Lord of the Flies and World War IIJoin now to read essay Lord of the Flies and World War IISteinerMany things such as social and political environments can impact literature. British involvement in WWII directly influenced Golding’s novel, Lord of the Flies. As all authors use their life and times as reference points in their works, Golding drew heavily on sociological, cultural, and military events. Lord of the Flies is an allegorical parallel to the world, as Golding perceived it. The island, the boys, and many other objects and events described in his work represent Golding’s view of the world and humankind in general. He specifically incorporates characteristics and values reflective of the British culture.
Ralph D. Miller (born June 17, 1845) is a writer, actor, and comedian. He has published novels, short stories, operas, cartoons, and feature films. He gained international recognition for his stand-up comedy The Greatness of the Bachelors and for his roles on a variety of soap operas and film projects. Michael O’Connor (born February 7, 1903) plays King in a comic book novel about a group of British military men in the War of Independence.
Daniel V. Moore and Richard S. Erskine (born Sept. 24, 1880) are students. They were both born in the United States, respectively, and became students. They began writing, performing, and performing with their parents and friends while young. [1] S. Erskine began writing in 1972 when he received his doctorate in English Literature.
Daniel D. Miller became a professor of English in the University of Chicago in 1978, and studied acting and acting in Hollywood. He went to Los Angeles, Calif., for his first audition at a Los Angeles theatre where he received his acting instructor’s license, and then in 1981, during the season of the Hollywood movie The Hangover, was named “Best Actress” in a Best Supporting Actress Competition to play Tom Hardy in the movie. He received the Tony Award from the National Organization of Theater Arts [2] for Best Original Score for both the movie The Hangover and at the Academy of Television Arts and Sciences, and has also won numerous Oscars. Dr. Miller also received his Masters degree from McGill University. He studied English Literature, and literature and film studies at Washington University in St. Louis. He began playing in the World War II theater shows in Hollywood in 1974, first in New York and then in London during the period of the second World War. He was also one of the organizers of the “I.P Radio Day Fair” that was held in New York City in 1989 at the Rockefeller Center. He also gave lectures on the subject of cinema in France during the war. In 1983, he published The World War I Theater Series: A Documentary History, an adaptation of a film he produced with the help of the U. S. military. Miller was a part of the Screen Actors Guild’s theatrical film department. He starred in many of the short films and feature films that were made and distributed around the world. He wrote many short stories of American soldiers, and was involved in numerous short films throughout the war. Dr. Miller graduated from Harvard University on September 29, 1994 with a B.A. in English Literature. He is married to J.D. O’Keefe. Miller is interested in the historical, cultural, and social history of Hollywood, as well as Hollywood theater, history, and politics
Ralph D. Miller (born June 17, 1845) is a writer, actor, and comedian. He has published novels, short stories, operas, cartoons, and feature films. He gained international recognition for his stand-up comedy The Greatness of the Bachelors and for his roles on a variety of soap operas and film projects. Michael O’Connor (born February 7, 1903) plays King in a comic book novel about a group of British military men in the War of Independence.
Daniel V. Moore and Richard S. Erskine (born Sept. 24, 1880) are students. They were both born in the United States, respectively, and became students. They began writing, performing, and performing with their parents and friends while young. [1] S. Erskine began writing in 1972 when he received his doctorate in English Literature.
