Lord Of The Flies By William Goulding

What is feminist criticism? What is WIlliam Goulding trying to communicate to us about feminism in his novel Lord of the Flies? Feminist criticism is reading and critiquing how a text is written and language that is used to expose masculine ideology. There are no girls in Lord of the Flies so how could it have to do with feminism? Goulding shows feminism by displaying characters as how society portrays women. Stereotypical feminine traits are being dependent, emotional, sensitive and weak.

In an interview while William Goulding talks about creating Lord of the Flies he explains why he wrote the book about little boys: “Boys are like a scaled down society” and that “Girls wouldn’t be an image of society.” When saying this he means the story

would not work with a group of girls. In some ways this is true. One example is the scene when the hunters kill the sow. It shows how vicious and out of control the boys are as they are attacking the sow Jack stabs the sow in the throat and “hot blood spouted over his hands” (135). The setting is described as “full of sweat and noise and blood and terror” (136). In this situation the boys are doing that would not be okay in our society. Many call this attack similar to a rape because of when someone yells “‘Right up her ass!”’ (135). This is one difference because in times of desperation men have a harder time controlling themselves than women. Although there are differences between boys and girls I believe the book would end in the same way because people turning against each other is just human nature showing many stereotypes are erroneous.
Despite there being no girls in the book Goulding captures a feminine type character in Simon and Piggy. On the island Jack and Ralph are the leaders because they are the most masculine of the boys. Being the oldest and strongest people idolize them and assume they can do no wrong. In chapter nine as Simon is having his realization about the Lord of the Flies when he learns from the Lord of the Flies “I’m part of you” (143). Right now Simon has just made a huge discovery that could save the boys from losing their minds. It is all wasted as the boys chose not to listen to him because he doesn’t have the same masculine traits Jack and Ralph have. This is an issue that women have too in our society and William Goulding shows it through Simon.
A similar example of a character being presented in a feminine way is Piggy. The group is mean to him and don’t respect him because of him being a “fatty” (21). He is being not as respected because he isn’t as strong like how sometimes a woman doesn’t get listened to because she doesn’t have those masculine traits.
In the end both Simon and Piggy are killed when the boys turn “savage” (160). Simon could’ve been the one who kept the boys in their right minds. This shows that in society, women are irreplaceable and without them society would fall apart just like it did in Lord of the Flies.
William Goulding tries to inculcate the lesson of how every person is capable of doing the most terrible things. While a less obvious and possibly more important message is the importance of women, shown through the crumble of the all male society on the island. If there was a balance of both genders on the island no one would have to do such awful violent things.