"Lord of The Flies"- Holocaust

In William Golding’s novel, The Lord of the Flies, a large group of privileged English schoolboys are stranded on an island in the Pacific with no adults after the plane they were on crash-landed. The boys are brought together by the Conch that is blown by Ralph in the beginning of the book. The conch is symbolic of order and authority in the book. The boys go under a transformation of these privileged schoolboys to a group of rag tag savages trying to kill each other for power throughout the course of this book. This essay will be outlining the transition from good boys that listen to authority, into boys that rely on their id of savagery, and the descent to evil, destruction and panic through the journey and

The darkest and most violent symbol on the island is the rock. Roger, one of the savage boys, uses the rock to kill Piggy. Comparable to the mask, the rock is red representing violence. “High overhead, Roger with a sense of delirium abandonment, leaned all of his weight on the lever.” (Golding 180). This describes the scene when Roger, standing on a cliff, pushes the rock down on Piggy. The scene in the story when Roger kills Piggy represents more than just the death of one of the protagonists. Not only does the rock smash Piggy, but it also shatters the conch. The conch and Piggy

This reminds Jack and Ralph that there is a chance that the beast is real and there may be reason for all the fear.  It also reveals that Simon's character is very much in touch with reality. He is not trying to push the fact that a beast could be on the island away from him.  He is trying to deal with his fear and show the others that they can and should deal with theirs.

“The staging itself reminded the audience of how fascists use such panoramas: […] Hitler at the Nazi Party Conference at Nuremberg in 1934 as reevoked in the monumental Triumph of the Will” (Crowl, 53). The huge red scrolls and banners with Richard’s badge of boar, the vast crowd waving red flags, all these imageries created by Richard Loncraine echo the past “glory” of Hitler when he convinced tamed German citizens with his mouth.

As Donald J. Trump said, “The Theatre must always be a safe and special place”, and for once he is right, the Theatre is a special place place, where people and objects transform in front of our eyes. One element that helps make a play great, is if it effectively uses its sacred space. The definition of sacred space according to our lecture is, “A physical space that feels almost magical, sometimes it may transform or appear before our eyes.” Sacred space is not required to incorporate the entire stage either, it can just be certain parts of the play. I remember in reading the book The Lord of the Flies, that one of the boys when the world would get too intense for him, he would hide in a hole in a tree and calm down; that was his sacred space. Sacred spaces are used effectively throughout all forms of art. One item that is used frequently in safe spaces in the act of rituals. Our lecture definition of Ritual is, “Something that repeats. Each repetition feels the same and different at the same time”, kind of like how Star Wars The Force Awakens was basically just A New Hope. Joking aside Rituals are very important in literature, like for example in Lord of the Flies again, the kids would participate in ritual when they would kill a kid or a pig and chant “Kill the Pig, cut its throat, bash her in, drink its blood.” Throughout the four plays we watch the themes of Rituals and Sacred Space flowing through the veins of these stories, that carry the meaning of the works.

We do not know much about the boys pasts, but we can see from Jack’s behavior that it might have not been the most ideal which, in turn could have turned him into the murderer he is now. While many people think that it is just things we are taught that determine our actions “… both biological and social factors combined mold people into who they are and determines the mindset

In “First They Came” it talks about a man named Martin Niemoller which followed to the Nazis. This shows Martin blindly following the crowd and at the end having an extremely bad outcome such as ending up in several concentration camps, which all of them he escaped very luckily. It states in the story “First they came for the Socialists, and I did not speak because I was not a Socialist, Then they came for the Trade Unionists, and I did not speak out---Because I was not a Trade Unionist, Then they came for the Jews, and I did not speak out ---- Because I was not a Jew, Then they came for me and there was no one left to speak for me. Those phrases came from the text of “First They Came.” Out of those examples it provides a good example of following the crowd in dangerous situations.

The Holocaust is a horrible time in human history. The leader of the Nazi party and one responsible for the Holocaust is Adolf Hitler. Many authors use the Holocaust and Hitler as a base for their books. One example of these books is Lord of the Flies. The book is set in the middle of World War 2. The book is about children that get stranded on an Island without adults. The children vote for a chief, Ralph. Jack was the competition for Ralph, after Jack lost the race for chief he started his Hunters. This relates to Hitler because people think he went mad because he did not get into his dream art school. They both had a crave for power after they failed. They both had the idea of their of an aryan race.

