Thesis: A running theme in William Golding's works is that man is savage
        at heart, always ultimately reverting back to an evil and primitive
        nature.

     I.  The fall of man
         A.  Lord of the Flies
         B.  The Inheritors

         C.  Free Fall
         D.  Pincher Martin

    II.  Golding as a theologian

         A.  Lord of the Flies
         B.  The Inheritors

         C.  Pincher Martin
   III.  Man's fear
         A.  Lord of the Flies
         B.  The Inheritors

         C.  Pincher Martin
    IV.  The island
 

 Golding's Themes
A running theme in William Golding's works is that man is savage at heart, always ultimately reverting
back to an evil and primitive nature. The cycle of man's rise to power, or righteousness, and his
inevitable fall from grace is an important point that Golding proves again and again in many of his
works, often comparing man with characters from the Bible to give a more vivid picture of his
descent. Golding symbolizes this fall in different manners, ranging from the illustration of the mentality
of actual primitive man to the reflections of a corrupt seaman in purgatory.
William Golding's first book, Lord of the Flies, is the story of a group of boys of different
backgrounds who are marooned on an unknown island when their plane crashes. As the boys try to
organize and formulate a plan to get rescued, they begin to separate and as a result of the dissension
a band of savage tribal hunters is formed. Eventually the "stranded boys in Lord of the Flies almost
entirely shake off civilized behavior: (Riley 1: 119). When the confusion finally leads to a manhunt
[for Ralph], the reader realizes that despite the strong sense of British character and civility that has
been instilled in the youth throughout their lives, the boys have backpedaled and shown the
underlying savage side existent in all humans. "Golding senses that institutions and order imposed
from without are temporary, but man's irrationality and urge for destruction are enduring" (Riley 1:
119). The novel shows the reader how easy it is to revert back to the evil nature inherent in man. If a
group of well-conditioned school boys can ultimately wind up committing various extreme travesties,
one can imagine what adults, leaders of society, are capable of doing under the pressures of trying to
maintain world relations.

