GOLDING: THE NOVELIST

 

DR. JYOTI P. MEHTA

N. C. Gandhi & B. V. Gandhi Mahila College, Bhavnagar

 

            [William Golding, the recipient of the Nobel Prize for literature for 1982, is one of the most distinguished writers of the present age. Though his contribution to modern English novel is limited, he still remains a significant and widely recognized novelist.]

 

            Twentieth century is marked with the significant changes in its literary climate. The agony of the post-war conditions compelled the intellectuals to find remedial solutions for the human kind. The established literary values lost their meaning and the prevailing disillusionment and discontentment forced the post-war writers to establish new values and norms of life. Their protest and remedial efforts are revealed through the new experiments in the field of literature. The psychological study of human behaviour, its inner consciousness and, its relationship with reason­ing and time are shown in the stream of consciousness novels by James Joyce and Virginia Woolf. The writers of the theatre of the Absurd, like Ionesco, Samuel Beckett and Albee pursue the theory of existentialism. Amongst all these masters of literature Graham Greene and William Golding stand out separately with their expert handling of eschatological matters.

 

            Golding appeared with his masterpiece on the panorama of English literature; and the publication of his very first novel “Lord of the Flies” (1954) put him in the limelight. His preoccupation with basic feelings of good and evil, hell and heaven, and self-realisation sets him apart from contemporary writers. Golding is a highly committed writer and according to him the prime duty of a writer is to enlighten the society through his writing. At the same time be also believes that a writer should take up the theme which no one else has ever handled. “It seems to me that there’s really very little point in writing novel unless you do something that either you suspected you couldn’t do, or which you are pretty certain nobody else has tried before. I don’t think there is any point in writing two books that are like each other.”

 

            Hence Golding has undertaken a very difficult task to write on an abstract theme and yet make his novels readable. Golding’s mastery over poetic exposition has helped him to come out successfully of the risk he has undertaken.

 

            William Golding, born on 19th Sept. 1911, belongs to a family of teachers. His first interest was in Science fiction. His study of Science fiction developed his thinking but gradually he realised that his real interest was in literature. He graduated in 1935 and married in 1939. He then settled down as a teacher at Bishop Wardsworth’s School, Salisbury. But deep within his heart there was an ambition to become a writer. World War II interrupted him and he joined the Royal Navy. In 1945 he returned from the war and taught English and Philosophy. In 1955 he was made a Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature and in 1966 he was awarded the C. B. E. In 1961 he went for a year as Writer in Residence to Holline College, Virginia in the Allegbanies. Since 1962 Golding has devoted himself solely to writing.

 

            He got first-hand knowledge of violence, when he was with the Royal Navy during the World War II, but the most painful for him to see was people behaving in a most inhuman and selfish way. They had nothing to spare, not even kindness. This hurt him deep within his heart, and compelled him to think about the absolutes of original sin, basic goodness of human heart, God confrontation and need to meditate on it. This deep bruise finds beautiful expression in his writings.

 

            Golding has used his hand at almost all fields of literature. He is a successful parodist. His practice of writing parody has upgraded his original thinking; his intense study of Greek classics has enriched his writings with poetic beauty. His first publication was a collection of poems in 1934. His contribution in the field of drama and essay-writing will certainly give a glimpse of Golding’s literary range, “The Brass Butterfly” (play) came out in 1958.

 

I

 

            His first novel “Lord of the Flies” deals with the story of a group of children isolated on an island. The children are the only survivors of a plane crash during a war. In the beginning the boys have a rosy picture of the life on the island. Ralph becomes the leader of the group and Jack is given the second place as chief of the hunting choir. This causes a split and Jack becomes the chief on his own terms. The group is divided into two: the boys who believe in good and decent are in the group of Ralph and Piggy and the boys who succumb to the evil follow Jack.

