Explain how Hill and Golding present death in I’m the King of the Castle and Lord of the Flies respectively?
Hill and Golding both utilise the techniques of symbolism, varied settings and physical death of the character to present death. Overall I think that Hill generally presents death more effectively than Golding, because she generally provides more development throughout her novel, which ultimately leads to the death of Kingshaw.
Hill and Golding both use the techniques of symbolism dead stating that “the inside of its mouth was scarlet” with the adjective “scarlet” interesting as it has connotations of death and of blood. I think this description of the crow is also a subtle form of prolepsis as the crow is initially portrayed as a normal crow, but as Hill describes the crow further; it is evidently a symbol of death, much like Warings. What is interesting to note about the crow is that it is also described as having “ragged black wings”- the word ragged could symbolise the aftermath of violence, much like Kingshaw’s exposure to violence later on in the novel and the adjective black is a symbol of death. Another aspect of symbolism regarding the crow is when the crow “circles over Kingshaw”, symbolically death looms over Kingshaw. This is comparable to the symbolism of death in Lord of the Flies where “The Lord of the Flies” also symbolises death: one example of this is when the Lord of the Flies states “we’re going to have fun”- it is a statement, rather than a question, an imperative. The “fun” that is described refers to evil, ultimately the death of Simon. Another description of the Lord of the Flies describes that is particularly important is when Simon looks at the Lord of the Flies and sees “blackness” within, a “blackness that spread”. Perhaps this symbolises not only death, but death spreading throughout the island as other characters are killed. I feel this description also has significance because both Hill and Golding use “colours” to symbolise death, the colour black. The authors also differ as Hills descriptions are far more graphical, for example the crow, whereas Golding is far more subtle in his description of The Lord of the Flies. I believe that Hills graphic description is more effective at portraying death, her descriptions are far more explicit but some readers may argue this to be a disadvantage as her symbols are too clichéd. I think Golding is not as effective because his descriptions are a little more implicit, and hence loses some of the value that his symbol provides in portraying death.
