tish novelist and poet Nobel Prize winner Best known for his novel Lord of the Flies
Jan 17, 2016
British novelist and poet
Nobel Prize winner
Best known for his novel
Lord of the Flies
In 1985 Golding and his wife moved to Cornwall, where he died of heart failure on June 19, 1993.
He was buried in the village churchyard.
Golding & wife Ann Golding and Ann (m. 1939) taken on leave during the Second
World War autumn 1944
Golding & infant daughter Judy
summer 1946
Golding hears Nobel newsOctober 1983.
Golding at Nobel Ceremony
10 December 1983Golding receives
Nobel Prize
Sir William and Lady GoldingNewly knighted
at Buckingham Palace, July 1988
Lord of the Flies is an allegorical novel that discusses how culture, created by man, fails, using as an example a group of British school-boys stuck on a deserted island who try to govern themselves but with disastrous results.
William GoldingThe Nobel Prize in Literature 1983
In 2005, the novel was chosen by TIME magazine as one of the 100 best English-language novels from 1923 to the present.
William GoldingThe Nobel Prize in Literature 1983
Published in 1954, Lord of the Flies became a bestseller only by 1960. It was required reading in many schools and colleges.
William GoldingThe Nobel Prize in Literature 1983
The title is said to be a reference to the Hebrew name Beelzebub ( "god of the fly", "host of the fly" or literally "Lord of Flies"), a name sometimes used as a synonym for Satan.
William GoldingThe Nobel Prize in Literature 1983
The book was written during the first years of the Cold War and the atomic age; the events arise in the context of an unnamed nuclear war.
The main theme is the conflicting impulses towards civilization (to live by rules, peacefully and in harmony), and towards the will to power .
The story itself takes place on an isolated island. A plane has crashed and there are no adult survivors.
The survivors rapidly side with one of two dominant boys: Ralph and another older boy named Jack -the head of a choir group.
The children split into two groups.
William GoldingThe Nobel Prize in Literature 1983
For a time, the boys work together building
shelters, gathering food and water, and keeping the
fire going. Ralph's group continues holding the belief
that preserving the signal fire is the necessary focus.
William GoldingThe Nobel Prize in Literature 1983
Jack becomes the chief of his own tribe,
focusing on hunting and gradually, Jack and his
group turn to being savages, having murdered
two of the boys and intending to kill Ralph.
William GoldingThe Nobel Prize in Literature 1983
Jack, nearly complete in his demonic role as the ultimate savage, sets the entire island ablaze.
However, the fire started by Jack is so large that it has attracted the attention of a nearby warship. Ralph is rescued.
The readers become aware of the darkness of human nature.
William GoldingThe Nobel Prize in Literature 1983
William GoldingThe Nobel Prize in Literature 1983