Wait a second!
More handpicked essays just for you.
More handpicked essays just for you.
Interviews with william golding
Interviews with william golding
Philosophical views of William Golding
Don’t take our word for it - see why 10 million students trust us with their essay needs.
Recommended: Interviews with william golding
Since its publication in 1954, the Lord of the Flies has amassed a prodigious cult-following for its blunt truths. Depicting the savagery of marooned school boys, William Golding's story presents a gruesome vision of post-war humanism in the mode of action and allegory. The Nobel Laureate's novel seems to many critics a striking analogue to the Bible (in certain aspects). Through its biblical parallels in settings, content, and overall meaning, Lord of the Flies becomes, in essence, a religious allegory.
The virtual framework of the novel presents the basis of this scriptural corollary. Set in a dense jungle, the fiction creates an ambiance akin to the Garden of Eden. "A great platform of pink granite thrust up uncompromisingly through the forest and terrace and sand and lagoon [...] The palms that [...] stood made a green roof, covered on the underside with a quivering tangle of reflections from the lagoon." (Golden 11) The lush beauty of the isle is comparable to that of Genesis' Eden. "And the Lord God planted a garden in Eden, in the east [...] And out of the ground the Lord God made to grow every tree that is pleasant to the sight and good for food..." (Gen. 2:8-9).
Innocence within the Garden of Eden and the Lord of the Flies is shown similarly through the characters' undressed enjoyment; both stories show an elemental naïveté and carelessness in the unclothed states of their players. Genesis provides a symbolic view of nakedness as the state before knowledge and sin. "And the man and his wife were both naked, and were not ashamed." (Gen. 2:25) Lord of the Flies' Ralph, in a moment of childish wonderment, strips off his clothes and streaks towards the clear, blue sea. The instinctual and youthful instant ends after Ralph dutifully shepherds the others towards a meeting. Ralph shows cunning in his shallow use of democracy, fairly convincing the boys of his power; the action exhibits a significant return to knowledge after innocence. (Golden 16-22) Acts of understanding lead to sin in the novel and power struggles, a vision of knowledge, engender manipulation and murder. Golden's novel morally parallels the Bible through the idea that comprehension heralds immorality.
Along with the text's idea of sin, critics most widely recognize Simon's similarities to Jesus. "Simon is a peaceful lad who tries to show the boys that there is no monster on the island except the fears that the boys have.
Title Sir William Golding has constantly been a man who sees nothing good in anything. He examined the world to be a dreadful place due to the people who has populated the Earth. In order to display how he observes the world which was around the period of the second world war, he came to the decision of producing a novel. His novel was titled “Lord of the flies”. In the novel, William Golding familiarized his audience with three groups of boys; the hunters, the younger children and the gentle boys.
William Golding, the author of the novel The Lord of the Flies, lived through the global conflicts of both world wars. World War II shifted his point of view on humanity, making him realize its inclination toward evilness. His response to the ongoing struggle between faith and denial became Lord of the Flies, in which English schoolboys are left to survive on their own on an uninhabited island after a plane crash. Just like Golding, these boys underwent the trauma of war on a psychological level. Ralph, one of the older boys, stands out as the “chief,” leading the other victims of war in a new world. Without the constraints of government and society, the boys created a culture of their own influenced by their previous background of England.
It could be said that tragedies serve as Humanity’s catalysts of thought. When we line up literary eras with wars, the shifts in eras are always marked by some war- especially in America. The Romantic period was broken by the dawn of the civil war, and took a little magic from the world of writing. Writing shifted to realism, which was the polar opposite of romantic thought. When the First World War broke out, the modernist movement overshadowed realism. Similarly, the Second World War produced postmodernism. Should there be another horrible tragedy, the view will shift similarly. Whatever the implications may be, tragedies seem to change how us humans think and act. In William Golding’s Lord of the Flies, he tells the story of a group of schoolboys
Simon, unlike the other boys who completely disregard heir moral behavior the moment civilization is found unable to control them, seems to embody a deep spiritual human overall kindness and hope with a strong connection to the beauty of nature, all of which reveal an undeniable resemblance towards Jesus Christ. Clearly, this resemblance is quite significant because it offers one of many biblical parallels that reveal the lasting desideratum for deliverance. In chapter eight, for example, Simon is shown having a confrontation with the Lord of the Flies which parallels excerpts from the bible with much effectiveness. The Lord of the Flies tempts Simon with the gift of ignorance after revealing the unsettling and shocking truth, manically persuading him to "Get back and forget the whole thing", much like the devil tempting Jesus in Matthew 4:1-4:11 form the bible (143). This demonstrates that Simon resembles Jesus Christ in the sense that their actions and surrounding conflicts are consubstantial. They are neutral and show the everlasting goodness in mankind by not submitting to such temptation. Furthermore, Simon manages to defy the Lord of the Flies as he claims "he" is no more than a "pig's head on a stick", much like Jesus defies the Devil time an time again in Matthew 4:1-11 (143). This displays Simon's deep desire for lack and abstinence of lust, an emotion deeply rooted in the essence of evil.
