someone who just survived a world war, Its also the view of someone who is quickly beginning to realize the futility of avoiding conflict and sinking into savagery; it is a basic building block of modern nationalistic and materialist life. While I agree with all of Golding's political messages, i strongly disagree with his views on the human psyche a explained in the first paragraph of this review. It's defeatist and leaves no room for the possibility of humans rising above being on the verge of constantly sinking to savagery. If there is one flaw in this book then that is what i would point to, it's underlying precepts of the human psyche are flawed and misleading, and ultimately way too simplistic.