Transcript Lord of the Flies – by William Golding

Lord of the Flies – by William Golding
background notes! Take them, as
they’re pertinent for the test!
William Golding’s background and origins
• Born September 19, 1911, in St. Columb, Cornwall, England; died of a
heart attack, June 19, 1993, in Perranarworthal, near Falmouth,
England
• College in Brasenose College, Oxford, in 1930, intending on getting a
degree in the sciences; switched to English Literature after a few
years of study
• Taught English and Philosophy at Bishop Wordsworth’s School in
Salisbury, Wiltshire, England from 1939-40 and 1945-61
• Nickname at school: “Schoolie”
World War II
• Served 5 years in the Royal Navy (starting in 1940) during World
War II, which colored his experiences and shaped his interest in
barbarism and evil within humanity.
• Present at the sinking of the Bismarck
• Participated in the D-Day invasion
• Asked what he did as a commander of a rocket-launching craft, Golding
responded “I survived…”, and that “World War II was the turning
point for me. I began to see what people were capable of doing.
Lord of the Flies (1954)
• Was rejected by 21 publishers before Faber & Faber accepted the 43year-old’s book.
• His first novel, it was also the most famous and well-regarded of his
works
• Won the 1954 Nobel Prize for literature (about 1-2 million dollars,
depending on donations for that year)
• Turned him into one of the most popular and influential British authors
post-WWII
• Group of schoolboys who are marooned on a tropical island during a
fictional “Cold War-is- actually-happening” timeline
• Widely-interpreted and known for its themes of barbarism, society,
religion, and the fragility of civilization
Homages, References, and Inspirations of LoTF
• R.M. Ballantyne’s The Coral Island (1857)
• Reverses Ballantyne’s theory that the purity and innocence of
youth will help society remain civil under even the worst conditions
• LoTF was Golding’s “answer” to Ballantyne’s book, and even shares
some character names and plotlines
• LoTF, then, is “an allegory on human society today, the novel's
primary implication being that what we have come to call civilization
is, at best, not more than skin-deep," as James Stern explains in a
New York Times Book Review article.
• Daniel Defoe’s Robinson Crusoe (1719)
• An adventure tale – stranded, alone on an island
• Richard Hughes’ A High Wind in Jamaica (1929)
Critical Reception
• Has been described “as pessimistic, mythical,
spiritual- an allegorist who uses his novels as a
canvas to paint portraits of man’s constant
struggle between his civilized self and his hidden,
darker nature” ("Golding, William (1911-1993)."
• Some say his novels are “rigged,” and fall flat
because its thesis overshadows its drama.
• James Tait Black Memorial Prize (1980) for
Darkness Visible
• McConnell Prize (1982) for A Moving Target
• Won Nobel Prize (1983) for body of work
• Knighted (1988)
Themes / Symbols
• LoTF’s central theme pits the forces of light and dark within the human
soul against each other
• Some refer to his novels as fables or myths- they are laden with
symbols (usually spiritual or religious in nature) that can be
interpreted on multiple, complex levels.
• Golding provides in Time a simple exegis of his book. "The theme," he
says, "is an attempt to trace the defects of society back to the
defects of human nature."
• Some see Biblical implications – Christ figures, symbols, and “a
complex and modern version of the story of Cain, in which Cain
represents contemporary man, and not merely a remote ancestor.”
Works Cited
"Golding, William (1911-1993)." Encyclopedia of World Biography. Ed. Suzanne M. Bourgoin. 2nd ed. Detroit: Gale
Research, 1998. 17 vols.Discovering Collection. Gale. Waconia High School. 12 Apr. 2010