Note: for an analyses of the characters found in Golding's, Lord of the Flies,

Early Articles:

The numerous articles appearing on Golding in reviews, journals, and

quarterlies generally fall into two categories. Several short notes and

articles have been written explaining Golding's sources and allusions, for

example, his use of R.M. Ballantyne's Coral Island in both Lord of the Flies

and Pincher Martin. The more substantial articles analyze Golding as a

fabulist, that is, a writer who arranges characters and events in a symbolic

pattern to enforce a moral truth for the benefit of mankind. Occasionally,

critics will express reservations with regard to the contrived quality of his

symbolism, especially in Lord of the Flies, and concerning his traditionalism

of theme, but the general tendency has been to treat him as a writer of

stature. Many distinguished novelists and critics have recognized Golding as

an important innovator in the novel form, and there is a steady increase in

the number of serious critical studies by those who see in his writing an

illumination of human experience of a special sort. His novels are not only a

successful exposition of the position of modern man threatened by forces of

technology and violence that he does not understand, but they also shed light

on the perennial plight of man confined in the prison of himself, wrestling

with the powers of darkness within.

Golding As Social Critic:

Critical commentary on Golding is in the pioneering stage, but its

direction seems to be fixed. Since discoveries are being made concerning his

handling of sources, it seems probable that with a more extensive analysis of

his use of these source materials will come a better appreciation of his

attitude to his subject. Often he uses elements from other literature in order

to point out some failure in modern society. For example, the allusions to

Coral Island in Lord of the Flies suggest a contrast between the romantic

world of that book and the harsh reality of the life of the boys on the

island, thus pointing up the absurdity of the romanticism of the boys and of

readers of popular escape literature in general. His use of Greek myth, Dante,

and Milton often serves to denigrate the modern characters in his novels who

fail to fill the heroic mold. Much of the satire and social criticism of

Golding comes into focus when we understand his use of these other books and

traditions as ironic commentary in his own novel.

The more that his novels are compared, the more apparent becomes the

application of his ideas to modern society. In every book there is the

expression of the danger of technology, whether in the hands of primitive

hunters or the sophisticated Dr. Halde, as a cruel and destructive force.

There is a corresponding insistence on the need for self-awareness and for

moral advancement.

The Form Of The Novels:

Another avenue of investigation that is opening concerns the form that

Golding creates. He overturns many of the conventions of the novel in order to

allow himself unprecedented freedom. He brings the supernatural to the novels

as a directing force. He uses fate for the same purpose. Instead of arranging

events in a chain of causes and effects, he structures his novels in a ritual

pattern, using processions, pilgrimages, and the offering of sacrifices as

dramatic climaxes. He includes explicit commentary on philosophical and moral

issues, such as the question of free will. He uses hallucination as a device

for exploring worlds other than the real one. He extends dramatic irony to the

breaking point. He mixes elements from religious tradition with those from the

fields of psychology and anthropology. The primitive urges of man and the

rituals which give them form are associated with religious symbolism so that,

for example, the snake which represents the id also stands for original sin,

and the pig-killing ceremony of the boys, with its circular formation and

rhythmic chant, resembles a formal religious service. The offering of a

sacrifice of a part of the kill reinforces the relation of the hunt to

religious practices. In general, his adaptation of elements from the Greek

drama is the most distinctive large-scale innovation made by Golding in the

novel form.

Fate:

In the novels, spiritual forces play an important part in the lives of

men. Because Golding believes in a spiritual destiny, he lets the action be

controlled by a divine puppeteer. Events like the landing of the dead

parachutist on the island in Lord of the Flies, and the arrival of the naval

officer in time to save Ralph's life are as deliberately implausible as the

entrance of a god from a machine at the end of a Greek play. Their purpose is

to illustrate the presence of the forces of fate, which act counter to the

individual's desire to control his own life. The storm in Pincher Martin, and

the unique circumstances of Sammyp in the prison camp in Free Fall, willing to

confess but lacking information, are further instances of the manipulation of

the individual by forces operating in violation of the laws of probability.

Self-Discovery:

Because the most important theme in his novels is the need for man to

know himself, Golding develops his novels towards moments of intense

psychological experience, in which an isolated character sees in his

surroundings a representation of the destructive powers present in himself.

