The Lord of the Flies by William Golding

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The book, The Lord of The Flies, was written in 1954 by author William Golding. It is about a large group of British school boys who are stranded on a deserted island all by themselves. They must learn to survive by themselves even though they are such a young age. Many scholars or teachers have read this book, and may see different views, meanings, and beliefs that they feel this story could actually be about. The book shows many things that can be related to the author life or views, time period, and to the country of Great Britain.
The Lord of the Flies was written and published after the second world war. Golding made some references, even small ones, to the war in this book. This could be due to the fact that Golding was in the navy during the war (Bloom). One reference was that the choir boys were dressed in the same colors as the Nazis wore in the war. Also, the choir boys were represented as killers and hunters in the book, same as the Nazis were practically killers during the war, and they “hunted” the Jews (Golding). Throughout the book, there is also mentioning of a war going on, with bombs dropping everywhere.
Another view that Golding wanted to push out was that even children that were British could still turn cruel or savage, and that it doesn’t have to happen only in specific countries, that it could happen anywhere. He also wanted to push out the point that “One lot of people is like another lot of people.” What he means by this, is that one group of people can act the same as another group and that just because people seem to be good it doesn’t mean that they can’t be bad. He feels as though the British had to learn over hundreds of years that people are like this, and that it is not a new concept, only somethi...

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... things, such as political, racial, sexist, or a few other ideas and views. The book may be viewed differently to some people than others, but all of the ideas are easily seen throughout the entire story.

Works Cited

Bloom, Harold, ed. "Background to Lord of the Flies." Bloom's Literature. Facts On File, Inc. Web. 27 Mar. 2014
Crawford, Paul. "Literature of Atrocity: Lord of the Flies and The Inheritors." Bloom's Literature. Facts On File, Inc. Web. 26 Mar. 2014
Golding, William. Load of the Flies. New York: Penguin Group, 1954. Print.
Schoene-Harwood, Berthold. "Boys Armed with Sticks: William Golding's Lord of the Flies." Bloom's Literature. Facts On File, Inc. Web. 26 Mar. 2014
Tiger, Virginia. "Lord of the Flies." Bloom's Literature. Facts On File, Inc. Web. 26 Mar. 2014
"William Golding - Biographical". Nobelprize.org. Nobel Media AB 2013. Web. 27 Mar 2014.

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