LORD OF THE FLIES”, Chapters 5-12

WILLIAM GOLDING

LORD OF THE FLIES”, Chapters 1-4

The aim of the lesson is to teach you to group characters according to certain philosophical notions, to comment upon a piece of fiction taking cases of ambiguity and ambivalence into consideration. You will also learn to generalise ideas generated by discussions in the group.

1. William Golding was born in Great Britain in 1911 and throughout almost all his lifetime, he lived and witnessed the true evil within all men. During his childhood reigned the First World War, which was followed many years later by the savagery of World War II. He saw powerful dictators rise and fall; he witnessed entire nations crumble, the massive slaughter of the Holocaust come and go, weapons of death destroy entire cities, and he lived through a time when the world was divided in half and only a single spark was needed to set off world destruction. It was during this time that Golding wrote Lord of the Flies. (Jerry Vera. Lord of the Flies – A Book of Fiction or a Book of Facts)

Are the features of the times described above revealed in Chapters 1-4? What other characteristics of reality are implied?

2. Golding’s protagonists are a well-chosen ensemble in which each character represents a given position in the struggle between the worlds – the world of barbarity and irresponsibility as opposed to the world of common sense and civilisation. This struggle underlies the main line of the story, but the author contrasts his characters not as embodiments of different ways of life but in terms of their attitudes towards various possible forms of social behaviour.

a) If possible, classify the characters according to the criterion mentioned above, suggest further divisions within one and the same group.

b) Speak about one of the main characters in detail, providing quotations.

(to be done in two rounds!!!)

c) What is the advantage of using boys as characters? What are their limitations?

(group discussion)

3. Golding uses the property of the setting in Lord of the Flies as the first indication of the evil within man and society. The entire book is set upon a beautiful desolate island located probably somewhere in the Pacific near the first atomic bomb detonation. This land was pure and pristine; it was a Garden of Eden, that is, until man arrived. Upon the boys’ arrival (a plane crash), a scar was left on the island. It was a plane, an offspring of man’s creation, that disturbed nature’s beauty. (Jerry Vera. Lord of the Flies – A Book of Fiction or a Book of Facts)

Speak of the role of the setting.

4. Stylistically, the author is a great master of descriptive details. These naturally contribute to the philosophical treatment of the novel. Any descriptive passage prepares the reader for some coming conflict, a key event or a key notion, or serves as indirect characterisation of a personage, or even becomes vehicle for the author’s opinion and attitude, and thus, shapes the reader’s own attitude to and understanding of the characters, their positions and the philosophical implications.

Analyse some descriptive passages in the chapters, trying to show its main function and philosophical nature.

(e.g.: “The great rock loitered …” (p.68); “He snatched his knife…” (p.73))

5. The novel’s profundities cannot be overlooked and we must examine its philosophical substance – remembering that philosophy touches not just upon metaphysics but upon politics, anthropology, morality and theology. These features must be dealt with on the level of allegorical narrative, plot structure, language and imagery, and characterisation.

The main point of a philosophical novel is that it should be deal with very complex ideas and controversial problems. Maybe that’s why there is an air of ambiguity and dualism about its structure. The novel Lord of the Flies seems to be woven out of tiny threads of contrasts, oppositions and ambiguities – what seems good in one case, turns out to be wrong in some other. This helps the author to get very close to the nature of evil, to show how diverse and cunning it is. As a result of this dualism one thing or person or action acquires both good and bad meanings.

Look through the chapters and find some cases of ambiguity and ambivalence of this or that phrase, action, gesture, event, description, etc. Comment upon their meaning.

6. The author gives to almost every detail in the novel a meaning of its own and a representational meaning in terms of the theme of the development of evil on the island. Symbols are of course very often ambiguous and ambivalent. All of them allow for different kinds of interpretation. For example, the fire which the children make on the mountain and the conch which they use to maintain discipline, can be understood and interpreted in several ways.

Interpret some of the symbols in the chapters under discussion.

7. Summing up: prepare a few questions on separate slips of paper that you want to be answered.

Don’t tell the others what your questions are!

