Allegory In Lord Of The Flies

Powerful or Powerless “His mind was crowded with memories; memories of the knowledge that had come to them when they closed in on the struggling pig, knowledge that they had outwitted a living thing, imposed their will upon it, taken away its life like a long satisfying drink”(Golding 70). William Golding writes a fascinating novel “Lord of the Flies”, which is an allegory to WWII. He shows this through many unique ways in the story. Lord of the Flies, by William Golding, is a novel that directly correlates to WWII by using Jack’s dictatorship to parallel to Hitler’s leadership and Ralph’s democratic leadership to represent Franklin D. Roosevelt’s presidency. Hitler, unlike any other ruler in the world, was very sadistic and demoralizing

Jack is a well respected and feared leader on the island, and under his command the boys will do anything. When Ralph and his followers go to get back Piggy’s glasses, Jack tells the boys to capture Samneric. He says to his army “‘Grab them!’ No one moved. Jack shout[s] angrily ‘I said grab them!’ The painted boys moved around Samneric”(Golding 178). He tells the boys to enslave Samneric, and they do as he says. Jack says “grab them” and they “moved around Samneric” showing that he is ordering them to do what he wants. Jack very clearly parallels to Hitler’s ways of controlling his army because he “invaded” other countries to enslave their “inferior population”. In addition to that, Hitler also became accustomed to killing people, and it almost was systematic. After being captured by Jack, Samneric are talking to Ralph about their big plan for tomorrow. They tell him they’re going to “hunt [Ralph] tomorrow… [and] throw our spear like at a pig. ‘We’re going to spread out in a line across the island- we’re going to forward from this end- until we find you’”(Golding 188-189). Jack begins to hunt Ralph, and they’re going to “spread out in a line” and search across the whole island until they find him. Hitler “rounded up” and “systematically slaughtered” millions of people because it was something he didn’t even have to think about, he just did it. Likewise, Jack doesn’t think twice about going out to hunt and murder Ralph. However, Jack Merridew changes the once democratic society on the island to a dictatorship lifestyle. During one of their meetings, Jack decides that the conch is useless and they are better off without it. He shouts “‘Conch! Conch! We don’t need the conch anymore’”(Golding 101-102). The conch allows each boy to contribute to their society, and they take it away some boys don’t get to