The first example of an allusion is the title of the novel itself.

Lord of the Flies – the title is a literal translation from Hebrew for Beelzebub, the devil's right hand demon in hell. This allusion emphasizes the evil that reigns over the island and within humankind.

Biblical Allusions in Lord of the Flies.

In the story, Lord of the Flies, there are many biblical allusions; Simon represents Jesus, the pig’s head represents Satan or rather their satanic sides, Jack represents Judas, and the island represents the Garden of Eden. Throughout this novel these allusions play large parts in the story and ideals place in the story.

Simon, one of the major characters in the story, is set as the allusion of Jesus. Christ always had an affinity with children; in Ch. 4, he shows his way with the ‘littluns’ by picking fruit for them. This shows his goodness by nature. Also, like Christ, he saw the atavistic problem of the hunters and tried to bring them back to good. Like in the bible, Simon, like Christ, dies as a martyr for his cause; coming back with the news that the beast is a corpse, he is slain by the savage hunters. "Simon, sitting between the twins and Piggy, wiped his mouth and shoved his piece of meat over the rocks to Piggy, who grabbed it. The twins giggled and Simon lowered his face in shame.” This quote shows that Simon is kind and sincere like Christ throughout his lifetimes. Simon goes often to the forest to meditate, just as Christ went for 40 days and nights to meditate in the desert.

The first chapters of the novel, the island itself resembles the Garden of Eden from Genesis, with its picturesque scenery, abundant fruit, and idyllic weather. Accordingly, the boys are symbolically linked to Adam and Eve before the fall. Ralph’s first act after the plane crash is to remove his clothes and bathe in the water, a gesture that recalls the nudity of the innocent Adam and Eve and the act of baptism, a Christian rite which, by some accounts, renews in the sinner a state of grace. Naming also becomes important in Genesis, reflected in the novel as the boys give their names.

The "snake-thing" recalls the presence of Satan in the Garden of Eden. But unlike Adam and Eve, the boys are mistaken about the creature, which is not an external force (like Satan) but a projection of the evil impulses that are innate within themselves and the human psyche. Still, it is the boys' failure to recognize the danger of the evil within themselves.

They continue to externalize it as a beast (again "Lord of the Flies" and "the Beast" are used in religion to refer to Satan), but they become more and more irrational in their perception of it, and they end up developing alternative religious ideas about the Beast and what it wants and does. Although Satan in the Genesis account also has been read as a reflection of evil within human nature, readers usually consider Satan an external force. Original sin enters human nature because of Satan. Without a real Satan in the novel, however, Golding stresses the ways that this Eden is already fallen; for these boys, evil already is within them waiting to be discovered.

Only Simon seems to be a positive character (like many biblical prophets and like Jesus). Critics also have noted that Simon's confrontation with the Lord of the Flies resembles Christ's conversation with the devil during his forty days in the wilderness as described in the New Testament gospels, and critics have noted parallels between Simon's murder and Christ's sacrifice on the cross.

Comparing Lord of the Flies to Hitler's Regime and the Holocaust

William Golding, the award winning author of Lord of the Flies, said in an interview that "Lord of the Flies was simply what it seemed sensible for me to write after the war, when everybody was thanking God they weren’t Nazis. And I’d seen enough and thought enough to realize that every single one of us could be Nazis…” (Shaffer 54). Golding’s novel strongly relates to the Nazi regime and the horrors of the Holocaust. Similarities can be seen between the leaders on the island and the Nazi leaders, as well as in the treatment of perceived lower class people in both situations. It also can be compared through the time and circumstances that both took place in.

Similarities Between Jack and Hitler:

Lord of the Flies has many similarities to the Nazi regime. One of these is how characters in the novel can be compared to Nazi leaders. For instance, in the novel Jack plays the role of Hitler. Like Hitler, Jack was a great orator, and used his charm to persuade the other boys to his point of view (Adolf Hitler Biography). This can be seen near the very beginning of the novel when Jack declares during one of the meetings: "I’m not going to be part of Ralph’s lot…I’m going off by myself. He can catch his own pigs. Anyone who wants to hunt when I do can come too” (Golding 140). They both waited for just the right moment when people were vulnerable and in need and looking for someone to step in and offer them some hope.

Hitler came to power at a time when Germany was at an all-time low. He won the public’s support with his promises of restoring Germans’ pride by helping them out of the recession and returning their country to its former glory (Adolf Hitler Biography). Jack did much the same thing, waiting until the boys were bored and restless under Ralph’s command, and then coming forward (Golding 146). Both men had a charismatic talent that they used for evil to accomplish something beneficial to them.

The Dehumanization of Piggy and the Jews:

Another similarity between Lord of the Flies and the Nazi system is the treatment of people who were perceived as being ‘lesser’ than the norm. During the Nazi’s reign in Germany, Jews were very ill-treated. In his book Mein Kampf, Hitler referred to them as "filthy Jews” (Jews in Nazi Germany). In Lord of the Flies, Piggy was an outcast among the boys, much like the Jews were outcasts in German society. He was verbally abused on numerous occasions, mainly by Jack. For instance, he was called Piggy against his will, as well as fatty.

