Lord of the Flies by William Golding

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on over to Jack’s tribe, it sure beats all these rules, and they’ve got the glasses!’” (Golding 239). Reasons for the boys to make a shift include Jack’s possession of Piggy’s glasses (their method to make fire) and the comparative ease of Jack’s compared to Ralph’s.

The juxtaposition of the conflict between the two tribes to the conflict of World War Two is in reality just a means to make it easier to understand the root of the real conflict, which is humanity’s overwhelming tendency to turn its back on civility and towards primal instincts and chaos.

Technology is one of the zeitgeists of this novel. Technology is viewed differently by each group of boys, the application of technology creates conflict with the boys plan to survival. Piggy’s glasses become a major centrifugal force between the two groups of boys. In the need for survival Piggy’s glasses become a major tool. Each group want it to save themselves from the island. The glasses take on a role of power. The group that has the glasses becomes the superior group. The glasses represent the scientific and logical side to civilization. It holds the power to fire, which leads them to a connection to civilization. Jack is connected to hitler during WW2. Jack promises the boys that he would change things and “hunt and feast and have fun.” (Golding 140) Jack is the opposite of Ralph who wants the boys to leave the island and not be a savage because “without the fire [they] can’t be rescued.” (Golding 142) Jack and Ralph represent Germany and the other countries during WW2. Ralph and his gang want to be rescued but they “can’t be rescued if [they] don’t have smoke (Golding 173). Fire brings the boys home. They lit the fire in hopes that “there may be a ship out there...” (Golding 178). The boys in the beginning of the novel were set on surviving and getting off of the island, however the boys lose hope and the fire starts to die out.The boys loss of hope symbolizes the need for the war to end. Fire represents the boys need to survive. When the fire burns low or out the boys need to survive burns low or goes out.

Lord of The Flies, many zeitgeists are created when WW2 is connected to the two groups of boys. Each side of the war is represented by the groups of boys. Through the Zeitgeists of Government, Social Studies, and Technology, Golding states that during WW2 civilization became a mess of savagery and the lost civilized humanity.

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