A Feminist Exploration of Lord of the Flies

By Zheng Lili

In partial fulfillment of the requirement

For the B. A. degree

Department of English

School of Languages and Cultures

Nanjing University of Information Science amp; Technology

June, 2016

Acknowledgments

The fulfillment of this thesis ends my four years of study as an undergraduate student in Nanjing University of Information Science amp; Technology. Whether in my study or life, I have benefited a lot during the past four years. Therefore, I would like to express my heartfelt gratitude to all those who helped me during the writing of this thesis.

To begin with, I gratefully acknowledge the help of my supervisor, Prof. Zhao Yamin, who has given me useful advice in writing the thesis. In the process of paper revision, she has spent much time reading through each draft and offered me with instructive suggestions.

I should finally like to express my gratitude to my classmates and my parents who have always been helping me out of difficulties during the development of this paper.

Contents

1. Introduction - 2 -

2. Feminism and Connotation - 3 -

3. The relationship between feminism and female marginalization in the novel - 6 -

3.1 The female roles in Lord of the Flies - 6 -

3.2 The female marginalization in Lord of the Flies - 8 -

4. The symbolism of female absence in Lord of the Flies - 9 -

5. The inspiration of female absence - 11 -

6. Conclusion - 12 -

References..............................................................................................................-14-

An Analysis of Feminism in Lord of the Flies

Zheng Lili

Department of English

School of Languages and Cultures

Nanjing University of Information Science amp; Technology

Abstract: Ever since Lord of the Flies, written by William Golding, was published, it has triggered off lots of heated discussions and has received all kinds of criticism from different critics because of the absence of women in this novel. However, it still has great and profound impacts on the literary world. In order to better understand feminist thoughts of the marginalization of women in Lord of the Flies, this paper decoded female absence in Lord of the Flies with feminism. Through the analysis of Lord of the Flies, the real purpose of female marginalization in the novel is to emphasize the significant position of women in the society, which is still of some significance today.

Key words: Feminism, Lord of the Flies, William Golding, Female marginalization

摘要： 自英国作家威廉·戈尔丁的作品《蝇王》问世以来，因为小说中女性的缺席引发了各界评论家的热烈讨论和批评，但是这部作品仍然在世界文坛中有着广泛而深远的影响。为了更好地理解《蝇王》中女性边缘化所蕴含的女性主义思想，本文将从女性主义的角度来解读《蝇王》中女性的缺席。通过对小说《蝇王》的解读，我们不难发现小说将女性边缘化的真实目的恰恰是为了强调女性在社会中不可替代的地位，这一点在当今社会依然有着一定的现实意义。

关键词： 女性主义；《蝇王》；威廉·戈尔丁；女性边缘化

Introduction

William Golding, a celebrated British novelist and poet, was the winner of Nobel Prize in literature in 1983, and Lord of the Flies was his magnum opus. He joined in the World War II, and witnessed quantities of inhuman massacres. That is why his novels are full of allegorical attributes, widely blended with classical literature, myth, Christian culture and symbolism. Many people consider Lord of the Flies as a fairy tale for children, while the fact is that the novel is a philosophical and complicated story for adults. The novel tells a story of a group of 6-12 year-old schoolboys trapped in a deserted island because of the air crash during their retreat in the imaginary WWIII. In the beginning, like a flock of birds set free, all those boys get along well with each other in the isle, following the commandments of the leader, attempting to resume a democratic and civilized life as before. Afterwards, since they have been far away from other people and civilization, the devils in the hearts of the children gradually swell. These boys are separated into two groups, one led by Ralph, in which Piggy and Simon are on behalf of the civilization and the moral bottom line. The other group is led by Jack, with Roger who is fond of hunting. They get rid of all the constraints of civilization. They paint their faces, keep naked, and eventually become savages. Driven by the evil of human nature, the two groups of boys fight with each other and it ends up in tragedy, where the goodness, justice and sense in human nature all vanished.

People are often interested in the reason why Golding could write such a novel. In his early years, Golding followed his parents’ will to learn natural science, but when he was sophomore, he changed his mind to learn English literature. This decision totally altered his life. Since then, he wrote poems, played and directed dramas, and he was also a scriptwriter. Before World War II broke out, he worked as a teacher in a local school and joined in British Royal Navel in 1940. When the war was over, he came back to school and continued to teach and write. There are mainly two reasons why he wrote Lord of the Flies. Firstly, the long-term experience of military life made him doubt about human nature. Fascist atrocities confused him about the recognition of humanity and they also promoted him to think about the causes of the war--what on the earth led to this disaster? Secondly, Golding knew very well about the psychology of teenagers giving the credit to his ten years’ teaching experience. After years of observation and researches, he found that children were likely to fight and exchange blows or do any other barbaric acts without the instruction and curb from their teachers. It can be seen that the evil of human beings is naturally expressed by the kids. The manuscript of Lord of the Flies has been refused many times, but after being rejected for 20 times, it was finally published in 1954.

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