SUPPLEMENT

LORD OF THE FLIES”, Chapters 1-4

Vocabulary studies:

1. Guess the word by its definition (“ ambi/ amphi ” = “ on both sides, around ”):

· stage surrounded with tiered seats –

· an animal that is able to live an breathe both on land and in the water –

· able to use either hand with equal skill –

· unclear meaning which can be understood in more than one way –

· the character. quality, feeling, etc, of a place, atmosphere –

· opposite feelings and attitudes toward someone or something experienced at the same time –

2. Brainstorming: “ di/ duo ” = “ two ”.

3. Fill each blank with the correct adjective:

*** duplex, dimorphic, duplicitous ………..

a) She got …………….. citizenship last year and now holds an American and a British passport. b) A scientist might measure how long it takes a heated substance to cool to the ……………… temperature. c) The message was ……………………., its meaning quite plain: he didn’t want to be involved. d) In his dealings with the cranky old spinster, Alex was always …………………., and she treated him as her favourite. e) Their splendid ………………. apartment had a panoramic view of Paradise Park. f) He was so rich that even had an …………………. aircraft, which could land and take off on water. g) He was extremely …………………. about the trip: he badly wanted to travel, but hated to miss the summer activities at home. h) Most birds are …………………., with feathers of one colour for males and another colour for females. i) His is rather a …………………. character, I wouldn’t trust him. j) Sometimes Zeus had to be …………………. to get around his wife Hera, for example he turned Io into a cow to avoid Hera’s wrath.

SUPPLEMENT

LORD OF THE FLIES”, Chapters 1-4

Vocabulary studies:

1. Guess the word by its definition (“ ambi/ amphi ” = “ on both sides, around ”):

· stage surrounded with tiered seats –

· an animal that is able to live an breathe both on land and in the water –

· able to use either hand with equal skill –

· unclear meaning which can be understood in more than one way –

· the character. quality, feeling, etc, of a place, atmosphere –

· opposite feelings and attitudes toward someone or something experienced at the same time –

2. Brainstorming: “ di/ duo ” = “ two ”.

3. Fill each blank with the correct adjective:

*** duplex, dimorphic, duplicitous ………..

a) She got …………….. citizenship last year and now holds an American and a British passport. b) A scientist might measure how long it takes a heated substance to cool to the ……………… temperature. c) The message was ……………………., its meaning quite plain: he didn’t want to be involved. d) In his dealings with the cranky old spinster, Alex was always …………………., and she treated him as her favourite. e) Their splendid ………………. apartment had a panoramic view of Paradise Park. f) He was so rich that even had an …………………. aircraft, which could land and take off on water. g) He was extremely …………………. about the trip: he badly wanted to travel, but hated to miss the summer activities at home. h) Most birds are …………………., with feathers of one colour for males and another colour for females. i) His is rather a …………………. character, I wouldn’t trust him. j) Sometimes Zeus had to be …………………. to get around his wife Hera, for example he turned Io into a cow to avoid Hera’s wrath.

WILLIAM GOLDING

LORD OF THE FLIES”, Chapters 5-12

The aim of the lesson is to teach you to formulate the essential themes of a literary work, to interpret allegorical implications. You will also learn to …………

1. Study the piece of criticism, select the key words and form some pairs of contextual antonyms that reveal the main conflicts of the book:

The theme of the book is an attempt to trace the defects of society back to the defects of human nature. The moral is that the shape of a society must depend on the ethical nature of the individual and not on any political system.

Rejecting as unreal and sentimental the myth of the “noble savages,” Golding shows how the removal of civilised restraints results not in the creation of a more innocent, healthier society, but in a complete regression to savagery and brutality, the seeds of which are lodged deep in every human heart.

The whole book is symbolic in nature. The meaning of the title, like all of Golding’s symbolism is linked with the events of the novel. Lord of the Flies is a translation of Beelzebub, the Greek translation of the Hebrew Baalzevuv, and in Judaism and Christianity denotes the principle of evil personified – the Devil, Satan, Mephistopheles. Golding equates the Lord of the Flies with the demonic force latent in man; it is generally kept in check by the rational part of human nature, but in the absence of reason or social pressure, breaks out in an act of barbaric bloodletting and barbaric lust. Lord of the Flies identifies the Devil with the society’s reification of its own fears through its sacrificing to them.

Golding touched a nerve-end which any educated person will recognise in himself. We all acknowledge our schooldays as one of the formative periods of our lives, when ‘civilisation’ implants itself within us. What, Golding asks, would happen if the thin layers of knowledge, manners and culture which we acquire from our schoolteachers were to be peeled away? Is natural man, as opposed to cultivated man, a savage, a philistine and a marauder? These problems have, in one form or another, been posed in many periods of intellectual history. Golding’s achievement is not to have initiated discussion of man’s basic nature but to have found a form for talking about these issues in a thoroughly contemporary manner.