      Lord of the Flies's apprehension of evil is such that it touches
    the nerve of contemporary horror as no english novel of its time has
       done; it takes us, through symbolism, into a world of active,
  proliferating evil which is seen, one feels, as the natural condition of
  man and which is bound to remind the reader of the vilest manifestations
                     of Nazi regression (Riley 1: 120).
Golding's primary goal in writing Lord of the Flies is to create a readable story that people can
relate to that conveys the message that man always reverts back to his savage nature. When he
wrote the novel, he was "striving to move behind the conventional matter of the contemporary novel
to a view of what man, or pre-man, is like when the facade of civilized behavior falls away" (Riley 1:
119).
The Inheritors is Golding's second book. The death of the leader of a small group of simple-minded
Neanderthals reduces their number to seven and the people find themselves tossed into a world with
few pictures. The people think in terms of pictures; they have not yet learned to think rational
thoughts. Golding labeled the characters with such names as "Fa", "Lok", and "Ha" to emphasize the
simplicity of the society. When a new tribe of more advanced people discover the Neanderthals,
they see them as devils and try to kill them. However, the Neanderthals are too naive to realize the
motives of the new people, and they are only confused when their members begin to disappear. In
the end, all of the Neanderthals are dead except for one, and the new people are the inheritors of the
earth.
It is ironic that the more advanced people are considered to be ore advanced. The innocents are
peaceful and the new people are aggressive; they have regressed to a more savage state than even
the savages. The new people "are our ancestors because their behavior matches that of the school
boys in Lord of the Flies" (Baker 19). The boys in Lord of the Flies hunted each other because
they were separated by the conflict caused by different views on the existence of a monster; the new
people in The Inheritors hunted the Neanderthals because they were monsters, or devils. "Golding
implies that the long course of evolution has brought no fundamental change in human nature. We are
today essentially what we were in the past" (Baker 19). In the Inheritors, man evolved backwards
a step in terms of his savagery. Golding is making the statement that with each cycle of human
evolution, the evil nature of man becomes more and more apparent. "though we have inherited the
earth, we remain hunters and ritualists, using our weapons and incantations with the same seriousness
and blind conceit that possessed the first of our kind" (Baker 19). Both Lord of the flies and The
Inheritors pit two tribes against one another to demonstrate that man is not "a rational creature in
control of his own destiny" (Baker 19). At the conclusion of The Inheritors, one of the tribal leaders
of the new men is rationalizing the murder of the innocents just as the boys in Lord of the Flies
rationalize their manhunt as just a game (Baker 24). This is another example of Golding's integration
of the darkness of man's heart into his novels. None of the characters take responsibility for their
wrongdoings. The last scene in The Inheritors is of the inheritors sailing away on a huge lake. A vast
isolated lake on which a few lost souls are sailing aimlessly provides a vivid image of the lonely,
directionless state of man. This is the symbol Golding chose to use to illustrate the hopelessness and
emptiness of man's heart.
The one Neanderthal that remained living after the ordeal in The Inheritors was a newborn child.
One of the women in the new tribe adopted the child as her own because she had lost a child on
their journey. This action is demonstrative of the hypocrisy of which the inheritors are guilty. They
killed the simple savages because they were monsters, and yet they toss this devil into their society to
make up for the loss of a single life. This is another example of the human selfishness which Golding
so loathed and strove to point out in his works.
Golding's third novel, Free Fall, deals with the fall of man in terms of patterns. The novel is about
Sammy Mountjoy, an artist who flounders with the origins of his loneliness and unhappiness. Sammy
is somewhat of a contemptible man; he badly exploits his lover and toys with the minds of the people
around him. He lived a peaceful childhood, but like Golding, felt isolated at times. Mountjoy looks
back on his adolescent years and tries to make the connection between his serene youth and his
stormy adulthood. "There is no connection between the uncommitted boy and the self-concious
fallen man" (Baker 60). Golding believes that life is natural and patternless and that it remains so until
men intervene and press their patterns upon it. Man's mistake is that he fails to realize this
patternlessness and invariably goes arrogantly about his life without any idea of his transgression.
golding said in an interview by Owen Webster that "learning to live fearlessly with the natural chaos
of existence, without forcing artificial patterns on it" is the basic problem of man (Baker 56). The
very title of the novel -- Free Fall -- even suggests the fall of man.
Pincher Martin is Golding's first actual exploration of the after-life of a fallen man. In the novel,
Lieutenant Christopher Hadley Martin, of the Royal Navy, is on the verge of killing a fellow officer
while in the North Atlantic on convoy duty during World War II when a torpedo fired by the
opposition strikes his ship. Martin is thrown overboard and is apparently marooned on a rock jutting
out of the ocean. He remains there for seven days reflecting on his life and is finally washed off of the
rock in a storm. It is at this point that he seems to die. At the end of the novel, it becomes evident to
the reader that Martin has not actually been marooned on the rock for seven days, but that that was
