1. Context Friday, November-16-18Friday, November-16-18
To be explore and understand the context in which the novel is set

2. Contextual Factors
When Lord of the Flies was first published, the world was recovering from the terrible loss of life that occurred during World War II. Between civilians and military personnel, that conflict claimed approximately 60 million lives.
The end of World War II was quickly followed by the beginning of the Cold War. The Communist bloc was led by the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (U.S.S.R.), which had instituted a totalitarian state after its revolution in 1917—a revolution based on the theories of socialism. Socialism wanted common ownership of resources for the good of the whole community, not for gaining control of more and more areas, which is what the Communist leaders sought. The capitalist West, led by the United States, feared the spread of communism. With both superpowers possessing nuclear bombs, the Cold War was a tense time.

3. World War II
World War II had a profound effect on William Golding. While in the Royal Navy, he held active duty in the North Atlantic, took part in the battle that sunk the Bismarck (a German battleship) in 1941, and commanded a rocket-launching ship during the landing at Normandy in 1944.
What Golding saw during war impacted his view of people and society. Golding was shocked by the great human capacity for pain and destruction. In an essay published in 1965 he wrote, "I began to see what people were capable of doing." It wasn't just the horrific treatment of the Nazi and Japanese prisoners that appalled Golding. The Allies’ actions concerned him as well. They justified destruction in the name of morality, yet such a claim led to a moral gray area where inhumane behavior became acceptable. All of these disparities led Golding to eventually view human nature as savage and unforgiving.

4. The Cold War
Lord of the Flies was written during the Cold War, during which humanity lived for the first time under a clear threat of nuclear war and destruction. Atomic bombs had been used twice by the United States to force the surrender of Japan in 1945.
Leaders of the U.S.S.R. felt like they had to develop the bomb for both defensive and offensive purposes. By the time the Soviet Union officially became a nuclear state in 1949, the Cold War had begun.
Just as in the text when the boys break into groups that come to mistrust and seek the destruction of the other, nations separated into groups. Most countries fell into the sphere of either the Soviet Union & its communist allies or the United States & the West. Tension was high between the two groups, and proxy wars such as the Korean War occurred (North Korean invasion of South Korea during the years 1950–53; the United States supported South Korea, while China and the Soviet Union supported North Korea).

5. Life in 1950s England
Context: the circumstances at the time it was written – the social, historical and literacy factors that influenced what the author wrote.
Read through the information about life in England in the 1950s, and highlight the answers to the following questions:
How did the wars influence the younger generations?
What was unique about the military of Britain after the wars?
In what fields was Britain more advanced than other countries?
How was the population divided, in regards to races and nationalities?
Which part of England suffered the most from the ”sense of Englishness,” and why?
How were the working class and middle class different from one another?
What was the role of women in society?

6. Context in the Novel
Based on the information given about the context of the novel, explain how each of the following quotations from Chapter 1 relate to the culture of the 1950s:
"He must have flown off after he dropped us. He couldn't land here. Not in a place with wheels."
"We was attacked!"
"They'd tell him at the airport."
Piggy shook his head, put on his flashing glasses and looked down at Ralph.
"Not them. Didn't you hear what the pilot said? About the atom bomb? They're all dead."
Ralph danced out into the hot air of the beach and then returned as a fighter-plane, with wings swept back, and machine-gunned Piggy.
“Sche-aa-ow!"
He dived in the sand at Piggy's feet and lay there laughing.
Piggy asked no names. He was intimidated by this uniformed superiority and the offhand authority in Merridew's voice. He shrank to the other side of Ralph and busied himself with his glasses.
"I could swim when I was five. Daddy taught me. He's a commander in the Navy. When he gets leave he'll come and rescue us. What's your father?"
"The choir belongs to you, of course."
"They could be the army--"