Argumentative Essay On Lord Of The Flies

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William Golding is painted as a great man. He won the Man Booker Prize (for his 1980 book, Rites of Passage), the Nobel Prize for Literature, and has been knighted. He died in 1993 at the old age of 82, and was married to the analytic chemist, Ann Brookefield; but it was the quote “One day, if my literary reputation holds up, people will examine my life, and they will come to the conclusion that I am a monster.” that Golding himself said, that brought one's attention that he might not be what he seems. Upon further research it has been shown that William Golding has some dark history, history that gives the impression that perhaps he should not be considered the spokesperson for an entire generation/or for civilization in general. There is…show more content…
This accentuates the question: Is William Golding a good example of a human that understands human beings as a whole to the point of his book(s) being an accurate representation of humanity? William Golding is not a man who believes men and women should be/are equal, as stated in an excerpt of his exceedingly popular quote: “...because I'm going to be chased from hell to breakfast by all the women who talk about equality - this is nothing to do with equality at all. I think women are foolish to pretend they are equal to men, they are far superior and always have been.” One could see this as an attempt of a ‘compliment’ towards women, but as he states, it is his belief that women aren’t equal and never will be. Behind the illusion of a shot at a compliment, it is a dire insult. In his book ‘Lord of the Flies’ it is continuously preached that there is capability of violence and savagery within every human... but according to his quote, not in women? To say that women ‘are far superior’ simply ignores the fact that women are people too. They are not deities that are above the most basic human instinct, the need for survival. Violence towards women seemed to be consistent throughout his life. Golding was an alcoholic,…show more content…
The most obvious showing of racism is through Piggy, who was consistently shown as ‘the voice of reason’ when he shouts: “Which is better - to be a pack of painted n*ggers like you are or to be sensible like Ralph is?” The sentence was racist enough as it is, but it also shows that Golding had not respect for cultures that differed from the exemplary, faux beauty that was white, british colonization. ‘Lord of the Flies’ depends on the implicit belief that any culture that has self supplying acts (such as hunting or living as a group, or tribe) are savages, and that their years of culture are inferior and can be easily imitated by English school boys within minutes. Although the boys come to realize that this ‘savagery’ resides within themselves, this realization of the ‘savagery’ depends on seeing ‘the savage’ as inferior. As time passes the boys’ appearances move closer and closer to the British stereotype of the indigenous savage. As natives in war-paint brandishing a spear. Golding only sees face-paint and self-made weapons as an indication of a lack of civilization. To him, there is savagery and there is the British norm. The stereotyping of non-British civilizations, that ‘primitive cultures’ that include hunting for other than sport, face painting as well as chanting/dancing around fires, are violent and savage and below the British standards that should be
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