2. Civilisation vs. Savagery is one of the main oppositions in the novel.

a) Construct a line of episodes, each represented by a phrase or sentence (preferably a quotation) to show the boys’ gradual degradation into savagery. (Be ready to elaborate on the scheme.)

b) Show the way the relationships between the two leaders (Ralph and Jack) develop into antagonism.

3. The boys often refer to adults as paragons of reason (see pp.154-155 for instance). How does Golding make the attentive reader understand that it’s just a delusion?

4. The scene (the beginning of the fifth chapter) in which Ralph is wandering not far from the platform seems rather curious, meaningful, full of new images and symbols, and compresses the author’s idea that Ralph is the only character who travels the difficult path from ignorance to knowledge.

a) Combine your answers to the following questions into a logical monologue: your task is to explain the enormous value of the scene to a person who overlooked it.

· Why did the author use the detail ‘a narrow strip of firm beach’ when depicting Ralph before the meeting?

· What do the first sentences add to our anticipation of the events, coming conflicts and even bloodshed?

· What features of the life on the island was he especially irritated by?

· What was it that Ralph understood?

· What did he hope for?

· Is it a case of ambivalence or ambiguity?

b) Trace Ralph’s way along the path to knowledge.

5. The role of the prophet changes with the society in which he lives. In Disneyfied America, a prophet is a visionary, telling his people what they can become, in Biblical times, a prophet was the voice of God, telling his people what they had to become to fulfil their covenant with God. In William Golding’s Lord of the Flies, though, the prophet told his people nothing, he realised what they had already become, and he dared not tell them because his society denied the role of the prophet, and he did not fight because he wanted so much to be part of that society. (Simon, Savagery and Ingnorance: A Perspective on Lord of the Flies.)

Speak of the tragedy of Simon-the prophet and the symbolism of his character on different levels.

See if the following quotation can help you:

“It is in terms of the religious meaning of the story that Simon is most important. He represents the idea that, even in the most unattached and spiritual personality, an evil presence makes itself known. On the social level, he represents a creative force that is cut off from the rest of society because of the predominance of violent impulses in that society. On the historical level, Simon represents the gradual alienation of the creative artist, in this century, as he is forced further and further into a position of isolation until he climbs so high in his ivory tower that he can commune only with the spirits.” (Works of William Golding: Character Analyses)

6. The novel being a parable, the very plot is allegorical in nature. Find some instances of actions and episodes that should be interpreted on both the ostensible and actual levels.

7. Critics made stirring attempts to endorse a block of vital problems played up by the novel. They granted the novel such ones as, for example, moral essence of progress, an individual and civilisation, the reasonable and the diabolical in man, backsliding towards savagery and means to chasten it.

Go on singling out the most essential themes (try to formulate them laconically!) of the novel. Provide arguments and examples to support your viewpoint.

Render the following piece of criticism into Russian:

Golding arrives at faith, or perhaps more accurately, ‘anti-atheism’, by rational means. Continuing to ignore the social reasons for social chaos and amorality, the writer now begins to link this chaos with the erosion of ethical standards. While rationalism leads to amorality, faith entails entirely different results. The value of faith is that it is able to change human relationships for the better. The fate of the world does not depend on non-egoistical men, who are not tormented by passion, but unfortunately they themselves are the victims of evil. As an antidote to excessive individualism and the arbitrary, negative passions, Golding advocates Christian morality and selfless love for others. Freedom takes the form of individual responsibility: man is free as long as he does not do evil to others. On this point Golding echoes Sartre. But for Golding (unlike the existentialists, who regard man’s essence as ‘nothingness’ and do not admit the existence of human nature) moral choice enters into contradictions with the imperfection of man’s nature. The ability to control oneself and to overcome one’s destructive inclinations becomes the chief virtue.

Some critics have seen the boys’ propensity to evil as evidence of Original Sin. This Christian doctrine presumes that since the Fall of Man (allegorised in the Book of Genesis as the story of Adam in Eden) we are all born into the world of inherited wickedness, from which we can be saved only by the loving forgiveness and Grace of God. We may debate, however, whether the episodes in the novel point to Original Sin or just to the incompatibility of human society with the natural world.

Knowledge of evil (imperfection) alone, according to Golding, is insufficient. Moral and intellectual courage, the ability to look into one’s own nature without fear – this is one of the most difficult to acquire but precious abilities in his world. No less valuable and important is the difficult path from ignorance to knowledge, the path which Ralph travels in this novel. The path is always filled with torment, and this is truth through guilt (participation in Simon’s murder), through recognition of this guilt and, finally, through suffering as the only possible path for human development. We are all martyrs in the world.

Дата добавления: 2015-10-29