Simon tries to state the truth: there is a beast, but that "it's only us" (page #). When he makes this revelation, he is ridiculed. This is an uncanny parallel to the misunderstanding that Christ had to deal with throughout his life. Later in the story, the savage hunters are chasing a pig. Once they kill the pig, they put its head on a stick and Simon experiences an epiphany in which the Beast tells Simon: "Fancy thinking the Beast was something you could hunt and kill!  You knew, didn't you? I'm part of all of you " (143).  As Simon rushes to the campfire to tell the boys of his discovery, he is hit in the side with a spear, his prophecy rejected and the word he wished to spread ignored.

At the end of chapter nine in The Lord of the Flies, William Golding utilizes figurative language to establish Simon as a Jesus figure, who dies and becomes released from his suffering. After Simon's realization that what the boys believe is the beast is instead a dead man with a blue parachute, he returns to the other boys to tell them that the beast they imagine on the island is fictitious. During a stormy night, the boys create a barbaric circle where they repetitively dictate a chant in order to summon the beast so that they have the opportunity to kill it. Because they mistake Simon as a beast as he attempts to tell them of his discovery of the dead man, Simon is forcefully pulled into the center of the boys'

This proves that the other boys did not believe Simon and still thought the beast as an animal of some sort. Then, their inner savagery took over as they were on the island longer and longer. This happened since there was no higher authority to correct them, so they started doing what they wanted. It says in the book, “Only Percival began to whimper with an eyeful of sand and Maurice hurried away. In his other life

He urged the people, “go into your churches, kneel before God, and implore his help for our brave army.”(25) This moment hinted at a more independent minded approach to traditional authority. When coupled together, the emotions of the crowds and the ability of groups like the Fatherland Party to find a footing in the political arena, gives reason to believe that the German people were ready to make a change that served their newfound interests. Fritzche explicitly makes this point, “the patriotism that Germans displayed was of their own making and suited to new conceptions of nation and citizenship which invited rather than discouraged public participation.” (66) At the conclusion of the war, millions of people were at a loss, and the Nazis stepped in to fill a void left by their opposition who had stoked the flames of nationalism but failed to capitalize on its apparent momentum. This included a strong message that laid blame for the German surrender at the feet of those in charge. Also, previous notions of class were turned upside down or, for the Nazis, right side up, making it possible for an illiberal, fascist community to become the norm. Simply put, “Basic elements of the Nazi message spoke to the political aspirations that burghers had held for more than ten years.” (192) Germans became Nazis by their own choosing, they were not forced to

When looking into the history of Germany and determining what led to the startling rise in Nazism in Germany and its detrimental effects on the social outcasts in Europe, it can be easy to deduce that the Nazi regime was one where Hitler walked in with his officials and took office by force. The truth is that, while the Nazi party is responsible for the atrocities that occurred before and during WWII, they would have not gotten far if it hadn’t been for the cooperation of the German people themselves. Life in the Third Reich provides proof through voting, youth programs and village life that the Nazi party rose into power with German support.

This shows that Simon has thought about it and is thinking about it more as he moves forward and ends up putting on the pig to show everyone how he feels but ends up getting killed. Simon shut people out because he was torn between doing the right thing and not doing the right thing. He understands that if he just goes away that he won’t have to be torn. Which shows that he would rather step back and think and look then to just jump to conclusions. Simon is mature for doing what he did. This is very important because it shows that people that you say you can trust you can’t and they stab you in the back. Simon is a very important person in the book and always will

Many things such as social and political environments can impact literature. British involvement in WWII directly influenced Golding's novel, Lord of the Flies. As all authors use their life and times as reference points in their works, Golding drew heavily on sociological, cultural, and military events. Lord of the Flies is an allegorical parallel to the world, as Golding perceived it. The island, the boys, and many other objects and events described in his work represent Golding's view of the world and humankind in general. He specifically incorporates characteristics and values reflective of the British culture.