@lizluvscupcakes @hallsofdarkness @shitposting-hobbits-to-gallifrey
Okay so basically this all started in 10th grade when my English teacher (idk if this context is needed but she grew up in Yugoslavia in the ā80s before moving to the US as a teen and she has a VERY thick accent. Sheās about 6ā4ā and has huge black hair that sticks out all around her head. Sheās the human embodiment of a corvid bird. Truly such a fascinating person) anyway she was talking about Lord of the Flies in class and mentioned that a few years ago some students of hers tried to convince her that the book couldnāt have taken place during WWII and that she didnāt believe them because āthere have been no atomic bombs except during World War Twoā and an atomic bomb is referenced as the inciting factor for why the boys were flying over a deserted island in the first place.
But the thing is, if you actually look at all the throwaway historical context details in the book, there is no logical way that it could have taken place in WWII. I realized that all clues point towards an alternate timeline where the Cold War turned hot. About halfway through the book I started bookmarking any scrap of information related the time period and it was getting to the point where each chapter took me twice as long to read because I would continually need to check various articles and Wikipedia pages to cross reference.
Eventually, I ended up writing a 5 -page paper picking the book apart for details which you can read here but Iāll also give you the individual points (a mixture of historical details and borderline headcanon):
Early on in the book, the boys mention that there are probably maps in āthe Queenās libraryā that show where they areāthis was one of the first things that stuck out to me, as Elizabeth II didnāt become Queen until 1952, and WWII ended in 1945
Ralph mentions watching something on television at home. His dad, although a naval officer, would almost certainly not be able to afford a TV in 1945, BUT televisions were already popularized around the time of Lizzy 2ās coronation (or at the very earliest the 1948 London Olympics) and itās believable that Ralph could have had one at home. Thereās also some mentions around space travel/putting a man on Mars that would make more sense during the Cold War
I found Piggyās character to be very interesting. For one thing, heās introduced Ā as being fat due to his Aunt owning a candy store (his parents are both dead). If you know anything about the sugar ration during WWII, youād know that candy stores would have been non-operational and Piggy would probably not have had access to an excess of sweets.
Continuing with Piggy, Iād place his distinctive accent as either London Cockney or London Estuary. If Piggy was from London, he would have been evacuated to the British countryside via train (the same evacuations in which the Pevensies stay with their uncle in Narnia) long before the dropping of the atomic bombs. Hereās where the headcanon comes in: Iād be willing to bet that Piggy was evacuated to the countryside as a baby during WWII and both his parents were among the 27,000 killed in the London Blitz, hence why he now lives with his aunt. By assuming the years leading up to the book are peacetime instead of wartime, thereās no issue around the candy store.
And finally, the most compelling argument imoā¦WHY WOULD BRITISH BOYS BE EVACUATED AFTER VE DAY??? In the book, itās very clear that the LOTF boys are being evacuated from their boarding school after an atomic bomb was dropped. Victory in Europe was May 8th, 1945. The bombs dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki in early August. In what world would British boys be evacuated by a plane traveling over tropical airspace (historically child evacuations in the UK were domestic and carried out by train) to protect them from a bomb dropped in Japan four months after the end of the war in Europe?? The only plausible explanation would be that the USSR dropped a bomb on an Allied power and the boys are being evacuated from Briton all together to avoid nuclear fallout and/or future bombings.
Final note, at one point the boys consider building a new plane and decide against the idea because they āmight get shot down by the Redsā even though the soviets were literally allies with Britain during WWII. Do you know when they most certainly werenāt allies? The Cold War.
Anyway, I end up giving her this essay which she reads and then promptly says āthese are all very interesting points, but there was STILL no nuclear bomb besides the ones dropped on Japan in World War 2ā and Iām like āYes!! I know this!! And Iām saying itās an alternate future!!ā But she never really seemed to understand what I was saying.
Anyway a few weeks ago I was at my job (Iāve been working IT some summers at my high school after I graduated) and I ran into her and she says āI was going through my desk and I found that essay you wrote on LOTF! I read it again and it was a really good argument piece, especially for a 10th grader.ā
So of course I ask her āoh really? Well, were you finally convinced?ā
And she basically says āit was goodā¦but no :)Ā <3ā
And I have simply not known peace since.
