Lord of the Flies: World War II's Impact

Lord of the Flies: World War II’s Impact
Lord of the Flies by William Golding was influenced strongly by his experiences as a naval officer during World War II. Golding’s wartime service gave him a darker and more realistic look on life, and contributed to the novel’s imagery. As Golding described, World War II woke him up from his falsified beliefs about human nature by showing him the true human condition (“Lord of the Flies,” Novels 175). Lord of the Flies, as Golding explained, is “an attempt to trace the defects of society back to the defects of human nature” (qtd. in “Lord of the Flies,” Novels 189). William Golding based much of Lord of the Flies on his World War II experiences, which provided for a more realistic and accurate story.
Prior to joining the British Royal Navy in 1940, Golding lived a sheltered life as an English private school teacher, overseeing boys not unlike the characters of the novel. He was unprepared for the violence and chaos of war, and was injured in a detonator accident in the beginning of his service (“Lord of the Flies,” Novels 175). He was made captain of a small rocket-launching craft during the sinking of the Bismark and took part in the D-Day invasion (184). After the war, Golding returned to teaching. He published three unsuccessful books, all rejected for their derivative nature, and was finally inspired to write Lord of the Flies. Upon reading The Coral Island by R. M. Ballantyne, he wondered how the story would progress had the boys “behaved as they really would” (175). By giving his characters the same names as those in The Coral Island and making direct references in Lord of the Flies, William Golding responded to the Victorian world view with his own bleaker and more realistic outlook,...

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...istic portrayal of the human condition, which Golding himself attributes to his service during the Second World War (“Lord of the Flies,” Novels 175). Golding’s service during World War II gave him a more accurate look on life, which influenced Lord of the Flies’ plot to be more derivative and realistic.

Works Cited

"Lord of the Flies." Novels for Students. Ed. Diane Telgen. Vol. 2. Detroit: Gale, 1997. 174-95. Gale Virtual Reference Library. Web. 4 Mar. 2014.
"Lord of the Flies." World War II to the Affluent Fifties (1940-1950s). Comp. Joyce Moss and George Wilson. Detroit: Gale, 1997. 228-34. Vol. 4 of Literature and Its Times: Profiles of 300 Notable Literary Works and the Historical Events That Influenced Them. Gale Virtual Reference Library. Web. 4 Mar. 2014.
"'Lord of the Flies and The Bacchae." Classical World 57.4 (1964): 145-46. JSTOR. Web. 4 Mar. 2014.