The 1950s brought a state of disorientation throughout the world due to the unavoidable nuclear war becoming more imminent day by day. The USSR and the United States engaged in a war under the eyes of the world when the USSR was inching communism toward borders and communities. The goal of the USSR was to create chaos in American society by using propaganda to fabricate mass hysteria to destabilize the United States society. The situations surrounding the characters of Jack and Ralph in Golding’s Lord of the Flies are directly traceable to the Red Scare, the Cold War, and McCarthyism in the 1950s. The Red Scare brought a period of unease and mass hysteria in the United States during the 1950s as communism was spreading and the Cold War was …show more content…
Also, Communism was spreading quickly east as a result of the USSR's acquisition of Albania, Bulgaria, Czechoslovakia, Hungary, east Germany, Poland, Romania, and Yugoslavia after defeating Germany in WW2. Communism was on the doorstep of democracy, waiting for the right moment to push democracy out of the door. In Lord of the Flies, Jack attempts to push Jack out of his leadership role to take his power and control of his clan. The power-hungry Soviet Union and Jack were both willing to do whatever it took to take control of their surrounding people and country. Desiring power blinds the morals and sympathetic minds of human beings, causing a dark and cowardly side to be brought to light. The Lord of the Flies and the Soviet Union illustrate what man will do to gain power and what happens to the mind when great power is given, with great power comes great responsibility. The Cold War was the start of the end of humanity, starting the inevitable conflict between world powers to gain power. Moreover, Senator Joseph McCarthy created a witch hunt in the 1950s for communists who were believed to have infiltrated …show more content…
Senator McCarthy accused communists of infiltrating the U.S. government in order to boost his popularity as a senator. McCarthy's acts worried the population to the point where they were easily manipulated. In Lord of the Flies, Jack declares himself to be the leader of the clan and beheaded a sow as an act of power, striking fear into the boys around him. In chapter 8, Jack says,” This head is for the beast.” The boys are pushed to fear their leader just as the United States population was pushed to fear communism in order to be manipulated into following the agenda. Senator McCarthy and Jack both use the same tactics to boost popularity in order to have a higher power over their peers. Jack’s popularity was due to his overwhelming sense of power seen by the other boys, McCarthy was nothing without his influential actions. (Joseph McCarthy 2). Senator McCarthy brought political corruption to light, politicians will turn their back on their brothers and sisters for power and influence. Furthermore, conflicts began worldwide in the 1950s to stop the spread of
Sir William Golding has constantly been a man who sees nothing good in anything. He examined the world to be a dreadful place due to the people who has populated the Earth. In order to display how he observes the world which was around the period of the second world war, he came to the decision of producing a novel. His novel was titled “Lord of the flies”. In the novel, William Golding familiarized his audience with three groups of boys; the hunters, the younger children and the gentle boys. 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
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.
The book Lord of the Flies by William Golding is an exhilarating novel that is full of courage, bravery, and manhood. It is a book that constantly displays the clash between two platoons of savage juveniles mostly between Jack and Ralph who are the main characters of the book. The Kids become stranded on an island with no adults for miles. The youngsters bring their past knowledge from the civilized world to the Island and create a set of rules along with assigned jobs like building shelters or gathering more wood for the fire. As time went on and days past some of the kids including Jack started to veer off the rules path and begin doing there own thing. The transformation of Jack from temperately rebellious to exceptionally
In the 1950’s, the U.S government black listed artists, playwright and other intellectuals as Communists and unfairly destroyed many careers.
"Have you no sense of decency sir, at long last? Have you left no sense of
Is war the greatest weapon that political leaders can use? The answer is no because the manipulation of the minds of citizens can be used to enforce almost any demand imaginable. During the Red Scare, Senator Joseph McCarthy used this tactic to exploit the fear of Communists in ordinary United States citizens. The Red Scare was the most influential event on America in the 20th century because it made the U.S. biased against different forms of political ideology, created a judgmental society that had too large of an ego, and paved the way for America to take part in unnecessary foreign affairs.
