The Three Grades Of Thinking By William Golding

William Golding demonstrates his view of thinking in his short reading. He begins with an important part of his life when he thinks back into his childhood at his headmaster’s room and noticed three statuettes on the cupboard. He has always noticed these statuettes, but never thought of them as anything until he became more mature. He uses these statuettes to symbolize the three grades of thinking. The three grades of thinking are, grade-three, grade-two, and grade-one.

To start off, Golding mentions that grade-three thinkers are the type of people that follow orders and not able to think for themselves. They act just like robots. He also says that they do not have any control over their emotions. I would have to say that Golding is absolutely right on this. A great line by Golding says, “A crowd of grade-three thinkers, all shouting the same thing, all warming their hands at the fire of their own prejudices, will not thank you for pointing out the contradictions in their belief.” (Golding). Once reading this quote, all I can imagine is a bunch of protestors having a biased opinion without thinking about the other side 's reasoning. One

These statuettes are first shown in the headmaster’s room on his cupboard. They were always on the cupboard throughout the story indicating that they were of importance. One was Venus de Milo, she wore nothing but a bath towel. She has a fear of dropping her bath towel, because she has no arms and has a panicked expression written on her body. This statuette symbolizes a grade-three thinker because of the constant emotions. Another statuette was the leopard. It is in a pounce position, ready to attack it’s prey. This symbolizes a grade-two thinker, because other people will jump on a grade-two thinker when they try to think of a something themselves. The last statuette is The Thinker. The Thinker is always thinking, which symbolized how a grade-one thinker