WIlliam Golding

Humans have been known to do cruel and evil things to one another. Hitler’s hatred of the Jews led to the Holocaust. Humankind has also been known to mindlessly follow very cruel leaders. Stalin led his subjects in a communism in which millions of people died. William Golding attempted to put human’s ability to be cruel to one another in perspective in many of his novels. His experiences early in life, along with his comprehension and contemplation of human traits and characteristics helped shape his novels and make them dialogues on the evilness of human nature.
Golding’s father instilled many of the characteristics that Golding mirrored in his writings. His father taught Golding rationalism and scientific method (Feeney). All of Golding’s novels were very rational and could very well occur in our modern times. The supernatural elements of his novels were something that his mother, who was interested in the occult and spirits, had taught him (Feeney).
Golding also survived World War II, serving in the British Royal Navy. His participation in the war may have made a mark in Golding’s mind. Golding saw the true horrors of war and the atrocities men could commit against one another. He also observed the horrors of D-Day on the beaches of Normandy in 1944 (Contemporary). The influence the war played on Golding’s psyche is particularly evident in Lord of the Flies, when Simon is beaten and ripped apart by the boy’s tribe. This unforgivable act of violence in the novel was, perhaps witnessed by Golding during his service in the Navy. Golding also taught school after his time serving the Queen. He observed the school children’s treatment of one another. The children’s mean treatment of one another most likely shaped the way the boys in Lord of the Flies treated one another after the split between Ralph and Jack occurred (Prusse).
Golding’s Lord of the Flies is a key example of his views of human nature and man’s tendencies. The boys land on the island in the midst of a world war. They try and mimic the ways of the civilized world, but the island is eventually dragged down by the sins of its own inhabitants. Some of the boys’ addiction to hunting and killing tears the island’s social structure in two, maybe as a parallel to what was happening in the “real” world. Both the adults and children of the novel seem to have self-destructive tendencies, tearing their own respective worlds to shreds. Golding shows that men who bow to their primitive instincts drag down the men around them, and eventually cause conflict, whether it is physical or psychological (Macdonald).
Golding’s views of human nature are forever immortalized in Lord of the Flies. His time serving in the Navy and his time teaching school children helped to shape these views into what they were. He saw the evils and atrocities that man was able to commit, and preserved his thoughts to record them in his novels. The sins of man will be forever remembered by the novels that Golding created.

Works Cited
Feeney, Joseph J. "William Golding (1911-93): Lord of Horror, Lord of Awe." America 169.3 (31 July 1993): 6-7. Rpt. in Contemporary Literary Criticism. Ed. James P. Draper and Jeffery Chapman. Vol. 81. Detroit: Gale Research, 1994. Literature Resource Center. Web. 21 Aug. 2010.

Macdonald, Gina. "William Golding: Overview." St. James Guide to Science Fiction Writers. Ed. Jay P. Pederson. 4th ed. New York: St. James Press, 1996. Literature Resource Center. Web. 21 Aug. 2010

Prusse, Michael C. "William Golding." Nobel Prize Laureates in Literature, Part 2. Detroit: Gale, 2007. Dictionary of Literary Biography Vol. 330. Literature Resource Center. Web. 21 Aug. 2010.

"William (Gerald) Golding." Contemporary Literary Criticism Select. Detroit: Gale, 2008. Literature Resource Center. Web. 21 Aug. 2010.

Picture:http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/b/b7/William_Golding.jpeg

Brave New World's Aldous Huxley

Many times in literature, novelists are influenced by their early life and aspects not related to literature. They may be influenced by other writers and thinkers of the time period, or they may be influenced by tragic events that occur. Aldous Huxley was one such novelist whom was immensely influenced by his surroundings and his peers. His characteristic pessimism stemmed from negative events in his early life. Aldous Huxley’s upbringing and surroundings greatly affected the viewpoints and opinions he expressed in his writings and novels.
Huxley was born into an intellectual family. Both his immediate and extended family was composed of known intellectuals and writers. Huxley lived a privileged early life, showing interest in science and literature. Later in his childhood, he experienced tragedies that would eventually influence his writings and stories. His mother and brother both passed away in his teenage years, and he also began to lose his eyesight due to a severe eye infection (Gale). The First World War also begins to rear its head in this time period. All of these events influence Huxley’s early works. His early poems tell of his feelings of loneliness and negative feelings toward society (Christianson).
During the 1920’s Huxley began a world tour in which he visited different countries. Huxley said in one of his writings that he longed to be, “along the road.” His travels took him many places including India, Japan, and Malaya (Christianson). He wrote many fiction and non-fiction books of his travels. His travelling supplied him with ample information and events that gave the novels he wrote character and a uniqueness only he possessed. During his tour of Asia, Huxley also began to become interested in the Hindu faith and the mysticism surrounding their culture. His interest in mysticism and Hinduism began appearing in his writings later in his life (Christianson).
One of the most influential factors on Huxley’s writings was society itself. Huxley spent much of his time contemplating the future of society. His thoughts and prophecies were summed up in his most memorable novel, Brave New World. His predictions on future society’s characteristics and attitudes were very accurate. Written in 1933, Brave New World predicted attitudes that were present years later in Hitler’s Nazi Germany. The tendency towards social unity and racial superiority is a mainstay of Brave New World. Aldous Huxley observed the governments of the time accumulating power and predicted that eventually freedom would be abolished in favor of faux happiness. These predictions may be applied to the Soviet Union, where communism was supposed to increase the happiness of its subjects, but instead robbed them of freedoms and liberties ("Aldous Huxley A Life of the Mind" 2-7).
Aldous Huxley was very much influenced by his surroundings, peers, and time period. His observance of politics, social tendencies, and different world cultures shaped him as a writer and as a person. They aided in forming Huxley’s signature pessimism and satiric tone. They gave him a base in which to prophesize future society and its many unforeseen problems and challenges. Because of his influences, Huxley will be remembered as one of the great thinkers and philosophers of the twentieth century.
Picture:
http://www.american-buddha.com/huxley_pix_1111.jpg

