William Golding wrote Lord of the Flies in 1954, shortly after the end of World War II. Golding was a teacher at the time, and he had served in the Royal Navy during the war. He was deeply affected by the violence he had seen during the war, and he wanted to explore the idea of what would happen if a group of boys were stranded on an island with no adults to guide them.Lord of the Flies is set during a time of great tension between the superpowers of the world. The Cold War was in full swing, and the threat of nuclear war was very real. Golding may have been thinking about what would happen if the world was destroyed by nuclear war, and the only survivors were a group of children. Golding also wanted to explore the idea of what happens when the rules and structure of society are removed. In Lord of the Flies, the boys are left to fend for themselves on the island, and they