Golding & Nietzsche: Compared and Contrasted Anonymous 11th Grade

Friedrich Nietzsche, a German philosopher, and William Golding, an English author, lived and died in two seemingly separate worlds. They came from different time periods, places of origin, and had perceptions of humanity that draw no mass comparison. Golding, best known for his novel entitled Lord of the Flies, tells the story of a group of English schoolboys left on a deserted island all to their own devices.  Conversely, Nietzsche is perhaps best known for his controversial aphorism proclaiming the “death of God”. However different they may be, with a closer look, we discover that Golding’s “Flies” really do fly over Nietzsche’s philosophies. Golding’s insights into humanity as presented in the characters and events of Lord of the Flies, parallel and contrast those of Nietzsche’s philosophies, including the Will to Power, master morality versus slave morality, and man’s strides towards the Übermensch. The first parallel found in Golding and Nietzsche’s perspectives on humanity is between the social structure on the island and Nietzsche’s concepts of master morality and slave morality. Nietzsche’s notion of a master morality and a slave...