The Flies is a work with multiple interpretations; the renewal of the myth of the Atreides, as well as of tragedy in general, the odyssey of the individual towards the rupture of every bond in the name of personal choice and individual freedom, but also the literary resistance against any form of power, bequeathed to world drama a distinct play, precious in meaning and content.

The work was written in 1943 and is based on Aeschylus' The Choephori. Its significance lies not only in clarifying Sartre's philosophical reflections on the freedom of the individual, but also in fulfilling his literary duty, of which he was an enthusiastic supporter, through the writing of an allegory of War with a resistance character.