Both Simon and Ralph in Lord of the Flies come to such realizations as they

look at the skull of the sow. In The Inheritors, moments of illumination come

to Lok after his flight from the new people and to Tuami at the end of the

novel. It is ironic that Lok should find his "self" in encountering the new

people, and that Tuami should derive, from his battle with the Neanderthals, a

sense of his own barbarity. In Pincher Martin the climax is Christopher's

realization, as the black lightning singles him out for death, of his own

nothingness. In Free Fall the moment of crisis is Sammy's experience as a

prisoner of war when, confined in a dark cell, he discovers a slimy,

flesh-like object on the floor, which causes him to come to a realization of

the foul deformity that exists within himself. Golding tries to give these

moments of self-discovery the force that the revelation scenes have in Greek

tragedy.

The Fall Of The Proud:

Often in Greek drama the hero suffers from hubris, a blind pride that

leads him to ignore the moral law until eventually he meets with a tragic

downfall. In three of Golding's novels, Lord of the Flies, Pincher Martin, and

Free Fall, the chief characters suffer from a blind pride which seems to put

them above the traditional restraints of human society. In his other novel,

The Inheritors, it is the secondary group of characters, Homo spaiens, who

suffer from hubris. Not until the end of each novel do these characters see

themselves as they are, and then it is too late to rectify the damage they

have done. And they are often too late to save themselves.

The violent punishments that some of Golding's characters undergo might

seem too strong for their crimes. The implication is that the world is not a

place of justice. This becomes especially apparent when we consider the fates

of such innocent characters as Simon in Lord of the Flies and Beatrice in

Free Fall, or the entire tribe of Neanderthal men, who seem to be so

attractive and peace loving, in The Inheritors. Although all of these

characters are lacking in self-knowledge, they commit no crimes to merit their

violent extermination as complete human beings. What Golding is saying is that

the world can be a very cruel place where the least protected are the easiest

victims. But he does see the possibility of a better world. In "A Conversation

with Golding" he is reported as saying that he "would have liked Ralph to

'make it,' but he couldn't. The 'nice guy' frequently loses." In the island

society the boys lack the forms of justice that might protect them from

destruction. There are, however, other societies where justice can prevail,

although only under special circumstances. "After all it's only when you

have a fairly protected society-as America has been for most of its

existence-that you can develop a genuinely fair society." Golding's novels

attempt to strengthen the forms of human behavior, both individual and

social, that provide the climate for justice and freedom.

Bibliography

Cox, C. B. "Lord of the Flies," Critical Quarterly, II (1960), 112-117.

Davis, Douglas "A Conversation with Golding." The New Republic, (May 4,

1963), 28-30.

Drew, Philip "Second Reading," Cambridge Review, LXXVIII (1956), 79-84.

Freedman, Ralph, "The New Realism: The Fancy of William Golding,"

Perspective, X (1958), 118-128.

Gindin, James " 'Gimmick' and Metaphor in the Novels of William Golding,"

Modern Fiction Studies, VI (1960), 145-152.

Green, Martin "Distaste for the Contemporary," Nation, CXC (May 21,

1960), 451-454.

Green, Peter "The World of William Golding," Review of English

Literature, I, ii (1960), 62-72.

Hynes, Sam "Novels of a Religious Man," Commonwealth, LXXI (March 18,

1960), 673-675.

Kermode, Frank "The Novels of William Golding," International Literary

Annual, III (1961), 11-29.

MacShane, Frank "The Novels of William Golding," Dalhousie Review, XLII

(1962), 171-183.

Niemeyer, Carl "The Coral Island Revisited," College English, XXII

(1961), 241-245.

Peter, John "The Fables of William Golding," Kenyon Review, XIX (1957),

577-592.

Quinn, Michael "An Unheroic Hero: William Golding's Pincher Martin,"

Critical Quarterly, IV (1962), 247-256.

Rosenfield, Claire, "'Men of a Smaller Growth': A Psychological Analysis

of William Golding's Lord of the Flies," Literature and Psychology, XI

(1961), 93-101.

Walters, Margaret "Two Fabulists: Golding and Camus," Melbourne Critical

Review, No. 4 (1961), 18-29.