Context

On the 13th of June 1940, the start of World War II, many families in Britain evacuated their children away to safe locations to get them away from the danger that Britain were to face by the Germans.

The context in the novel, Lord of the Flies, is during the World War II period on a remote, tropical island. A group of young English schoolboys were fleeing the country in order to save themselves, only to be unluckily shot down by the Germans. They crash-landed onto a remote, tropical island and have been there ever since. The issue of human evil is explored in the book. The deserted island displays nothing but emptiness and isolation from the real world. An example from the novel that supports this isolation from the real world is what Ralph states in an assembly, "We're on an island. We've been on the mountain-top and seen water all round. We saw no houses, no smoke, no footprints, no boats, no people. We're on an unihabited island with no other people on it."
"We may stay here till we die." The island may be uninhabited and have no form of electricity but the novel shows signs of food like pigs and fruit, meaning it would be fairly possible to live on the island.

Golding has depicted many signs and symbols in the novel, specifically on the island. When the plane crashed, it left a huge scar across the beach for the survivors. The scar represented a memory. Like scars on human skin, they would always remain, reminding you of what had happened. At one end of the island is where this scar is, where the plane had most likely crash and skidded across the island, "A long scar smashed into the jungle."