Lord of The Flies and Hitler’s Nazi Regime

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The 1954 novel Lord of the Flies by William Golding won the 1983 Nobel Prize for Literature and the novels allegorical nature has earned it positions in the “Modern Library 100 Best Novels, reaching number 41 on the editor's list, and 25 on the reader's list” (Lord of the Flies: Background). Golding’s thought provoking novel was written and published as the world was still remembering the horrors of the Second World War and many parts and components of the novel can be related to the Second World War, specifically Adolf Hitler and his Nazi Regime. Many comparisons can be made between Lord of the Flies and the events that occurred in Adolf Hitler’s Nazi Regime. The group of choir boys bossed by Jack Merridew can be compared to the brutal and intimidating Nazi police force the Gestapo. The character Jack Merridew himself can be compared to the father of Nazi Germany Adolf Hitler because both gained support through using fear. Dehumanization is also present in the form of young Piggy and the Jewish People is Lord of the Flies and Hitler's Nazi regime respectively.
Lord of the Flies features a group of former choir boys more commonly know as the hunters and this group of boys have much in common and shared many tactics with Hitler’s Gestapo police force. The Hunters in The Lord of the Flies used violence as a way to intimidate younger boys into thinking that they should be afraid of themselves and Jack. “Roger let the way straight through the castles, kicking them over, burying the flowers, scattering the chosen stones.” (Golding 62). Roger is a member of the Hunters and can be compared to a member of the Gestapo, he is using his strength and age as a way to use violence to assert power of the littluns. Roger intimidated the littlun...

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... of their crusades, they both gained political support by promoting fear. A final comparison can be seen regarding dehumanization that is present in both situations.

Works Cited

"Lord of the Flies: Background." Lord of the Flies . 2013 .
"Gestapo Torture of Jews in Warsaw Prisons Reported, List of Guilty Nazis Published." . The Global Jewish News Source , 19 October 1942. Web. 10 Dec 2013. .
"Hitler Comes to Power." . United States Holocaust Memorial Museum . Web. 11 Dec 2013. .
"Dehumanization of the Jews." . Jewish Federation of Greater Pittsburgh , n.d. Web. 16 Dec 2013. .

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