 

            Simon, a quiet and withdrawn boy, philosophically surveys the happenings on the island. When Jack and his hunter-party bring the head of a pig, Simon contemplates in his mind that this head of the pig, rotting on its stick is the Lord of the Flies, evil, the dark. The pighead is the symbol of evil, which according to Golding exists in one’s own self. The darkness and evil do not exist in the world outside, but in the world within.

 

            Jack and his followers are turned into murderers. Jack’s hunger for power gives way to his animal instinct, and violence and cruelty become the dominant feature of his nature.

 

            As against that the character of Simon is in the centre of the novel so far as the symbol of the pighead is concerned. Simon is described by Golding as “A Visionary” and “A Christ Figure” in one of his essays “Fable”. His intuitive innocence which makes him realise that unruly passion reads to violence and sufferings. Simon loses his life when he goes to convey the message that they should not search for the beast outside, because it lives in our own self.

 

            Ralph and Piggy do not like Jack’s violence and Crazy passion. But Ralph is just vulnerable in his position of a leader. In order to maintain the discipline and, social order laid down by them, decent Ralph and Piggy join the hunt and the obscene dance arranged by Jack. Piggy is also killed by Jack when he tries to oppose him.

 

            Ralph is devastated by the death of Simon and Piggy. He leaves the kingdom of Jack and sits on the seashore lamenting in the darkness of human heart and overpowering violence and selfishness of human nature. Ralph’s rescue is also very significant. He is saved, but saved by a soldier returning from the war. He is taken back in the world of sophisticated violence, from where he runs away.

 

            Like Simon, Golding is very realistic in his point of view. He does not ignore the existence of evil, he does not close his eyes at the sight of the beast but he tries to see the beast as a beast. He does not preach to us directly about good and evil, but he simply presents before us what man has made of man.

 

            “Lord of the Flies” is a masterpiece of Golding. He calls it a Fable or a myth. The unorthodox theme of the book has proved to be a test case for him, but Golding has survived the test and come out successfully.

 

II

 

            In 1955 Golding published “The Inheritors.” Golding does not allow his novels to move around on easy popularity. His selection of theme and style of presentation is so strange that his novels are not easily understandable by his readers. He is determined to convey what he wants to convey and hence makes his novels more clumsy and intricate.

 

            “The Inheritors” is written in a highly poetic style. The base of the central theme lies in H. G. Wells’s story “The Grisly Folk”. In the “Outline of World History”, Wells has described the Neanderthal man as possibly the mythological bad man. Golding presents the very opposite view regarding Neanderthal man in “The Inheritors.” Wells conveys the idea that the grisly folk can’t dream or feel as a gorilla dreams and feels Golding thinks this absurd and describes the final days of a group of “The People.” In Wells’s story a girl is snatched and killed in righteous self-defence and the Newmen annihilated the grisly folk. In “The Inheritors” aggression is created by the Newmen. Liku and “The New One” are snatched away by the Newmen.

 

            Apemen’s is a matriarchal race. They are the children of mother earth. Oa is the symbol of mother earth and represents innocence, calmness and quiet love. Apemen are emotionally and instinctively attached to the mother Oa. Golding’s sympathy for Apemen is obvious and he believes that amongst the Apemen there were no tensions and everything was shared.

 

The novel opens with the spring time and the Apemen appear with their leader Mal at their summer quarters high above the waterfall. They are in search of a piece of log to rebuild a bridge. Mal and Ha are the responsible people of the group, whereas Lok is no good for leadership. Old woman symbolises Oa and particularly Lok is more attached to her.

 

Lok catches the alien sounds but his reason fails to under­stand or think more about it. Ha, who has gone to collect wood, never returns. Mal also dies by falling into the water while crossing the log. Lok tries to find out Ha, but instead of Ha, he finds the Newmen when he returns. He finds everything is destroyed. Liku and the new one are snatched away. Nil and the old woman are killed. The only survivors are Lok and Fa.

