William Golding, Themes in Literature

William Golding, Themes in Literature

William Golding has experienced some hard times in life and participates in war. His experience let him have an insightful perspective about human nature. He delivers his vision in his writing through the characters and story. His most popular novel, Lord of the Flies, does a good job about delivering his ideas about how people work. He also writes about his perspective in his many other works; he does so through using different literary devices.

The prime example for his perspective on human nature and the world condition is Lord of the Flies; it is also his most popular novel. The story takes place in the island in which English students crash on, onboard an airplane. There are no adults. It is almost evident the savagery of humans is a subject that appears in this book. The subject of savagery comes in hand with the subject of civility. Golding characterizes civility with good and the instinct of evil with evil. He indicates that everyone can fall to the level of savagery which allows the execution of heinous crimes. His novel is an allegory which means he delivers his message through symbolism.  Ralph the protagonist represents civility and good; Jack the antagonist represents savagery and evil.

Golding also expresses the idea that not everyone reacts the same to instincts of savagery and civility. There is for example Piggy who has no savage with in him, while Roger does not comprehend civility. Golding believes that in the absence so moral behavior which is forced upon us by society we revert to savagery; Savagery is a natural instinct, civility is not. Of all the character only Simon seems to have an innate goodness.

Film poster for Lord of the Flies - Copyright 1990, Columbia Pictures (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Symbols are used a lot in his works. The island with the children becomes a metaphorical society and the last battle is symbolic for wars. The kids see a monster flying in the sky which actually was a man in a parachute this scene symbolizes, it states that we ourselves are monsters and we are scared of out own nature. The conch is a symbol for power. Whoever has it in their hand could talk, and everyone was supposed to listen. This also makes the conch shell a symbol of order and civility. There is a point in the book when the conch is destroyed along with Piggy which symbolizes the demise of civility in its entirety. Piggy’s glasses represent knowledge and reasoning. Piggy helps start the signal fire with his glasses; the fire signal becomes a barometer of their inclination to becoming civilized again. The beast that the kids fear is not real but created by their savage behavior as they become more savage it is more real.

In another book he writes about the Neanderthal and his coming to civility. He talks about voyages that make heroes at sea. The characters develop through the trilogy and their ambitions are evident. In the pyramid, the subject of individuality and tragedy of life are apparent.

The content of Golding’s books is diverse as the subjects in his stories. He is very insightful about human nature and accomplishes in delivering his perspective through rhetorical devices. He talks about the individual human and humanity as  whole.