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Berker DAL

Professor Arıkan

Literary Criticism

11 May 2020

A New Historicist Reading of Lord of the Flies by William Golding

Lord of the Flies is an allegorical novel with symbolic expression. William Golding

became very famous for this work and Nobel laureate. (“Biographical” 1) A lot of philosophical

and literary reviews have been written about it. Lord of the Flies is influenced by the destruction

of the Second World War in terms of both the character depiction and the plot structure. The

work completely reflects the ideas that emerged in the post-war period. These political and

philosophical ideas are especially the conflict between fascism/dictatorship and democracy, and

nihilism and nihilism-related movements because the hope for humanity is destroyed. Since the

work bears traces of the war and the post-war period, it is quite convenient to apply a New

Historicist reading. In this very paper, a New Historicist approach will be applied and the

similarities of the work with its post-war contemporaries based on nihilism and politics will be

revealed.

It is necessary to examine the author to examine the work and to examine the author, it is

a must to examine the context thoroughly in which the work is written. Since the age of

Enlightenment, Western civilization has promised peace and prosperity to the whole society with

a human-centric thought built around rationality. However, in the 20th century the World Wars,

the two major disasters that the civilization has ever faced, destroyed this idea. The effects of

World War II have led to nihilism and nihilism-related movements in the fields of philosophy

and literature, and opinions have arisen that human beings have no intrinsic meaning or they are
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inherently evil. Golding himself, as an allied officer who fought in World War II, experienced

the destructive effect of the war first-person. (“Biographical” 1) After this devastation he

witnessed, he published the book Lord of the Flies, which he symbolically expressed his

thoughts on humanity and politics. Just as the Second World War completely destroyed the

Enlightenment ideas, it severely damaged the hope for humanity and created new fears.

Dictatorships are at the top of these fears. As Deyab says in his article:

Golding’s experience in World War II had motivated him to find out the real reasons

behind this destructive war. Golding suggests that one of the main reasons of this war is

the rise of many dictators. Golding believes that there is a necessity of learning from our

past to improve upon our future, and because of the growing fear of reappearance of other

dictators such as Mussolini's Italy, Hitler's Germany, and Stalin's Russia, he writes Lord

of the Flies which depicts the annihilating dangers of dictatorial rule and which is

considered as a fictional plea for people to live under democracy than under dictatorship.

(76)

Using children as characters in the work results from the Golding's intention to emphasize the

evil as an inborn trait of man. The methods of the characters, on the other hand, reflect the

conflict between democracy and dictatorship.

Democratic and dictatorial countries fought in the Second World War. Hitler of Nazi

Germany, Mussolini of Italy, Stalin of Russia were important actors of this war as dictators. In

Lord of the Flies, the controversy of Ralph, who rules democratically, and Jack, who adopts

dictatorial methods can be seen. Ralph is a character who is elected to the leadership by the

majority and is trying to take steps for the well-being of the community with common sense, so

he comes to the administration in democratic ways like many western leaders. After becoming
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the leader of the community, he makes decisions for the benefit of the majority and creates a set

of rules. These rules that he created include the steps to be taken for children to spend healthy

time on the island and to be saved from it. For this reason, his moves using force do not pursue

his own interests, but the common interests of the community. At the same time, Ralph takes

responsibility for the jobs decided to be done. This trait is similar to the democratic leaders of

that particular period. Although Ralph stands out as the ideal leader, he also makes mistakes,

which shows that Golding created a realistic character. The most critical of these mistakes is that

he is unable to react harshly to Jack's disobedience. The fact that Ralph cannot suppress Jack's

revolt attempts while he has not many followers or public support has caused everything to get

worse.

Jack Merridew represents a dictator in this conflict between democracy and dictatorship.

He has a lot in common with the current dictators of war. Chavan says that Golding described

Jack as a combination of dictators of the time:

Jack is a combination of the western dictators of the 20th century. His red hairs

symbolize communist dictator Stalin. His ‘crumpled and freckled’ face matches that of

Mussolini. His blue eyes remind us of Hitler. Jack is a combination of communism,

fascism, and Nazism. (1521)

Considering Jack's attitude on the island, it can be clearly seen that he acts to satisfy his own

desires, does not care about children's needs, he uses children's needs as screens to satisfy his

own desires. The first striking example is that while things are still on the rails, Jack takes the

children who take care of the fire to the hunt, and therefore, the fire goes out, eliminating the

possibility of a ship passing by at that time to save them. Although Jack justifies himself by

telling them they need meat, he ignores the task of maintaining the fire, which is the number one
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priority for the common good, to satisfy his own desire to hunt. Jack attributes great importance

to himself, so he is egocentric and narcissistic. Jack thinks he is greater than anyone, and this is

one of the common traits of the period's dictators. For this reason, he can be compared to Hitler

directly. Jack, who gives extreme and violent reactions, does not empathize with the children.