 

The Newmen are hunters and meat-eaters, They are violent furious and patriarchal. Their belief in superstitious rituals and their masculine wilfulness are completely different from the Apemen’s belief in Oa image and their serene oneness with Oa.

 

Lok and Fa escape from the world of the Newmen. There is comfort, tenderness and instinctive oneness in their union. As against that the union of Tuami and Vivani is a violent and sadistic one. The Newmen have created a fear for themselves and their want to destroy the Apemen. Fa is barren, but she has a desire to save the new one and mother it to maturity. But ultimately Fa also dies and is lost in the waterfall. Lok wants to save Liku in order to continue their race. But Lok finds out the bones and a small doll, which Liku used to keep in her hands. He comes to the conclusion that those bones must be of Liku. Frustrated and disheartened, Lok returns to his shelter. He lies down, his knees near his chin, looking at the little doll figure like Oa. Lok meekly accepts the changing world and when he fails to continue his own race, he is overwhelmed with sadistic emotions and thinks himself misfit in his new world, so he quietly unites himself with Oa.

 

Golding here presents two different worlds. One absolutely serene and harmoniously united with motherly tenderness and without tensions. The other is full of violence and superstitions. He allows the readers to visualise his own condition and his affiliation with the Newmen.

 

The book does not end with the pathetic end of Lok. Tuami is the representative Newman. They move away in the boat from the fearsome world. Tuami is not only a leader of his group but also a thinker. He sharpens his dagger to kill the old leader Marlan and get Vivani. But while sharpening the dagger, he thinks that one can kill a man, but who can kill the darkness of the world? As the boat moves amongst the deep, dark wood, the sun shines brightly. This also has a significance in Tuami’s thoughts of darkness and light. Tuami is unaware of his own heritage, but when he sees the little Ape baby jumping and clinging around Vivani’s neck, everything becomes clear before his eyes. Tuami with his self-knowledge is not free from his passions of violence and fear. He does not possess the innocence of Lok and that deep veneration for Oa. Golding is very particular in the development of the novel. The two repre­sentatives Tuami and Lok, represent the two different aspects of life, knowledge and innocence. With the quiet, lonely and silent death of Lok, Golding advocates the compromising view that the violence of the Newmen and the fate of Apemen are inevitable:

 

“The Inheritors” is the most poetic novel of all the novels of Golding. His poetic suggestiveness of the descriptions and the significant use of metaphor are at their best in “The Inheritors.”

 

III

 

“Pincher Martin” is perhaps Golding’s most incompre­hensible novel. The intricacy of the novel is an unavoidable factor for the structure and the experiences described in the novel. The central theme and the art of presentation are harmoniously coherent and make the novel technically perfect.

 

“Pincher Martin” is the extract of Golding’s intention of creating a character which is tragic, pitiable yet impressive and mean. The selfishness, meanness and self-centredness of Pincher is revealed in the novel by the flash-backs of his past life.

 

The novel opens with the struggle for survival of a sailor in the World War II. In the beginning, we are not sure whether Pincher is already dead. This condition continues till the last chapter and in the end some naval officers come to take the body of Pincher. They see that Pincher had no time even to take off his sea-boats. Pincher did not suffer in body, but the book deals with his suffering in spirit.

 

Pincher’s non-existent physical world is described fully and emphasises the fact that the core of the book is spiritual torment and self-awareness. Pincher’s present time and flash-backs from his past life lead him to deep understanding and self-realisation. He creates his own world, perhaps hell. He suffers from hallucinations. His constant effort to adjust himself on the rock shows that he has realised his mistake and he is forced to face his essential self. Pincher’s confrontation with God and his dilemma in the death-state by the image of a “centre” and the “darkness” is the climax of his agonising experiences. He docs not admit the evil in him, although he knows it exists He tries to justify his living for self and asks for God’s mercy. It becomes almost impossible for Pincher to admit the existence of evil in human nature and destroy his own world. The novel moves between the morning and an evening for five days. The morning represents the light, “centre”, and the evening represents the darkness, the evil in human nature. Pincher emerges there from the water, creates his own world, names it, but there his power fails. He is unable to create his own self. At one point he has to admit the fact that the darkness represents the truth of his own life and there is a “centre” which is greater than the self. But he will not acknowledge that.

