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. .
Each faction of children in the book; “Lord of the flies” held a significant meaning. Jack and his hunters represented the Nazi’s or a more current group, Donald Trump supporters because they are people who unfortunately fail to think before
There are leaders of savagery in both Lord of the flies and A separate Peace, in both books these leaders cause c...
William Golding, the author of the novel The Lord of the Flies, lived through the global conflicts of both world wars. World War II shifted his point of view on humanity, making him realize its inclination toward evilness. His response to the ongoing struggle between faith and denial became Lord of the Flies, in which English schoolboys are left to survive on their own on an uninhabited island after a plane crash. Just like Golding, these boys underwent the trauma of war on a psychological level. Ralph, one of the older boys, stands out as the “chief,” leading the other victims of war in a new world. Without the constraints of government and society, the boys created a culture of their own influenced by their previous background of England.
William Golding’s Lord of the Flies portrays the lives of young British boys whose plane crashed on a deserted island and their struggle for survival. The task of survival was challenging for such young boys, while maintaining the civilized orders and humanity they were so accustomed too. These extremely difficult circumstances and the need for survival turned these innocent boys into the most primitive and savaged mankind could imagine. William Golding illustrates man’s capacity for evil, which is revealed in man’s inherent nature. Golding uses characterization, symbolism and style of writing to show man’s inhumanity and evil towards one another.
"Jewish Resistance". United States Holocaust Memorial Museum. United States Holocaust Memorial Museum, n.d. Web. 19 May 2014.
William Golding’s novel ‘The Lord of The flies’ presents us with a group of English boys who are isolated on a desert island, left to try and retain a civilised society. In this novel Golding manages to display the boys slow descent into savagery as democracy on the island diminishes.
Even when US troops liberated the Buchenwald and Dachau concentration camps, the stories still never made it to the front page of the paper and people still did not believe in the reliability of the stories (Leff 52). In 1943, a survey w...
Much of history’s most renown literature have real-world connections hidden in them, although they may be taxing uncover. William Golding’s classic, Lord of the Flies, is no exception. In this work of art, Golding uses the three main characters, Piggy, Jack, and Ralph, to symbolize various aspects of human nature through their behaviors, actions, and responses.
In the Lord of the Flies, William Golding uses characters to convey the main idea of his novel. The story begins with a war, and a plane carrying several young boys, who are being evacuated, is shot down from the sky. There are no adult survivors; however; the boys were brought together by Ralph blowing on the conch shell. They formed a tribe to stay alive. Slowly the stability and the sense of safety in the group started to deteriorate, similar to the downfall of societies during World War II. They are not only hunting animals now, but they are killing each other like savages in order to stay alive. This action of killing is like Hitler during World War II and his persecution of Jews during the Holocaust.
Gutman, Israel. The Jews of Warsaw, 1939-1943: Ghetto, Underground, Revolt. Bloomington: Indiana UP, 1982. Print.
During World War II, the United States killed 90,000 to 166,000 people in Hiroshima with an atomic bomb. The bombing of Hiroshima demonstrated the uncivilized behaviors of humankind: hunger for power, misuse of technology, and subconscious reactions to conflicts. Lord of the Flies, an allegorical novel by William Golding, illustrates a horrific tale of boys who are stranded on an island and lose their ability to make civil decisions. Throughout the book, Ralph and Jack fight for power, Piggy’s spectacles are constantly taken to create fire, and several of the boys become “savage” and act upon their subconscious minds. From a sociological perspective, Golding’s novel portrays man’s voracity for power, abuse of technology to the point of destruction, and his venture to inner darkness.
Vogelsang, Peter, and Brian B. Larsen, M. “Extermination Camps.” The Danish Center for Holocaust and Genocide Studies. 2002. Web. 16 May 2014
Gottfried, Ted, and Stephen Alcorn. Deniers of the Holocaust: Who They Are, What They Do, Why They Do It. Brookfield, CT: Twenty-First Century, 2001. Print.
In his novel Lord of the Flies, William Golding shows a story of boys who are trapped on an island, and must figure out how to survive. The story represents the fall of mankind, as symbolism is present throughout the entire novel. It is best seen through a historical perspective. Golding uses events from his own lifetime, the Operation Pied Paper, and Hitler’s ruling to compare it to the major events, the beginning of the story, and Jack’s personality.
Yet humanity can easily overlook the implications of its destructive behavior, as the Naval Officer demonstrates when he denies the obvious savagery of the young boys. As an allegory for World War II, Lord of the Flies exemplifies that when society does not prioritize morality and civilization, unfit leaders such as Jack are given the potential to abuse power, just as Hitler became the dictator of Germany. Almost three-quarters of a century after World War II, Lord of the Flies still serves as a reminder of humanities destructive