William Golding uses children, instead of adults, to inhabit and attempt to create a civil society on an abandoned island to demonstrate and reveal humanity's inherent wickedness. Golding chose to comment on the Christian concept of original sin in the novel which suggests that humans are born immoral with a predisposed affinity for violence and savagery. Children obviously have spent a lesser amount of time living in civilized society than adults. Their brief exposure to the rules and regulations of civil society bring them closer to man's original condition. The biguns are old enough to understand concepts such as democracy and moral behavior while the littluns are essentially "blank slates." Adults would more than likely possess the ability to establish an organized civil society because these concepts are deeply ingrained in them. The children's innocent nature and brief experience in civilized society allow Golding to express how man's inherently evil nature destroys any hope in morality and civility.
No comments:
Post a Comment