Context Flashcards
-The title, Lord of the Flies, refers to the Devil.
-It comes from the Hebrew word, Beelzebub.
-Beelzebub was one of the seven princes of Hell.
-He was thought to be able to fly, hence he was known as ‘Lord of the Flyers’ or ‘Lord of the Flies’.
-Golding explores the idea of evil and the Devil in many ways, including the idea of the beast and the ways the boys descend into savagery.
-Golding uses Lord of the Flies to highlight the issues within society.
-The island is a microcosm (a smaller example of the whole world) of the wider world, highlighting inequality and unfairness for select groups of people.
-Golding uses the novel to show the struggle between civilization and evil.
-Throughout the novel, the boys struggle against the evil within them, as well as the evil things each of them do.
-Many people assumed that only the ‘enemy’ committed atrocities in WW2, but Golding came back from the war believing anyone is capable of evil.
-Golding had seen, and was interested in, how evil and violence can develop easily from innocent beginnings.
-In Lord of the Flies, the violence and fighting starts as a game, but the game goes too far and becomes vicious and savage for most of the boys.
-WW2 Germany saw Nazi soldiers and the SS who were fiercely loyal to Hitler.
-In the novel, we see Jack leading his group, who are loyal to him and follow his orders.
-Golding uses this to reinforce ideas around WW2- the dangers of blindly following a leader without question.
-After WW2, Britain then faced the threat of nuclear war with the Soviet Union.
-Throughout the 1950s, the people in Britain feared a nuclear attack.
-However, there was a stand-off because Britain also had a nuclear missile.
-If the Soviet Union had set theirs off, Britain would have retaliated and the countries would have destroyed each other.
-This is know as mutually assured destruction (MAD).
-The novel touches on the idea of mutually assured destruction.
-The fire at the end destroys the island.
-If the officer from the navy had not arrived to rescue them, Jack’s tribe would not have been able to survive on the island after destroying it.
-In the 1950s, there was a very rigid social class system in Britain.
-The upper class was only 1% of the population, but they had 99% of the wealth in the country.
-Upper-class boys were educated at prestigious schools, like Eton.
-The middle class was a bigger group than the upper class.
-Middle class people made their money through business.
-Working class people were the majority of the population in 1950s Britain.
-Before WW2, the different social classes did not really mix. In the 1950s, this slowly started to change.
-The novel shows strict social divisions.
-Piggy is the cleverest, but is ignored owing to his social status.
-Jack assumes being choir leader should make him chief.
-We don’t know their exact social classes, but Ralph’s dad is in the navy and Piggy’s family don’t seem to be very wealthy.