 

Golding has successfully created the character of a fallen man. The grandeur of the character is to be discovered in the psychological aspect and the ordinariness of human nature. With all the common feelings of greed1 selfishness and meanness. With this complete reality of man’s nature, Golding depicts the facts of life, that darkness can be postponed but ultimately, at one point one has to acknowledge the existence of truth or else he has to suffer in his own created “heaven.”

 

IV

 

“Free Fall” is perhaps the only naturalistic novel of Gold­ing and is free from his typical style of using too many metaphors. The story is woven round his favourite theme of “darkness” and se1f-realisation. It is the story of Sammy’s confession of self-searching.

 

“Free Fall” is the story of a painter, like Pincher Martin. Sammy is also suffering from the vice of the self. For Pincher self-realisation was too late, but for Sammy the most tormenting thing is to know about his vices. Sammy very wisely determines to examine himself and is keen for his self-understanding rather than his art. The story is divided into different phases of his life.

 

The self-examining begins with his childhood. Sammy is an illegitimate child and his mother is a prostitute. His memory reminds him of the days of absolute innocence and freedom from responsibility. After the death of his mother he is adopted by the Rector of the Church. This was surely the end of his innocent, carefree life and the beginning for the moment of responsibility. There is open choice before him and is free to select his own walk of life. The first one is a difficult one, where Sammy has to live a sort of controlled life. The other one shows his free will, always happy with the physical aspects of the world where the return is nil.

 

The second phase of the story shows Sammy’s adolescent period. He talks of his love affair with Beatrice. His love for Beatrice is not free from selfishness. He wants to possess her, he wants to take someone fully under his control. At first his feelings are unselfish but ultimately he falls a victim to selfishness. This fall is also his own choice. For four years he goes on wooing Beatrice, and ultimately when she succumbs, Sammy loses his interest in her. He marries the girl named Taffy, very much contrary to Beatrice.

 

The third phase of his life is a very important one and turns Sammy completely. The change in his life takes place during war time when Sammy becomes a war artist. He is being interrogated about the escape of two fellow-officers. His interrogator Dr. Holde unknowingly makes him aware of himself. Dr. Holde creates a doubt in his mind regarding his own existence, the relative happiness and absolute happiness. He tells Sammy that his life is without any aim, and he is an ordinary man, with only sense impression as his tool. “You do not believe in anything enough to suffer for it or be glad. You wait in a dusty waiting-room on no particular line, for no particular train. And between the poles of belief. I mean the belief in material things, and the belief in a world made and supported by a supreme being you oscillate jerkily from day to day. From hour to hourc.” Thus Halde tempts Sammy to reveal the truth, but when Sammy does not tell the truth, Halde puts him blindfolded in solitary confinement. Sammy’s fear at the dark makes it difficult to live peacefully and the self-torturing starts.

 

Thus, Sammy’s state of doubt, works as a springboard to absolute self-knowledge. Sammy experiences the darkness of the cell and with that he finds out his own dark world. He craves for the illuminated world. But he has no courage to come out of the darkness. The torment and the fear of “the darkness” become unbearable, he tries to come out of this with all his life force, and this is the moment of his self-knowledge and self-searching. Sammy is transfigured: from the physical level to the spiritual level.

 

The fourth phase describes the school days of Sammy and the impression of his teachers on him. He makes his choice of the personalities of his teachers. Sammy’s easy susceptibility for sex, his love for Beatrice make him believe that sex is the measure of everything and that way he tries to justify the relative values of happiness.

