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Hebrew Ba Al-Zevuv Meaning

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When writing an allegory, the author hides hidden messages and and meaning, the characters of these writings often symbolize particular morals and ideas. Previous experience drove William Golding to write his well known novel called the Lord of the Flies, when it comes to his experience as part of the royal navy, or the reasoning behind the name of the his book, and the hidden meaning behind different characters. The reasoning behind the background story of the kids coming from english during time of war relates to William Golding’s time as soldier. The children coming from boarding school had been evacuated onto an airplane lying them to safety, far away from the nuclear war that going on back in england; related to that “ when World War II broke out [Golding] joined the Royal navy,” in which he was named lieutenant in command of rocket ships(Epstein 204). Because of his …show more content…

In the last pages of Lord of the flies, Epstein suggest that the title of the book “[translates] to Hebrew Ba'al Zevuv [, which means]... a devil whose name suggests that he is devoted to decay, destruction, demoralization, hysteria, and panic”; which therefore fits perfectly with Goldings theme of disaster.(Epstein 205) The concept of the Ba'al Zevuv as inhumane and diabloslistic figure played a major role as the children stated adopting non-social like behaviors that lead them back to the origin of man which naturally evil and only wants to benefits himself rather than the community as a whole. Lastly, before joining the royal navy, Golding teached young children which influenced him to write his famous novel Lord of the Flies. When teaching, Golding come “[experienced] teaching unruly young boys that would later serve as inspiration for his characters as he wrote the book lord of the flies”, of course many of these students were taken at the extreme and represent more than themselves (Epstein 206).

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