Ralph undervalues Piggy at first, but then he empathizes with all the children due to the

responsibilities of being a leader. Jack does not give Simon who is a member of the church choir

he leads, the necessary help when he faints from heat. A leader needs to work for the good of his

subjects, as with the dictators of the time, Jack considers his subjects as tools or numbers and

uses them to fulfill his own desires. Jack also effectively uses manipulation, which is one of the

main methods of dictators. Even a dictator often needs people's support to take control. Dictators

try to get this support by deceiving people. George Ayittey says in an interview:

Dictators are allergic to reform, and they are cunning survivors. They will do whatever it

takes to preserve their power and wealth, no matter how much blood ends up on their

hands. They are master deceivers and talented manipulators who cannot be trusted to

change. (Huffpost 1)

Jack does not completely say the opposite, he actually implies that he originally agreed with

Ralph in some cases. This behavior is systematic, showing other children that he would be a

sensible leader. But when he finds Ralph weak, he plans to attack him and take control.

Proceeding step by step to come in, Jack first wants to shake children's faith in Ralph. Jack

claims that Ralph is a coward who escapes from the beast, does not participate in the hunts, and

therefore unfit for leadership. In this way, he creates discomfort among the children. Using the

fear created by the beast in his own favor, Jack asks children to join his own tribe, promising

them food and protection. In a climate where the existing order is subverted and there is a Beast
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threat, children follow Jack, whom they believe can protect them. Jack, who is systematic and

manipulative in every step he takes, takes over the control. When examining the dictators of the

period, it can be seen that some peoples also made choices like children did while bringing

dictators to power. In times of high tension, people in the world tend to keep the people they

believe could defend them in power. When all these are taken into account, it is clear that

William Golding, through his two characters Jack and Ralph, skillfully described the conflict

between democracy and dictatorship, and the rise of dictators and its potential consequences

symbolically and allegorically. Fighting in the Second World War and experiencing this

sociopolitical climate, Golding created a small-scale copy of the world that he experienced. The

primary reason for choosing such a theme is to create awareness in order to prevent dictatorial

leaders from coming back.

As I mentioned before, people who witnessed world wars, which are the most destructive

events that the whole human history has seen in half a century, have changed many philosophical

ideas, old ideas gained power, or transformed into new ones. The literary works that deal with

the ideas of nihilism-based Existentialism or Absurdism, which gained popularity after the

World Wars, are convenient for a New Historicist approach since they are highly influenced by

the context of the period. One of the countries that are most affected economically and

psychologically by World Wars is France, so the effect of these wars is very apparent in French

literature. The Outsider by Albert Camus is one of the most important products of the Absurdist

movement, which depicts the loss of hope for humanity and the idea that human existence has no

inherent meaning. To examine the book, it's necessary to examine its author first. One year after

Camus was born, World War I broke out as the biggest war that the world had ever seen.

Although Albert was born in French colonial Algeria, the Camus family could not avoid the war.
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His father died in the First Battle of Marne, near Paris. World War I lasted for about four years.

Although Albert was not self-aware during the war years, the environment in which he grew up

would undoubtedly affect his character development. (Cruickshank 1) France won the war but

failed to achieve the expected gains. France could not recover economically after the war, and

the psychology of war has affected citizens of France and its subjects for a long time. Camus has

also experienced the climate created by the Second World War. The Second World War was the

greatest incident that influenced the thinkers who were parts of the Nihilism-related

philosophies, but these people experienced the tension of the First World War and the post-war

distress, which greatly influenced their development. In the first half of the 1900s, Existentialism

and Absurdism became popular in Europe, especially in France. In France, under the occupation

of Nazi Germany, articles, plays, and novels were written in the light of these philosophical

movements. The bad sociopolitical climate, economic collapse, and the destruction of war

brought people into anxiety and despair. Golding's work, Lord of the Flies, shows that hope for

humanity has damaged and partly or completely destroyed due to the World Wars. In Camus's

The Outsider, the ideas that gained power under the influence of World Wars, that human

existence is absurd, does not have any inherent meaning, people are not representative of good or

evil, and mankind is insignificant creatures. With these thoughts created by World Wars, the

main character of the book, Meursault, is alienated from society and himself and is completely

withdrawn from the values and restrictions of the society.

Jean-Paul Sartre, one of the prominent figures of the existentialist movement, served in

the French army during the Second World War, was captured by the Nazis and held captive for 9

months. After escaping from the prison camp, he wrote the theater play The Flies in occupied

France. This play, written in 1943, is adapted from a Greek myth and symbolically contains anti-
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Nazi propaganda and can be regarded as an incentive to create resistance against occupation.

(Milne 4) Andrew Ryder says in an article:

Sartre intended the play not as an exercise in neo-classicism, but as a panegyric to

resistance to be performed in the midst of Nazi-occupied Paris. In addition to a

philosophical statement about absolute human freedom, outside ordinary legal limits, he

expected to have a direct political effect: to represent and to justify the violence of

Resistance fighters against the Vichy state. (79)

This play meets with Lord of the Flies on the common ground of creating awareness in people.

