Lord of the Flies takes place on an unnamed, uninhabited tropical island in the Pacific Ocean during a fictional worldwide war around the year 1950. The boys arrive on the island when an airplane that was presumably evacuating them crashes. From the moment of their arrival, the boys begin destroying the natural harmony of the island. The scorched land where the airplane crashed, ripping up trees, is described as a “scar.” The boys set a fire that burns out of control, kill the wild pigs living on the island, use the beach as a bathroom, and finally burn the entire island, so that is “scorched up like dead wood.” Although the boys initially rejoice at the adventures they’ll have on the island, saying it’s “wizard,” the island itself is described as an inhospitable terrain, as though the land is attempting to reject its new inhabitants. The coconuts are “skull-like,” the sun’s rays are “invisible arrows,” the sound of the trees rubbing against each other is “evil.” The natural world is violent and impartial to the civility and order of human life, as evidenced when the tide reclaims the brutalized bodies of Simon and Piggy.