actually a hallucination of his soul. There are two basic theories as to what actually happened. In the
first, Martin experiences a flashback and his life flashes before his eyes. The second theory is that his
soul is in purgatory before he realizes that he is no longer alive. In any event, his body ceased to live
instantly after he was thrown from the ship.
Christopher Martin was, indeed, a pincher, and Golding nicknamed the man accordingly. Martin
pilfered things from other people and while he was in purgatory (that is the more popular theory
among critics), he was relieved of these items, at least in spirit. He was a corrupt man and this is
multiplied by the fact that just before he was killed, he was plotting and attempting to carry out the
murder of one of his peers. Had Golding chosen to dash a clergyman with an immaculate soul to
death on the rocks, the illustration of man's malevolent roots would not have been nearly as vivid.
The priest would perhaps have seen the times in his life that he had thought ill things towards others,
among other trifling sins, but the image is not quite as clear as the one of a man who cheats people, is
covetous, and is an overall unrepentant sinner. Golding created a character with whom many readers
can identify, although on a ower level, and this is how he makes the point in Pincher Martin that
man is ultimately evil. Frank Kermode stated in an interview with Golding that "the struggle on the
rock is of mythical proportion in that Martin, an arch-sinner, represents 'fallen man'" (Baker 37). In
reply, Golding said that Martin is "very much fallen -- He's fallen more than most. In fact, I went out
of my way to damn Pincher as much as I could by making him the nastiest type I could think of, and
I was very interested to see how critics all over the place said, 'Well yes, we are like that'" (Baker
37).
Pincher Martin brought his suffering and damnation upon himself because he refused to admit that
there was a power above him. "Christopher Martin's soul tries to survive on its own terms, and it
pays for this conceit by perpetuating the misery it knew in life" (Baker 45). This arrogance is another
of the personality flaws in humans that inhibits their true rise to righteousness. Mankind tends to think
"we are at the top of the food chain and we are the most evolved species, therefore we have to
answer to no one," and Golding proves this attitude wrong by making Christopher Martin answer to
himself.
In his first three books, Lord of the Flies, Pincher Martin, and Free Fall, Golding "employed
traditional form" and contributed to the impression that he was a deeply traditional thinker" (Baker
xvi). Many critics thought of Golding as "an old-fashioned Christian moralist" while others felt that he
was an existentialist (Baker xvii). Golding's reputation as a staunch Christian* is supported by his
inclusion of Christian symbols and motifs in his works.
In Lord of the Flies, Simon is a peaceful lad who tries to show the boys that there is no monster on
the island except the fears that the boys have. "Simon tries to state the truth: there is a beast, but 'it's
only us'" (Baker 11). When he makes this revelation, he is ridiculed. This is an uncanny parallel to the
misunderstanding that Christ had to deal with throughout his life. Later in the story, the savage
hunters are chasing a pig. Once they kill the game, they erect its head on a stick and Simon
experiences an epiphany in which he "sees the perennial fall which is the central reality of our history:
the defeat of reason and the release of... madness in souls wounded by fear" (Baker 12). As Simon
rushes to the campfire to tell the boys of his discovery, he is hit in the side with a spear, his prophecy
rejected and the word he wished to spread ignored. Simon falls to the ground dead and is described
as beautiful and pure. The description of his death, the manner in which he died, and the cause for
which he died are remarkably similar to the circumstances of Christ's life and ultimate demise. The
major inconsistency is that Christ died on the cross, while Simon was speared. However, a reader
familiar with the Bible recalls that Christ was stabbed in the side with a a spear before his crucifixion.
In The Inheritors, the child that remains living after the rest of the Neanderthals are dead is
hesitantly adopted into the Homo Sapien society despite the fact that it is an outcast. It is different,
pure, and is not readily accepted by the new people. This rejection of something different symbolizes
the rejection that Christ faced daily. The fact that the child was brought into the society despite its
differences is representative of the attitudes of people who did accept Christ.
The murders of the primitive men in The Inheritors symbolizes the end of an era. The time of
innocence has ended at the hands of a devious, evil people. The Homo Sapiens assumed that the
Neanderthals were evil without first carefully observing them to discover what their true nature was.
The first fearful reaction of the new people was to kill the outcasts because they were different. Jesus
Christ walked the Earth as a different type of man. His holiness was a threat to the scribes and
Pharisees and so they had him killed without first carefully observing what his true nature was.
Golding, a historian, was aware of this when he wrote The Inheritors and he included the parallel
not only to indicate to readers man's general lack of ability to accept others, but to trace this
shortcoming back to man's roots.
In Pincher Martin, Martin was stranded on the island (or in purgatory) for a period of seven days.
Over this time, he considered the elements of which he was composed. The duration of seven days
as well as the reflection of Martin's evil origins parallel the Biblical portrayal of the creation of man.
Golding parallels stories from the Bible, particularly the persecution and crucifixion of Christ, to
compare humans to a more Godly man. The comparison and the ultimate dethroning of the