By not calling him by his real name Jack and the other boys were dehumanizing Piggy, making him seem like less of a person and more of an object to be ridiculed. Hitler took the same approach with the Jews, dehumanizing them by categorizing them as "sub-humans” and spreading the lies that they were an inferior race (Jews in Nazi Germany). Hitler’s process of dehumanizing the Jews ultimately culminated in the horrors of the Holocaust because by making the Jews seem less than human, he removed the reproach in killing them. This is paralleled in Lord of the Flies when the dehumanization of Piggy ultimately results in his death at the hands of Roger (Golding 200).

Lord of the Flies and the Holocaust:

Lord of the Flies can be compared to the Holocaust through the time and circumstances they occurred in. Both took place during the devastation of World War II (Shaffer 54). In addition to this, both were set in remote areas. The Holocaust took place in Germany where unthinkable things went on for many years in secret. Most of the world was oblivious to the horror unfolding in Germany until after the war was over and they went in and saw all of the terror and devastation that resulted from Hitler and his Nazis. In Lord of the Flies the boys were stranded on a remote island. There was no proper leadership, no one in authority to step in and tell them that what they were doing was wrong. As a result of their lack of leadership, and because there were no adults to censor their behaviour, the boys went from being well mannered and behaved school boys, to bloodthirsty savages.

Near the beginning of the novel when Jack tried to kill a pig, he found that he couldn’t bring himself to do it "because of the enormity of the knife descending and cutting into living flesh; because of the unbearable blood” (Golding 29). This shows that Jack was still civilized; he had not yet begun to lose his humanity. Near the end of the novel when the boys were all hunting for Ralph, he approached Samneric who told him that "Roger sharpened a stick at both ends” (Golding 211). This is significant because earlier when the boys were hunting, Jack made them sharpen a stick at both ends. Then, after they had killed a pig, they stuck the stick in the ground and mounted the pig’s head on the other end of it. This shows that the boys had fully transformed into savages because they were willing to slaughter Ralph as if he were just a pig. As with the Holocaust, the events in Lord of the Flies took place in secret, with the outside human world having no idea of the horrors that were going on.

In conclusion, the novel Lord of the Flies has many similarities to the Nazi regime. This can be seen in parallels between characters in the novel such as Jack, and members of the Nazi party such as Hitler. There is also a common theme in both of dehumanization, leading to violence and ultimately death. The novel was set during World War II, at the same time that the devastation of the Holocaust unfolded and, like the Holocaust, the events in the novel took place in an isolated area which prevented any interference from the outside world. William Golding was deeply affected by the war and the horrors unleashed on the world by the Nazis. This can be seen in the way that Lord of the Flies seems to mirror certain events or circumstances similar to those of the Nazi regime, in an effort by the author to understand human nature and how it is possible to sink to such depravity.

Allusions to the Cold War.

Published in 1954 early in the Cold War, Lord of the Flies is firmly rooted in the sociopolitical concerns of its era.

Composed during the Cold War, the novel's action unfolds from a hypothetical atomic war between England and "the Reds," which was a clear word for communists.

Therefore the novel alludes to the Cold War conflict between liberal democratic U.S. and the totalitarian communistic USSR. Both Ralph and Jack symbolize different types of government. Ralph stands for democracy. The boys elect Ralph as leader, "elect" being the operative word here. Ralph shares responsibilities with the other boys. He is a boy who leads by example. Ralph has a vision, as much as a boy can have, of a functioning society. Ralph even gives Jack control of a sort of army/hunting wing of government. Ralph evolves by utilizing the strengths of other boys, like Simon and Piggy, to help develop a better society and perhaps get rescued.

Ralph, an embodiment of democracy, clashes tragically with Jack, a character who represents a style of military dictatorship similar to the West's perception of communist leader Joseph Stalin. Jack takes control and becomes the autocratic dictator who leads by fear instead of consultation and example. By the end of the novel Jack sets himself up as sort of a God/King, that can also be seen as an allusion to or even a parody of Stalin's personality cult. "Jack, now a leader sits on a great log, painted and garlanded as an idol.” The civilized democracy of Ralph has long been forgotten.

Allusions to communist regime.

In terms of symbolism Jack represents Stalin's leadership and therefore the author overtly alludes to the communist regime. Dressed in a black cape and cap, with flaming red hair, Jack also visually evokes the "Reds" in the fictional world of the novel and the historical U.S.S.R., whose signature colors were red and black.

At the time of writing a very western view was that the Communist east in Russia was spreading out - trying to spread communism across the world - in doing so it forced its influence over much of Easter Europe which became the Eastern Bloc. Therefore the deaths of Simon and Piggy can symbolically represent  Eastern European countries' fall to communism.

Allusions to the arms race.

Another part of the Cold War was the threat of nuclear destruction of the world.  It is also notable that Golding sets the novel in what appears to be a future human reality, one that is in crisis after atomic war. Golding's novel capitalizes on public paranoia surrounding the atom bomb which, due to the arms race of the Cold War, was at a high.

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.”

Fire may also be referred to the Schnissel atomic bomb being the very thing that they pin their hopes of survival on, but turning out to be the thing that ultimately destroys the island at the end of the novel. Jack's desire to take control over Piggy's glasses as the means to create fire can also be interpreted as a symbolical representationof the arms race.

Golding's attitude towards the Cold War.