In Lord of the Flies, Jack is a symbol for the desire for power, in which plans to use it to treat the other boys as objects for his own amusement and gratify his own desires. Jack’s thirst for power is highlighted in his characterisation, particularly through dialogue, like in the beginning of the novel when voting for chief, Jack simply states “I ought to be chief”, emphasizing his arrogance and plain desire for dominance. This is further demonstrated when the boys are discussing about the beast in one of the meetings, and Jack, although he doesn't believe in the beast, is willing to use its possible existence as a source of power over the littluns, proven though Jack’s use of dialogue in “-not only the littluns, but my hunters sometimes-talk of a thing, a dark thing, a beast, some sort of animal”. The dialogue illustrates the way that Jack allowed himself to exploit others’ weaknesses and commit evil acts in the attempt to attain dominance, proving that intrinsic evil is brought out by one’s desire for power. Thus, in the presence thirst for power, evil is an inescapable consequence of human
already in the middle of a Communist witch-hunt. It was believed that the recipe for the atomic
The war was over. The last cry of help had been heard and peace was supposedly coming to the United States. But everyone was wrong. An ideological war which prompted mass paranoia known as the Red Scare had spread through the US. It began in 1919 and ended in 1921. Red Scare was the label given to the actions of legislation, the race riots, and the hatred and persecution of "subversives" and conscientious objectors during that period of time.
The era following WWII and the era we are currently in portray times in United State's history that united our country in some ways, but in other ways were times of constrained freedom and illustrated the limitations of our country. McCarthyism, the period in the early to mid 1950's, was a time that arose from once good relations with the Soviet Union to a time where there was fear of communism within our country. Terrorism, a term that has been around, but now brings new meaning. The U.S had attacks in the 90's in Oklahoma, the Olympics, and the previous attacks on the World Trade Center, but none amounted to September 11, 2001 with the amount of casualties, the desperate measures of the attackers and the cracks in our security system.
Throughout William Golding's novel Lord of the Flies there is an ever-present conflict between two characters. Ralph's character combines common sense with a strong desire for civilized life. Jack, however, is an antagonist with savage instincts, which he cannot control. Ralph's goals to achieve a team unit with organization are destroyed by Jack's actions and words that are openly displayed to the boys. The two leaders try to convince the boys that their way of survival is correct.
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.
The Second Red Scare The McCarthy era, which generally spanned from 1947 to 1957, brought to the forefront of American politics the question of civil rights. At issue were controversies about both First Amendment rights to assembly and free speech and Fifth Amendment rights to due process and freedom from self-incrimination. Anti-Communist actions often involved restrictions on these rights, and heading the anti-Communist movement was the House Committee on Un-American Activities (HUAC). This committee, which consisted of government officials from Congress, was formed to investigate the threat of Communism in America. In doing so, the committee brought in witnesses, usually individuals thought to have, or to have had, Communist affiliations.
The Causes of McCarthyism As an individual in the middle of the Twentieth century, Joseph McCarthy had a rather intense effect on society. He started the movement that bears his name. McCarthyism was the movement that caused many changes in the lives of the people of the 1950's. McCarthy headed the charge against communism in the United States after the Second World War. Through his actions many people were accused of being communists and hastily judged to be so because of the general feeling toward communism.
During the mid-1800s, many slaves risked their lives to escape from plantations, so that their children would be born free and not have to endure the harsh conditions of being a slave. When the Civil War began, some of these free African men wanted to help and serve the Union army to fight against the Confederacy. However they were not allowed to serve in the same army with white men. So the USCT (United States Colored Troops) was created. Sometimes, free African men had to go against their parent’s wishes to fight. They risked their lives and many were lost from the Civil war, all to abolish slavery. But, they knew that this War had Ought to be Fought.