Golding also made the reader aware of the dictators in his work and created a projection for the

measures to be taken.

I have already mentioned that Golding's character Jack Merridew has a lot in common

with the dictators of the time. One of these common methods is to gather and/or keep followers

with manipulative discourses. Jack makes other children believe that Ralph is a coward, saying

that when they go to look for Beast, Ralph doesn't come with them because he is afraid. During

the war period, dictators use lies as propaganda tools in this way. An example of this can be seen

in a newspaper article of Liverpool Echo, published on Monday 17, 1941. According to what is

said in the article, Nazi radios propagandized by reporting that more than 100 aircraft belonging

to Royal Air Force had been destroyed, but they increased the number by 5 times by

manipulating it. (1)

Since the dictatorship became an element of fear in the post-war period, many works on

this theme have been published. The most famous of these is, without a doubt, George Orwell's

dystopia called 1984. Although this work is quite different from Lord of the Flies in the plot,

they are common in terms of the lesson to be given to the reader. In Orwell's work, Big Brother
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represents Stalin. This totalitarian regime constantly monitors its subjects, tags them, and keeps

them under pressure. For this reason, this work deals with dictatorship, which has become an

element of fear all over the world in the postwar period, as well as Stalinist Communism. In Lord

of the Flies, in chapter 10, Ralph states that he is afraid to be captured by "reds":

“If only we could make a radio!”

“Or a plane—”

“—or a boat.”

Ralph dredged in his fading knowledge of the world.

“We might get taken prisoner by the Reds.” (Golding 233)

As can be seen in the quote, Golding also described this fear in his book.

Finally, when Michael Curtiz's world-famous movie Casablanca is analyzed, this film,

which was published in 1942, depicts the struggle of the people who are citizens of countries

such as Czechoslovakia, Russia, Norway which were occupied by Nazi Germany against Nazi

villain Major Strasser. The Czech character named Victor Laszlo is a famous anti-Nazi writer,

and he experienced the destruction caused by the Nazi Germany first-person. Considering the

plot and the underlying meanings, it can be said that this movie also has similar goals with

Golding's work, since it is a political allegory that curses the Nazi dictatorship.

In conclusion, in this paper, William Golding's Nobel-winning work Lord of the Flies is

analyzed from a new Historicist perspective and its similarities with its fiction and non-fiction

contemporaries are revealed. Golding uses a plot based on the conflict between democracy and

dictatorship and personalizes these two forms of governing using Ralph as a democratic leader

and Jack as a dictator. In his work, he emphasizes the idea that evil is an inborn trait of mankind,

that is another postwar theme, by using children between the ages of 6 and 12. World Wars
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damaged human reputation and destroyed hope for humanity, and it can be argued that Golding

is influenced by this theme. Although some critics think that the primary theme of this book is

the destruction of hope for humanity, the conflict between democracy and dictatorship is more

apparent. Thus, it is not correct to say that Golding follows a nihilistic way since the main

purpose of Golding is to create awareness of the reader against possible consequences of

dictatorial regimes.
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Works Cited

Camus, Albert. The Outsider. Translated by Stuart Gilbert, Penguin Books, 1962.

Curtiz, Michael, director. Casablanca. Warner Bros. Pictures, Inc., 1942.

Chavan, Pandit. “Subversion of Civilization in William Golding's Lord of the Flies.” European

Academic Research, vol. 1, no. 7, Oct. 2013, pp. 1516–1521.,

https://www.academia.edu/39992783/Subversion_of_Civilization_in_William_Goldings_

Lord_of_the_Flies_Dr_P_M_Chavan.

Cruickshank, John. “Albert Camus.” Encyclopædia Britannica, Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc., 1

Jan. 2020, www.britannica.com/biography/Albert-Camus.

Desan, Wilfrid. “Jean-Paul Sartre.” Encyclopædia Britannica, Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc., 11

Apr. 2020, www.britannica.com/biography/Jean-Paul-Sartre.

Deyab, Mohammad. “A New Historicist Reading of William Golding’s Lord of the

Flies.” International Journal of Linguistics, Literature and Culture, vol. 3, no. 2, June

2016, pp. 74–96.,

https://www.researchgate.net/publication/312031812_A_New_Historicist_Reading_of_

William_Golding's_Lord_of_the_Flies.

Golding, William. Lord of the Flies. Penguin Books, 2016.

“Huffpost.” Huffpost, 24 June 2011, https://www.huffpost.com/entry/george-ayittey-how-to-

def_b_883549. Accessed 11 May 2020.

Milne, Ira Mark, editor. A Study Guide for Jean-Paul Sartre's "The Wall". Gale, Study Guides,

2017.

“Nazi Lies Exposed.” Liverpool Echo,

https://www.britishnewspaperarchive.co.uk/viewer/bl/0000271/19410217/179/0006.
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Orwell, George. 1984. Penguin Books Canada, 2017.

“William Golding - Biographical.” NobelPrize.org, Nobel Media AB,

www.nobelprize.org/prizes/literature/1983/golding/biographical/.