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Critical Commentary and Bibliography}
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Title:       Works of William Golding
Book:        Study Guide
Author:      Golding, William
Critic:      Dewsnap, Terence
Affiliation: Department Of English, Bard College

Critical Commentary and Bibliography

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.