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Lord of the flies and world war 2
The relationship between lord of the flies and the war
Lord of the flies and world war 2
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At first glance, Lord of the Flies may seem like an ordinary book about the challenges of surviving on a deserted island. Having been shot down as part of what can be assumed as a global World War Three, a group of British schoolboys need to figure out how they will manage to beat the odds in order to survive on this island they now call home. With such a cliche plotline it’s hard to imagine this book having any sort of meaningful hidden message. However, after thoroughly reading and analysing Lord of the Flies, one of William Golding’s various allegories can be discovered. Throughout its many pages and chapters, Lord of the Flies depicts itself as an allegory of the real life Cold War. Such a connection may be hard to understand initially, …show more content…
Whether it’s used for its warmth, light or smoke, fire plays a large role in the book. It’s only reasonable then that this is where Golding’s next analogy can be seen. Chapter Two is where the group of boys attempt to create a signal fire in order to signal a passing ship. However, through their efforts they accidentally cause a brush fire that quickly grows out of control, “Beneath the dark canopy of leaves and smoke the fire laid hold on the forest and began to gnaw. Acres of black and yellow smoke rolled steadily towards the sea.” Fire’s ability to be used for destruction just as easily as it can be used for salvation is a direct analogy to the usage of nuclear fusion. Nuclear fusion has the ability to supply almost endless amounts of power to the entire globe. However, just as it can benefit humanity it can also be easily used to aid in humanity’s own destruction. The Cold War saw the amassing of nukes on a scale unimaginable in the modern day. These elements that possessed the capability to greatly improve the access to electricity across the entire world were instead used to create bombs and missiles capable of destroying all life on Earth many times over. The ability nuclear fusion and fire share to be both greatly beneficial and destructive is another similarity Golding uses to show the connection Lord of the Flies has with the Cold War. This; however, is not the biggest piece of …show more content…
As Ralph is being hunted down, his group being all but destroyed in the wake of Jack’s insatiable lust for power, the island falls victim to the violence, “The fire reached the coconut palms by the beach and swallowed them noisily. A flame, seemingly detached, swung like an acrobat and licked up the palm heads on the platform. The sky was black.”. This is where the similarities between Lord of the Flies and the Cold War become the most clear. Jack’s group’s willingness to completely destroy the island in order to try and oust their enemy is very similar to the possibility of nuclear warfare being initiated during the Cold War. Nuclear warfare, much like the torching of the island, would end up with all participants being killed off. The willingness to commit suicide in an attempt to destroy the enemy is the same in both the Cold War and the book. The decisions willing to be undertaken in order to have the last laugh is what really shows the allegory Lord of the Flies has with the Cold
In this article, The Fireman: Immaculate Manhood, Robyn Cooper reveals many concepts of fire. He says, "As spirit, fire is both purifying and heavenly, punitive and damning. Fire also symbolizes love and passion, as purifying and confining, burning passion as consuming and destroying. Fire is defined as a masculine principle because of the association of fire and heat with energy, life and power (man is sun, woman is moon). In relation to sexual generation, it was traditionally held that the spark of the semen ignited the cold womb to generate life.
Bradbury first depicted fire as a hurtful force through Montag, a fireman, who burn books. With the converted mentality of his culture, “it was [Montag’s] pleasure to burn. It was a special pleasure to see things eaten, to see things blackened and changed” (3). Montag’s culture sees burning as an enjoyment; however, the fire portrayed here demonstrates the destruction of knowledge and personality. While Montag’s profession brings him joy he does not understand that burning is the most permanent form of destruction. He is oblivious to his governments’ strong desire to eliminate the ideas and knowledge that books hold. In this society, where ignorance is bliss and their phobia of unhappiness controls all aspects of life, people believe that their destructive fire “is bright and…clean”, as it is used as a means to keep themselves oblivious and happy (60). In addition, Bradbury establishes the difference in the symbolisms of fire by naming part one of his novel “The Hearth and the Salamander”. The hearth is the fireplace of the home and is the most positive image of fire. This fire contributes warmth and restores relationships between people. The salamander, the symbol of the firemen, and who personify fire’s destruction is contrasted with the hearth, which represents restoration.
Fire and flames have been used as symbols by many authors. Fire is representative of Montage. He was a fireman who made fires rather than put them out. He was around them all the time, whether it was around a campfire or burning down a house. Montag and fire were very close and almost part of each other. In the beginning of the book Montag is shown to love fire, It was a pleasure to burn. It was a special pleasure to see things eaten, to see things blackened and changed. (3) He didnt perceive it to be bad and destructive thing. But in a larger sense, Montag did identify fire with warmth and spirit.
Fire is used to symbolizes horror and death. One example takes place when they are on the train going to the concentration camp. A lady named Madame Schachter was separated from her family and was losing her mind. The fear and dehydration caused her to become delirious and hallucinate a fire. She screamed many time, this is shown when Wiesel states, “She continued to scream and sob fitfully. Jews, listen to me…I see a fire! I see flames, huge flames” (302). These screams were also foreshadowing the crematoria and the flames that were burning human bodies.
People can do anything that involves fear including turning on someone and attempting to kill them. William Golding wrote Lord of the Flies in 1952 during the cold war. This affects the novel because children were often killed during war.This novel is important because the novel shows how the boys communicate and survive on the island. Lord of the Flies is about a group of boys on an island without any adults. In order to survive, they will have to work as a team. In the essay, I will talk about how Jack and Ralph comparison, how they have changed, and there purpose in the novel.
