At once there was a clamour.
“Treasure Island- -”
Swallows and Amazons- -”
“Coral Island- -”
Ralph waved the conch.
“This is our island. It’s a good island.
Until the grown-ups come to fetch us
We’ll have fun.”
In a Golding novel the situation is first conceived and then it begins to unfold the message of the novel. Thus the adventurous island situation shifts Golding’s imagination to some basic problems of man. Golding’s imagination is haunted by the problem of the genesis of crisis and violence. It is said that it is a “meditation on the violence in human nature”. The survival adventure situation takes hold of his imagination and he dives deep into the inner recesses of the human mind. Man’s instinctive urge for power and leadership and his irrational fear and anxieties induce terror and insecurity. Man fear things that are unknown. The history of man shows such fear and man began to adopt rituals and worship. In the novel, the children perform a ritualistic dance. They dance round the fire with pig’s head. This wild-dance is a mark of the inalienable violence in human nature. It is this wild dance that sows the seeds of violence in human nature. It is this wild dance that sows the seed of violence in the island. Even when the boys exhibit criminal instinct, they are occupied with the fear of the beast. Even Piggy, the boy of rational thinking and intelligence is not completely free from the fear. This signifies that there are many things incapable of being reasoned and fear is a part of the basic human condition. In order to emphasize this thesis, Golding has created the survival adventure situation in the novel. The pleasure of the adventure and the problem of survival are pictured by presenting the characters into groups. Certain boys under the guidance of Ralph becomes rational, saintly and act intelligently to find measures for escape from the island. The other group of boys headed by Jack acts like savages during their adventure as a resuly of the sheer force of circumstance. The plight of Jack and his group justifies that chidren might become devilish when their existence is threatened and even the most civilized might become a perfect savage. In the struggle for existence, the boys were transformed into killers. The situation was not so smooth for Jack to become the leader, in spite of the support of the boys. Circumstances unhappily precluded him from becoming the leader. Yet the conflict-nurturing situation converted him into a terrible and cruel boy on the island. Once he goy the upper hand, he sought the help of the boys to tackle the problem of food. When Jack got a favorable occasion to develop his instinct he indulged in it without any scruples.
Golding is a moral optimist, and therefore his point may be that, by birth man is innocent and his fall from innocence is the result of the force of circumstance. Here, the character of Jack shows that by birth he is not evil but evil comes to him from outside. It is the survival-adventure situation that drastically transformed the nature and behavior of the cultivated British School Children. Golding is creating the thesis that the situation moulds the character of the children on the island.
The central situation of the novel focuses on the strife among the two groups of boys. The theme of height versus darkness is brought about by presenting a number of episodes. It is customary with novels of situation to present a series of episodes and a central situation. Generally the central situation will be a crystallization of all the episodes in the novel. Critics say that in LORD OF THE FLIES, one is impressed by the lucidity and force of literary meaning, the integration of each episodes and every detail into an ordered design. There are a number of events that enrich and enhance the central meaning of the novel. The first major event on the island is the discovery of the conch. This conch acts as the instrument to summon the littuns scattered in the lonely island. The conch conveys a meaning of authority and power. It becomes a symbol of social order. But when once order is imposed with the authority of the conch, the seed for the strife in the island is sown. The need for a chief, power, law and order begins to be stressed. Consequently the group under the leadership of Jack violates the law and paves the way for violence, bloodshed and murder. The darkness within the heart of man begins to appear in its true shape. Cruelty begins to show its head when Jack triggers action against Ralph and his group. Another show of violence occurs during the preparation of fire in the snatching a way of Piggy’s spectacles. The cruelty of human heart and muscle power prevail in the island, subduing intelligence and fellow-feeling. Thus Golding points to the need for human values, without which man will tumble down. Another tragic incident that re-imposes the basic theme is the sad death of Simon consequent on the challenge posed by the beast. Simon under took the task of finding the beast and thereby abating the fear of the little boys. He reached the top of the mountain and realized the true nature of the beast. He rushed off to the children with the news of the beast that it was only a dead airman in a parachute. Some of the misguided boys, engaged in a ‘beast slaying ritual’ in their energy, mistook Simon for the beast and killed him. This pathetic incident points to the real human nature and pictures man as tragic figure. Thus may of the events in the novel are pointers to the shape of darkness in the human heart. The thesis of the novel may be pointing that deterioration may set in certain circumstances when we are no longer under the control of order and discipline.
The critical situation of the British school-children in a lonely island, away from the reach of the adult would, gives the novelist a chance for a first rate imaginative feast. Golding has molded the story by avoiding grown-ups except the Naval Officer at the end of the novel. Being a school master for a time, Golding seems to be interested in observing the society of the children and their immature ways. The novelist depicts how the boys carry out things in a most savage manner and draws our attention to similar experiences in the adult world. So, even with the absence of grown-ups in the island, Golding has succeeded greatly in depicting the disintegration of the society, the ignorance, violence and savagery that existed. Thus Golding has succeeded in creating a critical and apocalyptic situation, as it tended to give a warning to the future generation.
