The Fly

<p align=right>by Shona Caroll</p>

<div align=justify>“Fancy thinking the Beast was something you could hunt and kill! You knew, didn’t you? I’m part of you? Close, close, close! I’m the reason why it’s no go? Why things are what they are?”
         
      William Golding, Lord of the Flies.

William Golding used to write to please himself. After three of his href="http://www.abouttexts.com">books  were rejected for publication, he decided that the only person he wished to please was himself.

When ‘Lord of the Flies’ was published in 1954 it was met with great success in Britain and that was quite a surprise to the author. But, his real success began in 1959 when the first edition of the book was published in the United States. This book quickly raced to the top and became a campus favorite dethroning the earlier ‘darling of books’ J D Salinger’s ‘Catcher in the Rye’. With the success of this book Golding was able to retire from teaching and began writing full time.

‘Lord of the Flies’ is set during World War II. The story revolves around a group of British school boys whose plane is shot down en route to England. These boys are stranded on a Pacific Island with no one but themselves for company. This book shows the bestial nature of these young boys - who left without supervision turn into heinous monsters.

The horror later unveils itself in the simple fact that - man by nature is a hunter looking for its kill. The main theme of ‘Lord of the Files’ has been a topic speculated upon and debated on for decades. To answer the critics, Golding said “that the theme was to trace the problems of society back to the sinful nature of man.” He wrote the book to show how political systems cannot administrate society effectively without first taking into contemplation the defects of human nature.
Golding shows man as intrinsically evil. If they are left alone to fend for themselves they will succumb to the pressure and revert back to their earlier roots –that of bestiality and savageness.

Because this book was written during the Second World War, and Golding had first hand experience of war (he served in the Royal Navy and was involved in the sinking of Germany’s mightiest battleship, the Bismarck) he learnt during this time the inherent wickedness of man, their capacity for evil and their power and hunger to destroy.

It’s a scary thought because we all know somewhere deep inside ourselves, that this is entirely true of man.

We have proved it time and time again.

William Golding’s later books were met with an increased amount of controversy and a lot of skepticism and critique. As he continued ‘writing for himself’ his new books were misunderstood, confusing and they all contained his earlier theme –that of the innate nature of evil lurking deep inside every human soul.

Golding was awarded the Nobel Prize for href="http://www.abouttexts.com">literature in 1983 and was knighted in 1988. Until his death on June 19, 1993 in Perranarworthal, Cornwall, he resided in Wiltshire, England with his wife and two children.

In naming the inspiration for his writing, he states “thunderous great names like Euripides, Sophocles, and perhaps even Herodotus” because “his favorite reading is still Greek literature and history, in the original language.” Indeed, his beliefs of human existence are one much closer ingrained to the ancient Greeks than to any modern view. Until his death, it would seem, he continued this idea of “writing for himself”, Golding once said, his writing is to “help people understand their humanity.”

Sadly human beings are a confused lot.

AboutTexts is a blog dedicated to href="http://www.abouttexts.com">literature and everything else you need to know about your literary figures.</div>

<p align=center>Article source: <a href="http://www.ArticlePros.com/arts_and_entertainment/Literature/article-25065.html">ArticlePros.com</a></p>
 
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		<p align=center><b>About the author</b></p>
		<p align=justify>Shona Caroll is the editor or http://www.abouttexts.com a blog dedicated to <a href="http://www.abouttexts.com">literature</a> for more information log on to http://www.abouttexts.com</p>
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