Why Did William Golding Write Lord Of The Flies?
The book was written (early 1950’s) and published (1954) in the early years of the the Cold War and the atomic age with all the fears of nuclear attack and wipe out that then pervaded the world. Golding was disillusioned with socialism and shocked / horrified by Stalinism in Russia. Lord of the Flies was written to counteract a prevailing thought at the time that people who overcome adversity would be more compassionate, peaceful and respectful of others and other life – in other words that a golden age of humanity would dawn! Yet within 5 years of the end of WW2, Russia had descended into a very similar society that the boys in his story set up for themselves and even some in the USA went mad with their paranoia of communism that manifested itself in the McCarthy trials (late 1940’s – late 1950’s). William Golding had the vision to see that the worst in human nature would prevail and that many so called decent minded people would be easily and willingly swayed to act in terrible ways
