Power and Violence: Historical Parallels in Lord of the Flies

Heather Nachshen

Mr. Du

English 10

18 May 2017

Power and Violence: Historical Parallels in Lord of The Flies

“I believe the root of all evil is abuse of power” (Cornwell par. 12). As people begin to want power over others, trouble occurs. Abuse of power over a group of people brings out the worst side of people, the side of possible violence. When Hitler became intimidated by the population of Jews in Germany, and saw them as a threat, he turned to violence and tried to exterminate them all. As Golding related Jack’s character in the novel to Hitler in history, Jack’s actions that related to those of a dictator, show his want of power. Hitler’s oppressive interactions with the Jews before and during WWII inspired Golding’s creation of Jack as seen through Jack’s abuse of power and threat of violence to the littluns and the older boys.

Adolf Hitler was a former dictator of Germany who led the Nazis in the early 1900s as an effort to extinguish all of the Jews. Hitler was known for his poor treatment of Jews during the holocaust with his many invasions, but more importantly, “the dictator of Germany, proponent of Nazism, and perpetrator of the Holocaust, was born on April 20, 1889...” (Urban par. 1). Hitler used his power to treat the Jews poorly during the Holocaust. He invaded the Jews’ lives and allowed and even encouraged the destruction of their belongings. Due to this, he was known for abusing his power in harsh times and using tactics that would benefit himself and the Germans. As Hitler used his power to get what he wanted all along- to get all the Jews out of Germany, he gained more followers. Even though he gained more popularity from his speeches, "he had no detailed program,” but he manipulated people “to believe that capitalism and the Jews were the sources of their troubles..." (Urban par. 8). Hitler only wanted control and power, as did Jack. He did whatever he could for his followers to believe what he was saying and doing, and to make himself higher in society. Hitler did not want the Jews living in the same country as him, let alone “invading in his space.” By manipulating his followers, he was hoping not to be underestimated, as many people did. By killing and removing as many Jews as he could, he had no worry that they would overpower him. He had a lot of power and controlled many people. Both Hitler and Jack yearned for control and power, as all they wanted was to be higher than everyone else. Through their lifelong dictatorship, Jack and Hitler were both looked at as bad people. They both acted as if they could do anything, and not get in trouble, which did not happen for them. Their actions soon came around, and hurt them. As Hitler and the Nazis continued to oppress the Jews, Hitler did not want the Jews to escape or be treated with respect. He treated them with intimidation, fear, and violence. As Hitler’s hatred towards the Jews grew stronger, his oppression of the Jews grew. The first measure he went to was targeted towards businesses owned by Jews; prohibiting Jews from most jobs. By targeting Jews "through a series of increasingly drastic measures, Hitler stripped Jews of their rights as citizens" (Hurvitz, Karesh par. 4). As a way for Hitler to get the Jews out of Germany, he destroyed their businesses. As their jobs were taken away from them, they no longer had a place in society. More and more businesses were destroyed, as some Jews escaped the horror. The Jews became intimidated and afraid of Hitler and the Nazis as they destroyed all they had.  

As Hitler was a dictator and forced the Nazis to do exactly what he said by causing chaos in the streets with violence, and even murder, Jack acted like a dictator by making the littluns and the hunters steal from Ralph and Piggy towards the end of the book. When Jack and the hunters do not have enough wood and Piggy’s glasses to help start the fire, Jack tells the hunters that they will all "raid them and take fire... We'll put on paint and sneak up; Roger can snatch a branch while I say what I want" (Golding 136). Jack using his dictator-like characteristics makes the hunters listen to anything he says as he orders them around. He makes them steal Ralph and the other boys' fire. While Jack has the four boys steal the fire, he watches them and says whatever he wants to say, basically just ordering them around, acting like he doesn’t need to do anything because he set the plan up. Besides acting like a dictator, Jack uses fear which helps him ascend to the leadership role. When the boys begin to be afraid that there was a beastie, many of the boys believe there is one, while Ralph does not. When Simon is hesitant in saying "maybe there is a beast" (Golding 89), Jack gets all up into his throat and makes him feel like he is wrong. The fear that the littluns have for the beastie enhances Jack's control and power over the littluns. Even though Jack is a charismatic leader, the littluns do not show him respect. As time goes by, he becomes more and more powerful over the littluns. Jack uses the beastie as fear that the littluns have in the same way that Hitler used fear against the Jews in that any day they could be killed. The beastie strikes fear in the boys just like the scare tactics that Hitler used towards the Jews did. When Jack needs the boys to believe him that the beast was real, the boys begin following him out of plain fear. The boys rely on him for all information about the beastie, and they start doing anything they are told to do. Also, because Jack seems to have answers to every problem, the boys come to him for answers.

During WWII, a significant amount of Jews were sent away to camps where they were abused, had to work extreme hours, and even slaughtered. Though Hitler believed them to be inferior, he still saw the Jews as a threat and wanted all of them out of Germany. Hitler believed the Jews were a threat to him, so, "to concentrate and monitor the Jewish population... [he] created ghettos, transit camps, and forced-labor camps for Jews during the war years" (Introduction to the Holocaust par. 8). When they were sent away, the Jews were treated even more harshly. As Hitler planned to remove all of the Jews from Germany, the extent he went to was a "systematic, bureaucratic, state-sponsored persecution and murder of six million Jews..." (Introduction to the Holocaust par.1). The word Holocaust means sacrifice. In this case, Jews sacrificed their lives at the hands of Hitler and the Nazis. Also, the Nazis believed that they were more important than anyone, especially the Jews, so they did anything to lessen the Jews- killing them and to gain more power for themselves. As the Jews became lesser than they were before WWII, Hitler’s last resort was to kill them, which made the Jewish population smaller.