 

The last phase of the novel reveals Sammy’s decision to write his apologies. He is reaping the crop of the moment of his choice. He is free to fall, and so in spite of his self-knowledge, he opts for sex and wants the subjugation of Beatrice. Having been devastated by Sammy she is put into a mental home. Sammy accepts his responsibility and realises his wrong choice.

 

At the end of the novel Sammy says that there is no bridge between body and soul. He comes out of the cell to meet his interrogator, but there is none. His case has been dropped. During the cell Sammy achieved his self-realisation and has experienced his transformation to a spiritual level.

 

The novel shows the progress of Sammy’s understanding from selfishness to self- knowledge, from relative happiness to absolute happiness. The last note Golding wants to convey is that there should be some compromise with the ordinary living, the body and the soul.

 

V

 

“The Spire” is a beautiful symbolic novel. It reminds people of their own humanity and conveys the impression that people should be treated as people and not as objects. Again this is the novel where character is more important and the message is conveyed through the behaviour of the character and the growth of situation. Here Golding allows his readers to examine and observe his characters critically. Like Pincher and Sammy, Jocelin also deceives himself throughout the novel and achieves his self-understanding on his death-bed.

 

Jocelin is a visionary dean of the Cathedral. In the eagerness of building a four hundred feet high spire on the church, he uses all sorts of immoral means. He believes in using people as objects. The builders of the spire are against it, as they know the inadequacy of the foundation of the church. Jocelin pushes the matter ahead removing all the obstacles at any cost. He has a great distaste for sex but when he sees a builder named Roger and Goody, the wire of a lame cleaner of the Church Pangall together, he thinks of using Goody to keep Roger there. Sex becomes the tool for the fulfilment of his purpose. Pangall is tortured and humiliated by the builders and is ultimately killed.

 

When Jocelin is deserted by the builders, he realises that they have murdered Pangall. He is confronted with facts, he has ignored so far. After the death of Pangall and Goody’s death in childbirth, he realises his own folly in arranging Goody’s marriage with impotent Pangall and her relationship with Roger. The spire is built on a weak foundation of the cathedral. Jocelin openly confesses his exploitation of the people, but he believes that it is all necessary. The strong violent wind blows up and Jocelin is afraid that the spire may fall, he himself goes up to the top of the spire to uphold it with faith. At that time again he realises his love for Goody and tries to associate it with the achievement of the spire. This realisation of the truth leads him to self-decep­tion. He tries to justify the role he has played in Goody’s life.

 

Finally, a series of happenings is revealed face to face before Jocelin is convinced regarding the truth lying behind his actions. Jocelin no longer makes a fool of himself. He realises that he is also used by his aunt as an object. He thinks that he is the chosen one by God and he has a power to choose others. But it was all deception. His aunt being the mistress of the king uses her powers to choose him and make him the dean of the Cathedral. Jocelin understands that he is also used as he has used others and he is merely a tool in the game of choosing, using and exploiting. The sacrifice of Jocelin is also deceiving. He has misunder­stood his sacrifice. “When I threw myself down and offered myself to the work, I thought that to offer myself was the same as to offer everything. It was my stupidity”3 Thus Jocelin realises his own deception and the way he has ignored the truth throughout his life.

 

In the end he makes a confession before Roger and asks for his forgiveness. But he collapses and on his death-bed he knows the complete truth. In order to fulfil his own desire he has used Goody and Roger, Pangall and Roger’s wife too. Here we find Golding’s mastery over the poetic use of symbols. A beautiful symbol “The Apple Tree.” Jocelin is reminded of a beautiful apple tree blooming with flowers. But his thoughts remind him that besides the flowers and fruits, the roots and branches are also there. There can exist no glory without their support. Jocelin compares his thoughts with this, his desire for the glodous spire and his disregard for the foundation. Jocelin is happy with his confession and accepts his self-deception, his errors and the ultimate truth.

