setting vs character

In literature, authors often provide insight about human nature. Authors use many different techniques and methods to get the audience to understand how human nature works and why, based off their beliefs. But it is the reader’s job to figure out what the author is trying to convey to the reader about human nature. After reading both “I Only Came to Use the Phone” and Lord of the Flies, and examining to what extent both author’s use literature techniques, one realizes that Golding is more effective at conveying the influence of isolation on humans, through decay of setting, characters, and abuse of power.

There are many examples of how Golding is more effective at portraying the affects of isolation on human nature through setting than Garcia. In the short story “I Only Came to Use the Phone”, Garcia Marquez describes the sanatorium as a “…cobbled courtyard of an enormous, gloomy building…” (Marquez 72). This is how Maria sees the building as she first arrives, thus the audience doesn’t see the deterioration of the building happening overtime. Marquez does not further mention the condition of the building on the outside or inside physically, he only mentions the things that take place inside with the people. While Golding on the other hand focuses on the change of setting throughout Lord of the Flies and follows the decomposition of the island throughout the story. When the boys first arrive on the island they notice things on the island as “…fading pink” (Golding 16). But as the isolation takes a larger toll on the children, the reader notices a change in the island setting. Now the island becomes full of “red walls” (Golding 107). Not only does this show the decay of the island, but also the loss of innocence in the boys. Pink i...

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... is working at the sanatorium.

In conclusion, one can determine that Golding’s development of decay in Lord of the Flies is more effective at portraying his beliefs on the affects of isolation on mankind. Garcia Marquez only shows the decay of one character throughout the story, mentions the building only once, and doesn’t show the progression of decay because the reader already knows the characters as decayed or dehumanized. Golding describes the progression of corrosion for more than just one character, talks about the change in setting and how the boys’ view of the island decays, and also shows the change from beginning to end of how the boys are no longer civilized and the affect the island has caused on them.

Works Cited

Golding, William. Lord of the flies. New York: Coward-McCann, 1962. Print.

Strange pilgrims: twelve stories. New York: Knopf, 1993. Print.