Works Cited

Aldous Huxley A Life of the Mind. 1st ed. New York City, New Yord: Harper Perennial,

2006. 2-7. Print.

"Aldous Huxley." Gale Online Encyclopedia. Detroit: Gale, 2010. Literature Resource

Center. Web. 19 Aug. 2010.

Christianson, Scott R. "Aldous (Leonard) Huxley." British Travel Writers, 1910-1939.

Ed. Barbara Brothers and Julia Marie Gergits. Detroit: Gale Research, 1998.

Dictionary of Literary Biography Vol. 195. Literature Resource Center. Web. 19

Aug. 2010.

Quote from Lord of the Flies Page 202

"...Ralph wept for the end of innocence, the darkness of man's heart, and the fall through the air of the true, wise friend called Piggy."
-Lord of the Flies Page 202
Ralph is saddened and disturbed by the events on the island. During his time running from Jack, he had not had time to fully realize the magnitude of Jack's changes and it's effects on the island. He is bothered by the thoughts of what Jack and his groupd were going to do to him if they had caught him. Jack and the rest of the boys had landed on the island as sensible young boys, but had been transformed into bloodthirsty animals. The boys' characters had no innocence left and their hearts were cold as stone. Ralph also wept for the soul of Piggy, who was the only true friend he had never realized.
Song: Wish you were here - Pink Floyd
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IXdNnw99-Ic

Quote from Lord of the Flies Page 171

"I'm going to him with this conch in my hands...Give me my glasses, I'm going to say-you got too!"
-Lord of the Flies Page 171
Piggy asks Ralph to go with him to confront Jack about the theft of his glasses. Piggy believes that Jack may still have morals and give him back his glasses just because it's what's right. I don't believe Piggy realizes that Jack has no morals left. Jack does not care what Piggy has to say and would sooner kill him than return the stolen glasses. Piggy's bold decisions to go confront Jack lead to a dreadful end and give Ralph the realization that no common sense or civility is left on the island.

Quote from Lord of the Flies Page 152

"A thing was crawling out of the forest. It came darkly, uncertainly. The shrill screaming that rose before the beast was like a pain. The beast stumbled into the horseshoe."
-Lord of the Flies Page 152
This is an important moment in the novel. This quote tells of the beginning of the first murder in the novel. The boys of the island have begun performing rituals that detail the hunts that they partake in. Simon, in the dark appears to be the beast and falls into one of the rituals. The boys savagery leads to Simon being beaten to death, marking a point in the novel in which the boys pass from being innocent young boys to being blood-thirsty mongrels.

Quote from Lord of the Flies Page 144

"'I'm warning you. I'm going to get angry. D'you see? You're not wanted. Understand? We are going to have fun on this island. Understand? We are going to have fun on this island! So don't try it on, my poor misguided boy, or else-'"
-Lord of the Flies Page 144
This seen sets in motion the events that will lead up to the first murder on the island. Simon realizes that the real beast on the island is inside all the boys. It is human nature that will threaten the boys, not some physical being. The encounter scares Simon to the point that he faints in the face of the pig head. The pig head tells him that the other boys do not like him, and that the island will eventually lead to the deaths of all of the boys.
Picture:http://www.dianatetlow.com/gallery/playground/Lord-of-the-Flies.jpg

Quote from Lord of the Flies Page 127

"'I'm going off by myself. He can catch his own pigs. Anyone who wants to hunt when I do can come too.' He blundered out of the triangle toward the drop to the white sand."
-Lord of the Flies Page 127
This quote shows the climax of the scene in which Jack leaves the original group of boys. The divisions in the boys were caused by Jack's unwillingness to be ordered around by anyone else. He wants only to answer to himself and no one else. Jack's independent tendencies lead him to quarrel with Ralph constantly, leading to his departure from the conch and Ralph. Jack believes that Ralph is a poor leader, but the others do not seem to agree. These events all lead Jack to leave the original pack of boys.