Page 286 - DENG404_FICTION

Fiction

Notes

Notes In 2005, Time Magazine named the novel one of the 100 best English-language
novels since 1923.

A continuing controversy surrounding the political message of the novel and its view of
human nature has led some readers to challenge its status as a book suitable for children. The
American Library Association thus positioned Lord of the Flies at number 70 on its list of the
100 most challenged books of 1990–2000. Among literary critics of the late twentieth and early
twenty-first centuries, however, Lord of the Flies has been revisited less as an allegory of
human evil than as a literary expression of Cold War ideology. This historicizing does not do
justice to the novel. But in terms of reception history, contemporary critics are right to note
that the novel’s position at the center of many English curricula across America and Great
Britain during the Cold War illustrates how the pedagogy of literature has been used to
bolster national identity and ideology.

24.3 Summary

• Lord of the Flies is a novel by Nobel Prize-winning author William Golding about a
group of British boys stuck on a deserted island who try to govern themselves, with
disastrous results.
• In 1954, Golding published his first novel, Lord of the Flies, which details the adventures
of British schoolboys stranded on an island in the Pacific who descend into barbaric
behavior.
• Golding’s final works include Darkness Visible (1979), the story of a boy horribly injured
during the London blitz of World War II, and Rites of Passage (1980).
• Golding’s allusions to human evolution also reflect his scientific training.
• Lord of the Flies was not an instant success, selling fewer than 3,000 copies before going
out of print in 1955.

24.4 Keywords

Disastrous : causing great damage
Spire : the upper tapering part of the spiral shell of a gastropod mollusc.
Pessimistic : lack of hope or confidence in the future.

24.5 Review Questions

1. Which is called the Golding’s first novel in his literary career?
2. What are the collections of essays of Golding?
3. Bring out the title reference for “Lord of the flies”.

Answers: Self Assessment

1. (c) William Golding 2. (b) 2005

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