Christ-figure, or the failure by man, in the Biblical situation shows the vile state of the human race as
perceived by Golding.
Many of William Golding's works discuss, in some context, man's capacity for fear and cowardice.
In Lord of the Flies, the boys on the island first encounter a natural fear of being stranded on an
uncharted island without the counsel of adults. Once the boys begin to organize and begin to feel
more adult-like themselves, the fear of monsters takes over. It is understandable that boys ranging in
ages from toddlers to young teenagers would have fears of monsters, especially when it is taken into
consideration that the children are stranded on the island. Golding wishes to show, however, that
fear is an emotion that is instinctive and active in humans from the very beginnings of their lives. This
revelation uncovers another weakness in man, supporting Golding's belief that man is pathetic and
savage at the very core of his existence. Throughout the novel, there is a struggle for power between
two groups. This struggle illustrates man's fear of losing control, which is another example of his
selfishness and weakness. The fear of monsters is natural; the fear of losing power is inherited.
Golding uses these vices to prove the point that any type of uncontrolled fear contributes to man's
instability and will ultimately lead to his [man's] demise spiritually and perhaps even physically.
The primary fear that Golding discusses in The Inheritors is the fear of monsters. The new people
viewed the Neanderthals as devils and killed them accordingly. The inheritors' reaction to their terror
was not thought out; the message that Golding wishes to convey is that fear often leads man to hasty
and often unwise decisions. Humans cannot control their fear, and this supports Golding's idea that
man is not in control of his own destiny, as he would like to believe.
Christopher Martin, in Pincher Martin, was afraid of a higher power. There were no monsters for
him to fear and losing his power is not a concern he holds; he is secure in his position as a lieutenant
in the Navy. He does, however, refuse to admit that a controlling power greater than himself exists.
A refusal to admit something is often indicative of fear. For example, alcoholics frequently deny their
drinking problems because they are afraid of the consequences. The same is true of Pincher Martin
and his theory that he is in control of his life. A defamation such as the one Martin would face if he
admitted that he was not almighty would be degrading to him, and the inferiority complex that could
result is not a pleasant thought to him. Golding wishes to expose the evils of arrogance and
self-centeredness. If one feels that he has no higher power to answer to, his principles will sink lower
and lower. Martin cheated people throughout his life and eventually wound up plotting to kill a man.
Golding incorporates into his his work many islands. "The island is an important symbol in all of
Golding's works. It suggests the isolation of man in a frightening and mysterious cosmos, and the
futility of his attempt to create an ordered preserve for himself in an otherwise patternless world"
(Baker 26). The island in Lord of the Flies is the actual island; it is not simply an island, though. It is
a microcosm of life itself, the adult world, and the human struggle with his own loneliness. In The
Inheritors, the island is more metaphorical. The fact that the original tribe of people are the last of
the Neanderthals isolates them. The primitives are unable to link their metaphorical island with its
respective mainland because they lack the common physical and mental characteristics that the new
people possess. Christopher Martin's soul (and apparently for a little while, at least, his body) is
abandoned on the protruding rock in the ocean. This separates him from the physical adn spiritual
worlds so that his sparates him from the physical adn spiritual worlds so that his soul can process his
situation and torment itself in privacy.
"Left alone on the island of the self, man discovers the reality of his
own dark heart, and what he discovers is too abominable for him to
endure.  At the highest pitch of terror he makes the only gesture he can
make -- a raw, instinctive appeal for help, for rescue" (Baker 67).
William Golding's popular theme that man is, and always has been, essentially evil by nature is
apparent in many of his works. Man grows more savage at heart as he evolves because of his
cowardice and his quest for power. Golding proves this by throwing together opposing forces
(whether the forces be two tribes of conflicting boys or the inner conflict of a condemned man) into a
situation that dowses them with power struggles and frightening situations. By comparing mankind in
general to Biblical characters in similar scenarios, Golding provides images of the darker side of man.
This darker side of man's nature inevitably wins and man is proven to be a pathetic race that refuses
to accept responsibility for its shortcomings.
* It has been brought to my attention that Golding was apparently not Christian, but was Jewish. I
haven't looked further into this yet, but I recommend that you do so, so that you do not write a false
statement in a paper, as I apparently did.
A couple of years after the preceding paragraph (Dec. 1, 1999, to be exact), someone else offered
me evidence that Golding wasn't Jewish. I never got around to looking for an answer on my own.
Anyway, so read at your own risk

 Works Cited
Baker, James R.  William Golding, A Critical Study.  New York:
     St. Martin's Press, 1965.
Golding, William.  Free Fall.  London: Faber and Faber, 1959.
Golding, William.  Lord of the Flies.  New York: Harcourt, 1962.
Golding, William.  The Inheritors.  New York: Harcourt, 1962.
Riley, Carolyn, ed.  Vol. 1 of Contemporary Literary Criticism.
     Detroit: Gale Research Company, 1973.

© Copyright 1995 Daryl L. Houston