Daniel D. Miller became a professor of English in the University of Chicago in 1978, and studied acting and acting in Hollywood. He went to Los Angeles, Calif., for his first audition at a Los Angeles theatre where he received his acting instructor’s license, and then in 1981, during the season of the Hollywood movie The Hangover, was named “Best Actress” in a Best Supporting Actress Competition to play Tom Hardy in the movie. He received the Tony Award from the National Organization of Theater Arts [2] for Best Original Score for both the movie The Hangover and at the Academy of Television Arts and Sciences, and has also won numerous Oscars. Dr. Miller also received his Masters degree from McGill University. He studied English Literature, and literature and film studies at Washington University in St. Louis. He began playing in the World War II theater shows in Hollywood in 1974, first in New York and then in London during the period of the second World War. He was also one of the organizers of the “I.P Radio Day Fair” that was held in New York City in 1989 at the Rockefeller Center. He also gave lectures on the subject of cinema in France during the war. In 1983, he published The World War I Theater Series: A Documentary History, an adaptation of a film he produced with the help of the U. S. military. Miller was a part of the Screen Actors Guild’s theatrical film department. He starred in many of the short films and feature films that were made and distributed around the world. He wrote many short stories of American soldiers, and was involved in numerous short films throughout the war. Dr. Miller graduated from Harvard University on September 29, 1994 with a B.A. in English Literature. He is married to J.D. O’Keefe. Miller is interested in the historical, cultural, and social history of Hollywood, as well as Hollywood theater, history, and politics
“…The war taught me different and a lot of others like me,” Golding said in the New Republic (Davis 28-30). Golding was referring to his experiences as captain of a British rocket-launching craft in the North Atlantic. He was present at the sinking of the Bismarck, a German battleship, and participated in the D-Day invasion of German occupied France. He was also directly affected by England’s devastation as a result of the German Air Force that severely damaged the nations infrastructure and marked the beginning of a serious decline in the British economy. Wartime rationing continued well into the postwar period. Items like meat, bread, sugar, gasoline, and tobacco were all in short supply and considered luxuries, which is exemplified in Golding’s work.
Golding’s writing reflects significant personal life experiences. Golding spent two years as a science student at Oxford University before he left this field to pursue a degree in English Literature. This was his first step toward rejecting scientific rationalism, a philosophy in which his father believed. Having joined the British Royal Navy when World War II began, Golding was involved in the invasion of Normandy on D-Day. After his military experience, he became a schoolteacher. For fifteen years he frequently read the Greek classics because, according to him, “this is where the meat is.”(Davis 28-30) He felt that Greek drama had a great influence on his work.
Drawing from Golding’s own life experiences, Lord of the Flies investigates three key aspects of the human experience that form the basis of the themes the author wants to convey. The first is the desire for social and political order through parliaments, governments, and legislatures, which represented by the platform and the conch. The second is natural inclination toward evil and violence, demonstrated in every country’s need for a military, which is represented by the choir-boys-turned-hunters-turned-murderers, and in the war going on in the world beyond the island. The third is the belief in supernatural or divine intervention in human destiny, which is represented by the ceremonial dances, and sacrifices intended to appease the “beast”, as well as Simon’s Jesus-like allegorical references.
By juxtaposing the evil, aggressive nature of the boys with the proper and civil British behavior that their cultural background implies, Golding places the boys in a series of life experiences that lead some, like Jack, deeper into their corrupt psyche, and others, like Ralph, who recognize the tendency toward evil in themselves, to suddenly realize the person they were meant to be. This awareness is the only hope for humankind to choose good over evil.
Golding wrote Lord of the Flies in 1954, less than a decade after World War II, when the world was in the midst of the Cold War. The atrocities of the Holocaust, the horrific effects of the atomic bomb, and the ominous threat of the Communist demon behind the Iron Curtain were all present in the minds of the Western public and the author. This environment of fear combined with technology’s rapid advances act as a backdrop to the island experiences: the shot-down plane, for example, and the boys’ concern that the “Reds” might find them before the British do.
Historically, in times of widespread socio-economic distress and fear, the general public feels itself vulnerable and turns to the leader who exhibits the most strength or seems to offer the most protection. In Lord of the Flies, Jack and the hunters, who offer the luxury of meat and the comforts of a dictatorship, fill that role. In exchange for his protection, the other boys sacrifice any moral reservations they may have about his policies and enthusiastically persecute the boys who resist joining their tribe. These circumstances somewhat mirror Germany’s economic suffering, which paved the way for the radical politics of Adolph Hitler’s Nazism in the aftermath of World War I and in the worldwide depression of the 1930s.
Based upon his wartime experiences in the British Navy, Golding asserted that the unlimited brutality shown by the Nazis was a capacity not limited to Germans or