Lord of the Flies
William Golding · 1954 · Paper 2 Section A
Context
Published in 1954 in the shadow of World War II, the Holocaust, and the atomic bomb, the novel is Golding's response to the optimistic Victorian boys' adventure story. Having served in the Royal Navy and witnessed human brutality firsthand, Golding rejected the idea that children (or humans) are inherently good, arguing instead that civilisation is a fragile veneer over innate savagery.