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.

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