English coursework An investigation into the use of narrative techniques to explore political controversy in William Goldings Lord of the flies and Donald Trump’s 2018 school shootings speech. Introduction and aims Nobel Prize-winner William Golding’s Lord of the flies was first published in 1954 and was written shortly after World War 2 ended. At first it was very poorly received selling fewer than three thousand copies in the first year but then went on to become a best seller due to its exploration of the idea of human evil based on Golding’s and the world’s experience with the real-life violence and brutality of World War II. Following his experience of the war, Golding was disillusioned by humanity and believed that human beings were fundamentally evil. The narrative takes place on a stranded island in the Pacific. Seven British schoolboys are stranded on a deserted island with no adults. This forces them to grow out of their innocence and live independently on an island where the boys elect Ralph, the protagonist of the story, as the leader to create a miniature civilisation on the island until they are rescued. …show more content…
An atomic war is present in the book and the island that the boys inhabit is a microcosm of the world in such turmoil in the fifties. The Cold war was happening during the writing of the book which may have given Golding some inspiration for the novel. A dystopian world is created as the island becomes a battleground, with law and order pitted against savagery and anarchy at war just like the world around them. This leads to a dark, violent and pessimistic tone to the