 

The fundamental point in his novels is self-realisation and the progress from complete blindness towards illumination. Golding talks about darkness and light, self-knowledge and self-realisation, but he does not talk about man’s behaviour after achieving self-awareness. His masterly craftsmanship is revealed in the characterisation of Pincher, Sammy and Jocelin. He does not preach anything directly but through the characters of Pincher. Sammy and Jocelin, he talks about the compromise between body and soul. Like Pincher, only the physical aspect of life is also not possible and like Jocelin, pseudo spirituality also cannot exist. The understanding of humanity and, through humanity the harmonious integration of physical and spiritual aspect can lead us to the absolute happiness.

 

VI

 

Golding seems to have changed his entire style of writing in his last novel. “The Pyramid.” His first five novels are marked by a serious note. In fact Golding brings a tinge of comedy from the “Free Fall.” Some of the characters in “Free Fall” are both grotesque and moving. But “The Pyramid” is an alloy of comic and saddening expressions. The novel is made of three different stories suitably connected with one another. Oliver, the hero of the novel, feels and experiences all the natural feelings. There is nothing spiritual or complex in his life, as a Pincher or Sammy. The story is told in the third person and deals with three different phases of Oliver’s life. The first two stories are connected with Oliver’s youth and in the third story we find him a mature man.

 

The first story moves round Oliver and Evie. It begins with a note of comedy and ends with a saddening tone. The love theme is strictly restricted to love in the sense of sexuality. Oliver wants to have sex with Evie at any cost. At the same time Evie, who is under the brutal control of her father, lives an absolutely confused and disorderly life, plans to seduce him. After some years when Oliver meets Evie, she reveals her masochistic condition and puts all the blame of her nymphomania on him. Oliver gradually starts understanding her.

 

In the second story Oliver is an undergraduate devoted to Science and meets Mr. de Tracy, the camp guest producer. Oliver talks about the meaning of existence. This also shows his dilemma over self-assertion.

 

The third story is a combination of tragic and comic tones· Bounce, Oliver’s music teacher, is a spinster. The harshness of her father has made her ungracious and mannish. She is looked after by a garrage owner, who has prospered by Bounce’s money. She also feels that she is being used and this feeling creates mental disorder. To get affection from Henry and draw his attention towards her, she drives her car recklessly, but ultimately, unfulfilled and unsatisfied, she walks nude in the street.

 

Oliver as a mature man, visits Bounce’s grave and understands that she was an unfulfilled woman. The sadistic end of Bounce’s life makes him realise the worldly practicality that “pay one must but no more than a reasonable price.” 4 

 

“The Pyramid” is the only book in which Golding is free from his original mood, yet in the third part of the story, his typical style and mood is clearly visible. This tragic-comic mood is not continued till the end. The story reveals the slow process of Oliver’s self-awareness.

 

VII

 

Thus Golding tries to switch over from serious to a lighter tone in his last novel, but he, being basically an Aeschyleam, preoccu­pied with human tragedy and absolute happiness, fails to do it successfully. In his first five novels Golding does not allow any liberty or concession to easy reading. The undercurrent of all the six novels remains the same and that is self-realisation. Golding is greatly moved by the inhumanity of war time and his brooding over the futility of earthly happiness and the basic faith in humanity finds religious exposition in his first five novels. The strong moral tone of his novels has earned him the prestige of a religious writer. His sense of religion is not confined to rituals and the church but embraces better human life and its understand­ings. Golding’s use of symbols shows his myth making mind. Though he excels in the technique of the novel form, his narration, and treatment of the subject sometimes become incomprehensible because of the many myths and symbols that he uses. But in spite of the intricacy of the plot and descriptions, his poetic and mesmerising imagination and aesthetic pleasure have earned him a classic value. With his limited literary output, Golding has made himself predominant in the galaxy of the post-war British writers.

 

References

 

1 F. Kermode, Interview with Golding for BBC on August 28, 1959.

2 Free Fall, p. 76.

3 The Spire, p. 194.

4 Leighton, Hodson, Golding, Oliver & Boyd, Edinburgh, 1969. p. 106.

 

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