Yesterday, I finished 245 pages of William Golding’s novel, which is about a group of boys stranded on an island. They face challenges like food, shelter, and the overwhelming pain that comes when the umbilical cord between parents and child is suddenly severed.
What moved me was the raw violence that Golding so masterfully articulated. He showed that minors are equally capable of committing atrocities just as their older counterparts.
Since Golding was a teacher of philosophy there were some philosophical dialogues that came out through Ralph, Piggy, and Simon which I find very amusing. The idea that minors are uttering some deep stuff seemed funny. The symbolism of objects was also a great choice. The conch becomes a symbol of ruler and stability in Ralph’s hand, and Piggy’s glasses as a symbol of wisdom the breaking of it shows that on a stranded Island, wisdom does not have the strength to survive. The spear is a symbol of violence or chaos. First, it was used to hunt down the pigs and later it was used to hunt the survivors. The fire is the most important element in the novel. It was their way to get rescued. It was their save themselves from the cold night. And just like the spear, it was weaponized to burn down the forests.
Golding wrote this novel as an answer to another novel ‘Coral Island’ where the message was that British Colonization had a positive impact on the colony. Golding disagreed and showed violent delights have violent ends.