As such the central action of the novel is in full engagement with the human condition. Golding seems to be obsessed with the human situation in a modern context as the central core of the novel concerns with the very existence of man. The novel focuses the chaos in store for human beings, threatening to imperil man’s existence. By the end of the novel, an awareness of the wrong of the world is brought in. Besides, only by the end of the novel do we get into the tune and under current of the story. But the process of the transformation of the children into savages inflicts an us a feeling for human values in contemporary situation. In the very beginning itself we start realizing that the situation of man in the present century is the same as we find in the novel. The idea that is brought up may be that when man is free from control and discipline man may turn to evil and may crave for material benefits. The real nature of man and a real life situation is presented in the novel which points to the strife for material benefits. “What Golding has done in Lord of The Flies is to create a situation which will reveal in as extremely direct way this “real self” and yet at the same time keep our sense of readability, our sense of the day-to-day world, lively and sharp.” Golding has gives us a bit of real life in the form of strife of children on the island. This strife appears to be more important than the problem of survival and adventure. Golding has rendered the conflict and the real life situation more dramatic than in Ballantyne’s story. He has included a ‘what-would-happen-if’ situation ii Ballantyne story. By way of slight modification to make it story of adventure and romance, Golding has created a real life situation in the forms of conflict. This is done by creating the character of Ralph on the line of a politician. His oratory is sufficient to gather the children under his control and protection. Jack on the other hand, is representative of despotism and there is a lock of restraint and unwillingness in him to head to any principle favoring democratic ideology. So a conflict between the two leaders means a conflict between democracy and anarchy brought out through actions and reactions. The novel reproduces the natural state of modern man in the modern context. In the light of the novel, Golding shows the primitive savage society. In a way Ralph and Jack are symbols of power-crazy leaders who believe that ‘might is right’ and that the mightiest will survive. The domination of Jack could be sighted as an example to demonstrate the inborn qualities of some born leaders who most surely make it to the top. Further, it can be claimed that the political life of the primitive people is really reflected and found even in the modern context. The novel is considered as a political fable by many critics on this ground.
A close examination of the theme of the novel brings out its theological status as well as its essential from of a novel of situation. The theme of strife, primitivism, the problem of survival, the pleasure of adventure and romance-all reveal in some way the novelist’s religious enthusiasm. The island sitting and the savage life of the children for a time provide the primitive background and it is a sign of Golding’s fascination for the primitive. The primitive is suggestive in elaborating the religious atmosphere of the novel. The primitive wild excitement and dance of the boys, when they killed the pig, can be considered as a ritual and it strikes the note of a religious ceremony. The religious halo of the novel is more explicit in the characterization of Simon. Simon is shaped as a true Christ figure. The characterization of Simon helps the novelist is dramatizing the religious implication of the novel in wider perspective. The study brings home the idea that a saint is out of place in a modern context, because man is devoid of values to a greater extent. The necessity of religion in a modern age is not stressed upon by the novelist but is lift to the division of the readers. But any way we can detect an under current of advice for religion and can feel the novel as moral document. The morality in the novel comes in the way as a result of the presentation of the conflict between ‘good’ and ‘evil’. The question of ‘good’ and ‘evil’ also is the sign of the novelist’s religious temperament. The lord of the flies is a symbol of temptation and it represents death and dissertation. Golding further finds expression to some of his religious views on sin and suffering. When the boys are concerned with food, protection and fun, they are not anxious about losing their free will and are not conscious of the sinful, slavish, savage life. The society of the children is devoid of piety and such a society easily falls victim to disorder and anarchy. Even though it may be unreasonable to demand a society of children to be religious in temperament, Golding’s imagination runs round such an argument and assumes that a society devoid of religion will be a fallen society.
It has already been stated that Golding is the originator of live situations. Generally, the situation of his novels spring out from his passion and vision often in novels of situation the protagonist will be the embodiment of a passion. Here Ralph is depicted as a symbol of ‘good’ but at the same time he has an innate passion for power. He is intelligent enough to establish his power but fails to exercise authority. So also there is the passion for life in him, which is a major motive in many of Golding’s novels. The other major character, Jack, even though villainous in nature, is more impressive than Ralph. Jack too is an embodiment of passion for power. His passion turns him blind to all issues including existence and rescue from the island. It is his greed for power that promotes his love of violence and blood lust. He develops a passion for hunting and such an occupation creates terror in the island. So it is some subdued passions of the two leaders that create the situation of power strife on the island. Golding’s vision in the novel is based on what is fundamental in human nature. His characters show man’s natural state of being. But they never bluntly exhibit a religious temperament. It is because, Golding never reveals his religious stand openly but we infer his religious mind from the human situations found in his novels.
