Lord of the Flies

Lord of the Flies

Context

The 'context' of a novel means the circumstances at the time it was written.

Here are somes points you might consider of the context in Lord of the Flies

• The people had just been through world war two
• Food was still being rationed
• Golding worked as a teacher in a British boys school
• Thought there might be a nuclear war between soviet union and western countries
• Britain was having to come to terms with the loss of its empire
• Nazi Germany had adopted a system of rewarding the strong and attacking the weak

In the exam you could compare the German leader Adolph Hitler ideas of racial purity and the supremacy of aryan race to Darwins theory of natural selection and survival of the fittest on the island.

Also you could write about the nazi organisation called the **. The often brutal way that the ** treated its enemies is similar to how Jack uses Roger to terrify the boys on the island.

Cold war

The novel is set against the backdrop of nuclear war. The final fire destroys the world of the island so how would Jack survive his 'victory' if the naval officer did not arrive. So its like Mutually assure destruction as it would have led to the destruction of both attacker and attacked- no one could win.

Hardship

Keeping up appearances was very much a British way of dealing with hardship. When Ralph, Piggy, Sam and Eric go to Castle Rock at the end of the novel they attempt to dress themselves as English schoolboys, as though this will…