Is Lord of the Flies based on a true story?

No, William Golding’s 1954 novel Lord of the Flies, about a group of English schoolboys who descend into savagery after becoming isolated on a remote island with no adults, is not based on a true story. It is a satire of R.M. Ballantyne’s The Coral Island: A Tale of the Pacific Ocean (1858), which depicts boys overcoming adversity through inherent goodness and civilized behavior.

Golding wrote the novel while working as a teacher at a grammar school in Salisbury, England. His observations of his students’ interactions informed the book’s themes. He was also influenced by his experiences in World War II, which included commanding a rocket-launching craft during the invasion of France and the D-Day landings in 1944. This period in Golding’s life helped shape the book’s perspective on humanity’s inherent capacity for evil.