Golding

’s Reality Fact Or Fiction Essay, Research Paper

Golding’s Reality

Fiction or fact

A recurring theme in William Golding’s novel, Lord of the Flies , is that man

savage at heart, always ultimately reverting back to evil and a primitive nature. Golding

believes that man has no control over his own destiny because of fear. Golding uses

properties of setting, characters, and their behavior and the events of the book, Lord of

the Flies, to build and support his vision of reality.

William Golding was born in Great Britain in 1911 and throughout his whole life

he has witnessed the true evil in man. As an adult he lived through and was in World War

II. He saw many dictators come and go and he witnessed entire nations crumble, and

weapons that could destroy entire cities. Golding grew up in the time of the Holocaust

and saw many evil dictators rise and fall. This is why Golding’s vision of reality is that all

man is savage at heart. He lived in a time when the whole world was divided and a little

spark was all that was needed to set off world destruction. It was at this time that Golding

wrote Lord of the Flies, the title itself means true evil and destruction. Translated into

Hebrew it is Beelzebub and it means devil.

Lord of the Flies is a story of a group of boys from different backgrounds that

become stranded on an isolated and uncharted island when their plane crashes. As the

boys try to unite to try to become rescued they begin to separate and a tribe of savage

hunters is formed. After a while the boys lose all sense of civilized behavior. This is when

you realize that the boys have lost all manners and civility that had been instilled as they

where raised, thus showing the savage beast in the heart of all men. This book shows how

easy it is for man to revert back to the evil that is deep in his heart. This book also shows

that if a bunch of well mannered school boys can turn evil, one can imagine what can

happen with world leaders undergoing the pressure of world relations.

Golding uses setting in Lord of the Flies as a first indication of the evil within man

and society. The entire story is set on a beautiful desolate island located probably

somewhere in the Pacific Ocean near the first atom bomb detonation.(Daryl L. Houston)

The land was beautiful and as pure as the Garden of Eden was until man came. They

started by crashing a plane and leaving a scar in the beautiful island. Then the boys

became scattered all over the island until Ralph united them with the conch. The conch,

one blow and all the animals the where already scared to death. They had never seen a

human before and the beauty of the island was again ruined. Then when the boys were

walking through the forest and came upon a boulder and just rolled it down the hill

laughing as the trees and brush were destroyed. The destruction of the forest was pleasing

to them that should show evil right there within in there actions. Then later on the boys

still thinking of their civilized ways decided to build a fire and as luck would have it went

out of control. The boys hadn’t even been there a week and half of the island had already

been destroyed. At the end of the story when there are putting places of the forest on fire

trying to kill Ralph this also shows the boys destroying nature because man is evil. This is

how Golding shows evil in man through setting.

Golding did not just use the property of setting to show the evil in man. He also

used the characters to show evil within society through the boys evil behavior. Golding

shows in Lord of the Flies that society has all types of people those who work, those who

play, those who lead, those who think, those who cause trouble, and those who are just

mindless followers. With that he created Ralph, Jack, Piggy, Simon, Roger, and the little

kids not old enough to have a say. Ralph was the leader type. He was the part of society

that was practical and stood by his ideas as a good leader should. Then there was Piggy

whose fat alone didn’t make him an out cast it was his mind. Piggy was the smartest boy

on the island. He was a constant reminder of the world they left. He was treated different

then the rest of the boys because although where his mind was strong his body was week

and Jack and Roger would take advantage of that. This was the representation of the

racism in the world. They would pick on him just cause he was different. Simon was also

different like Piggy only he was a thinker. He was a philosopher and a lover of beauty.

He was shy around all the other boys and would try to get away from it all, away from all

the evil.

“Simon turned away from them and went where the just perceptible path

led him. Soon high the jungle closed in. Tall trunks bore unexpected

flowers all the way up to the dark canopy where life went on clamorously…

He came to a place where more sunshine fell.”(Golding, 56)

Sim

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