The Once And Future King Literary Analysis

To this day, World War II is the most destructive and deadliest war in history. So much so that people all over the world were affected by it changing their perspective on war. In the medieval fantasy fiction novel, The Once and Future King, many characters are shown to be at war with each other over their opposing views on might. By writing the novel during World War II, T.H. White develops the theme through his views on anti-war and the importance of knowing that might isn’t always right.
The ruin of World War II inspired White’s maturation of how he portrayed several characters and their roles in the Arthur’s life. When Arthur meets a goose named Lyo-lyok who talks about the “horrible minds” that people have and how someone can go “so low” to kill someone of …show more content…
White is speaking through the goose (White, 170). White is also trying to understand why people kill others for their own sake, much like Hitler did in World War II. He tried to gain power to destroy all Jews and take over the world for himself, but in the process 50 million people died because of him. White also shows his point of view when Lyo-lyok is amazed about how calm and unaffected Arthur is about war despite the pain and havoc that comes from it. When Merlin turns arthur into an ant, White really digs into how ridiculous war is as well as how similar ants are to humans by showing us that their rules are noticeably similar. The ants believe that if they are “more numerous” that they will have a “right” to their enemies “mash” or their goods, but they also contradict that and say that if their enemies are more numerous that means they are being “wickedly” when they try to steal their goods (White, 129). To the ants war is always justified, which is also what Adolf Hitler believed when he was in power. Hitler notioned that everything he was achieving was ethical and he assumed that he was the most successful and powerful