Overall, fire representation is not one of destruction but one of knowledge, thinking, new insight, and acknowledgment.
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.
Have you ever thought about six to thirteen year olds ever acting like savages and turning into a serial killer? After reading Lord of the Flies, this is exactly what happened. Ralph, Piggy, Jack and other kids cash land on a gorgeous island with leaving no trace for the world to find them. Ralph tries to be organized and logical, but in the other hand, Jack is only interested in satisfying his pleasures. Just like in the short story, The Tortoise And The Hare, Lord of the Flies, stands for something. This novel is a psychological allegory, the island, as the mind, Ralph, the leader, as the ego, Jack, the hunter, as the id, and Piggy, an annoying little boy, as the super ego. As we read Lord Of
William Golding said “I learned during World War II just how brutal people can be to each other. Not just the Japanese but everyone”. In the book “the Lord of the Flies”, Golding tells us about World War II and the Holocaust by making Ralph represent democracy and Jack represent dictatorship.
One of the most important themes running through the whole story in Lord of the Flies by William Golding is the power of different symbols. Golding frequently uses symbolism, which is the practice of using symbols, especially by investing in things with a symbolic meaning. The main point of each symbol is its use and its effect on each of the characters. They help shape who the characters are and what they will be. The symbols weave their way throughout the story and are more powerful than they first seem.
So, in the beginning of the story, the fire symbolized civilization and hope. However, this was changed when Jack confiscated the fire from Ralph's tribe and used it to help them do more wrongdoings. He set the jungle into fire so that Ralph can burn out. This changed the symbolism of the fire from civilization and hope to evil, savagery, and calamity. However, soon something ironic happened.
While many believe that social welfare in the United States began with Franklin D. Roosevelt’s New Deal plan, the first American movement towards welfare came from a different Roosevelt, Theodore Roosevelt. He stated in his New Nationalism address that “every wise struggle for human betterment” objectives are “to achieve in large measure equality of opportunity... destroy privilege, and give to the life and citizenship of every individual the highest possible value both to himself and the commonwealth” (Roosevelt). Behind such a speech with charged language about democracy and fundamental equality, Roosevelt was instituting welfare programs such as limiting word days, setting a minimum wage for women, social insurance for the elderly and disabled, unemployed social insurance, and a National Health Service. After his proposal came Woodrow Wilson’s New Freedom initiative, FDR’s aforementioned New Deal, John F. Kennedy’s New Frontier, and Lyndon B. Johnson’s Great Society (Historical Development). While social welfare is steeped in America’s history, there is a very contemporary debate on its effectiveness and ethicality. People argue that the reason welfare has such a long history in America is because it helps people get out of poverty, equalizes opportunities, reduces crime, and helps children; in essence, that welfare works. Many in opposition to welfare disagree, citing that the system creates a culture of dependence, is easily abused, hurts the middle class and costs the government too much on a system that isn’t wholistically addressing the needs of the American people.
Symbolism is defined as the representation; treatment or interpretation of things as symbolic. In society and in particular, literature, symbolism is a prominent component that helps to illustrate a deeper meaning then perceived by the reader. Symbolism can be anything, a person, place or thing, used to portray something beyond itself. It is used to represent or foreshadow the conclusion of the story. In William Golding’s, Lord of the Flies symbolism of the main characters Ralph, Jack and Simon plays a very important role in helping to show how our society functions and the different types of personalities that exist. An examination of Simon as a symbol of good, Ralph as a symbol of the common man, and Jack as a symbol of evil, clearly illustrates that William Golding uses characters as a symbol of what is really happening in the outside world throughout the novel.
Initially, Ralph stands as the dominant factor in the story until Jack first tries to prove his authority. During the group’s first pig hunt, Jack’s actions increase the concentration of his malice on the island, making more acidic for just a moment, until every goes back to a basic normality under the buffer of Ralph’s dominion. Then, as more instances of Jack’s outbursts come about, the story reaches its equivalence point as Jack takes a stance against the rule of Ralph in asking “Who thinks Ralph oughtn’t to be chief?” on Pg.182 (Golding 182). At this stage in the Jack/Ralph reaction, the authority of Jack starts to equal the authority of Ralph and the level of malevolence on the island. This point stands as the deciding line between whether the story will progress under Ralph’s guidance (making a basic solution) or Jack’s savagery (making an acidic one). Sadly, the reaction proceeds in the direction of the latter. The solution representing the island of Lord of the Flies turns blood red to symbolize how the concentration of brutality has overtaken the the concentration of civility. Of course though, this ending remained inevitable, because, according to the Second Law of Thermodynamics, the interaction between these two characters was destined end in an increase of chaos and
The leadership of Ralph, which he sought to strengthen, has deteriorated”(Golding, Works of William Golding: Lord Of The Flies: Chapters 1 - 5). This quote shares Golding’s opinion of the fear-based deterioration of society, characterized in the book by Ralph and Jack’s island factions. Additionally, “When Ralph shouts at Jack, ‘Which is better, laws and rescue, or hunting and breaking things up?’ he summarizes the conflicts in the book between the ideals of modern society and the impulses of primitive man... He and Jack have become complete savages”(Golding, Works of William Golding: Lord Of The Flies: Chapters 6-12).