Golding illustrates mankind’s essential illness when the boy’s pillage the once beautiful Garden of Eden and render it a perverted Eden. When the boy’s first crash on the island, Golding describes it as enchanting, full of beautiful waters and tress that cover the skyline. Golding illustrates the enchanting beauty of the island when he depicts, “ This was filled with a blue flower, a rock plant of some sort, and the overflow hung down the vent and spilled lavishly among the canopy of the forest. The air was thick with butterflies, lifting, fluttering, settling” (Golding 28). Clearly, before the evils of mankind disturb the island, it is quite beautiful. However, this charming landscape does not last forever, as the boys light half the island on fire when they try to make a signal fire. Golding conveys the children are destroying the once beautiful island and turning it int...
The novel “Lord of the Flies” was written by William Golding to demonstrate the problems of society and the sinful nature of man.
William Golding’s novel ‘The Lord of The flies’ presents us with a group of English boys who are isolated on a desert island, left to try and retain a civilised society. In this novel Golding manages to display the boys slow descent into savagery as democracy on the island diminishes.
Setting the scene, Golding tells us that the boys have landed on a deserted island. The island can serve as a parallel to the Garden of Eden. The resemblances that the island and the Garden of Eden share are their physical features. The two provide lush, green and natural environments filled with plentiful amounts of food. Golding describes the island as, “a great platform of pink granite thrust up uncompromisingly through forest and terrace and sand and lagoon to make a raised jetty four feet high. The top of this was covered with a thin layer of soil and coarse grass and shaded with young palm trees” (12). The island and Garden of Eden both had plentiful amounts of supplies essential for survival. The abundance was obvious in the novel when Golding describes a boy walking through the fruitful area, “He walked with an accustomed tread through the acres of fruit trees, where the least energetic could find an easy if unsatisfying meal” (56). Ralph is seen skinny dipping which can be connected as how Adam and Eve were naked, and in the manner that water and innocence equals purity and baptism....
William Golding’s Lord of the Flies portrays the lives of young British boys whose plane crashed on a deserted island and their struggle for survival. The task of survival was challenging for such young boys, while maintaining the civilized orders and humanity they were so accustomed too. These extremely difficult circumstances and the need for survival turned these innocent boys into the most primitive and savaged mankind could imagine. William Golding illustrates man’s capacity for evil, which is revealed in man’s inherent nature. Golding uses characterization, symbolism and style of writing to show man’s inhumanity and evil towards one another.
The book Lord of the Flies was William Golding’s first novel he had published, and also his one that is the most well known. It follows the story of a group of British schoolboys whose plane, supposedly carrying them somewhere safe to live during the vaguely mentioned war going on, crashes on the shore of a deserted island. They try to attempt to cope with their situation and govern themselves while they wait to be rescued, but they instead regress to primal instincts and the manner and mentality of humanity’s earliest societies.
... of Adam and Even, who did not feel ashamed of their nudity before they ate the fruit (10). And as mentioned before, Golding concludes his Eden allusion when he brings about the “beast” as the snake that sets the boys on the fast track towards evil, while stranded on the island.
"Review: Second look at William Golding's 'Lord of the Flies'." All Things Considered 29 Mar. 2004.Literature Resource Center. Web. 8 May 2014.
The Lord of the Flies by William Golding is tale of a group of young boys who become stranded on a deserted island after their plane crashes. Intertwined in this classic novel are many themes, most that relate to the inherent evil that exists in all human beings and the malicious nature of mankind. In The Lord of the Flies, Golding shows the boys' gradual transformation from being civilized, well-mannered people to savage, ritualistic beasts.
To begin with, Lord of the Flies is set on an untouched, what is perceived as holy, island. This is a parallel to the Garden of Eden which was paradise to Adam and Eve. In the beginning, Adam and Eve are enjoying Eden and taking in all its pure beauty, much like the boys in the novel. Ralph perceives the island as a sort of utopia, as Golding wrote “…he sat back and looked at the water with bright, excited eyes.”. The Garden of Eden was perfect and no evil was in the world at this time, which is also how the island was at the beginning. Again relating to the perfection of the island, Golding says “They accepted the pleasures of morning, the bright sun, the whelming sea and sweet air...” It’s also important to note that Golding when speaking of Ralph says “He undid the snake-clasp of his belt …and stood there naked, looking at the dazzling beach and the water.” This could be an allusion to how Adam and Eve felt no shame in the state of bareness in their pure society. The Garden of Eden was a place of innocence, despite the evil located at its roots. When Adam and Eve were faced ...
Man’s inhumanity to man literally means human’s cruelty towards other humans. This is a major theme of the story and is seen throughout it. Golding himself even states that “man produces evil as a bee produces honey.” A review of the book states how Golding portrays this “because the boys are suffering from the terrible disease of being human.” Piggy, Ralph, and Simon are the “rational good of mankind” portrayed in the book, and Jack and his hunters are the “evil savagery of mankind.” “The beast” is a symbol for the evil in all humans, and Simon and Piggy, or rationality, are almost helpless in his presence. Simon, though, in a book filled with evil, is a symbol of vision and salvation. He is the one to see the evil as it truly exists, in the hearts of all humanity. When he tries to tell the others of this truth, however, he is killed, much like Christ was trying to bring salvation to the ignorant. Simon being there gives us hope; the truth is available to those who seek it. In the book, Jack and his hunters become so evil that they end up killing two boys while on the island. Man’s tendencies towards evil in The Lord of the Flies are also compared to the book of Genesis in the Bible. Nature, beauty, and childhood can all be corrupted by the darkness within humankind. The ending of this truly dark and evil story tells readers how Golding feels about evil within society and where he thinks humanity is headed. Evil will triumph over the intellect and good, unless some force intercedes. In th...