The Inheritors William Golding

WILLIAM GOLDING AND HIS MAJOR NOVELS William Golding was born on September 19, 1911, St. Columb Minor, Cornwall, England and died on June 19, 1993, Wiltshire, England. He was an internationally acclaimed British novelist and essayist who won the Nobel Prize for literature in 1983. He grew up during World War I and later served in the British Royal Navy during World War II. During the 1930s Golding worked at a variety of teaching posts and managed to write, act, and produce some works for the London theater. In 1939 he married Ann Brookfield and accepted a teaching job at the Bishop Wordsworth School in Salisbury. When World War II began, Golding volunteered for the navy and served until the end of the war. He eventually rose to command a

What makes the novel unique in his output is that it is also about the clash of civilizations. Golding raises questions about the appropriateness of people with advanced technology using their superiority to take advantage of and eventually annihilate other people. There are also allusions to the biblical Garden of Eden. These themes were significant at the time the novel was written because of historical events such as the Holocaust and the legacy of colonialism. Instances of ethnic cleansing in the late twentieth century reinforce the importance of Golding's writing on cultural differences. Golding presents the Neanderthals as gentle and innocent people who have limited verbal ability and tool use. Their story is told through the eyes of the central character, Lok. The members of his group are in the midst of traveling from their summer to their winter habitat when they encounter a group of superior homo sapiens (the cro-magnards, or others). Eleven of the 12 chapters are presented from Lok's point of view, while the final chapter is seen from the perspective of Tuami, leader of the

Golding's fiction is strongly allegorical and marked by allusions to classical literature, mythology, and Christianity. The majority of his works revolves around the theme of humanity's inherent evil and are marked by strong character development. While Golding produced many novels and other works following Lord of the Flies, none had the commercial success of his first novel, though several received widespread critical acclaim. His 1980 novel, Rites of Passage, received the prestigious Booker Award. In addition, in 1983 he was awarded the Nobel Prize for his lifelong contributions to English literature. That same year Oxford granted him an honorary doctorate. In 1988 he was again recognized for his contributions when he was knighted by Queen Elizabeth