LECTURE 32NOVEL II

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SYNOPSIS

Comparison between James Joyce and Virginia Woolf

A Comprehensive talk on The Lord of the Flies

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COMPARISON BETWEEN JAMES JOYCE AND VIRGINIA WOOLF

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Virginia Woolf

The adoption of the interior monologue

Plot is reduced to the minimum

There are simultaneous time and chronological time

Omniscient third person narrator

The shift of the point of view

Poetical language with poetical devices

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James Joyce

Stream of consciousness

Simultaneous time

No punctuation

Narrative realism

Mythic method

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STREAM OF CONSCIOUSNESSDIFFERENCE OF VIEW

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What is the Stream of consciousness ?

Stream of consciousness

a narrative device to depict the multitudinous thoughts

and feelings which pass through the mind.

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The different use of stream of consciousness In James Joyce

Intellectual analysis of human being supported by a searched and brave language ( metaphors and new words) and without the inseriment of the third person narrator 

extreme objectivity of events,

and the narrator is covered

in Virginia Woolf

Use the third narrator, and indirect interior monologue to represent a gap between chronological and interior time, the retoric speech of analogy rappresents a lighthouse for for the reader

the narrator is also present, he helps the reader to orient in the text

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EPIPHANY: THE COINCIDENCE POINT

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Epiphany

“a sudden spiritual manifestation, whether in the vulgarity of speech or of gesture or in a

memorable phase of the mind itself. He believed that

it was for the man of letters to record these epiphanies with extreme care, seeing that they

themselves are the most delicate and evanescent of moments. “ quotation by James Joyce’ s Stephen hero

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Finality of epiphany in James Joyce

it is a realization that occurs at the end of the story (it has a similar function to moral in fairy tales), it happens at a time like lightning (in a short part of time).

in Virginia Woolf

it is a process that develops during the all story, it is the result of a reflection in a very long time.

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Musicality in James Joyce and Virginia Woolf

Fonetic retoric speech

In both artist have function to find the

associations between the events described and memories to start the reflections of themselves

Accompany the advent of epiphany have the same function of leimotiv in music

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Analogies and differences

Use of stream of consciousness

Focus on the psychology of characters

Use of fonetic retoric speech and symbolism

exceed the canons of romance buildum

Different presentation of epiphany

level of objectivity (higher in James Joyce)

Analogies Differences

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LORD OF THE FLIES

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Lord of the Flies15

Narrative’s Characterstics16

The story is presented in…

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Major Conflict…18

Rising Action…19

Climax20

Falling Action 21

THEMES, MOTIFS AND SYMBOLS

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Themes

 

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Symbols25

CONTEXTUAL BACKGROUND

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Contextual Background

William Golding was born on September 19, 1911, in Cornwall, England.

After graduating from Oxford, he worked briefly as a theater actor and director, wrote poetry, and then became a schoolteacher.

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In 1940, a year after England entered World War II, Golding joined the Royal Navy, where he served in command of a rocket-launcher and participated in the invasion of Normandy.

Golding’s experience in World War II had a profound effect on his view of humanity and the evils of which it was capable.

Contextual Background28

The novel’s sales enabled Golding to retire from teaching and devote himself fully to writing.

Golding died in 1993, one of the most acclaimed writers of the second half of the twentieth century.

Contextual Background29

Lord of the Flies tells the story of a group of English schoolboys marooned on a tropical island after their plane is shot down during a war.

Free from the rules and structures of civilization and society, the boys on the island in Lord of the Flies descend into savagery.

Contextual Background30

In his portrayal of the small world of the island, Golding paints a broader portrait of the fundamental human struggle between the civilizing instinct—the impulse to obey rules, behave morally, and act lawfully—and the savage instinct—the impulse to seek brute power over others, act selfishly, scorn moral rules, and indulge in violence.

Contextual Background31

Golding employs a relatively straightforward writing style in Lord of the Flies, one that avoids highly poetic language, lengthy description, and philosophical interludes.

In portraying the various ways in which the boys on the island adapt to their new surroundings and react to their new freedom, Golding explores the broad spectrum of ways in which humans respond to stress, change, and tension.

Contextual Background32

Readers and critics have interpreted Lord of the Flies in widely varying ways over the years since its publication.

explores fundamental religious issues, such as original sin and the nature of good and evil.

Contextual Background33

the psychoanalyst Sigmund Freud —the id (instinctual needs and desires), the ego (the conscious, rational mind), and the superego (the sense of

conscience and morality)

Contextual Background34

Still others maintained that Golding wrote the novel as a criticism of the political and social institutions of the West.

Ultimately, there is some validity to each of these different readings and interpretations of Lord of the Flies.

Contextual Background35

Plot in detail…

In the midst of a raging war, a plane evacuating a group of schoolboys from Britain is shot down over a deserted tropical island.

Once assembled, the boys set about electing a leader and devising a way to be rescued.

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Plot in detail…

They choose Ralph as their leader, and Ralph appoints another boy, Jack, to be in charge of the boys who will hunt food for the entire group.

Ralph, Jack, and another boy, Simon, set off on an expedition to explore the island. When they return, Ralph declares that they must light a signal fire to attract the attention of passing ships.

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Plot in detail…

. A large swath of dead wood burns out of

control, and one of the youngest boys in the group disappears, presumably having burned to death.

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Plot in detail…

At first, the boys enjoy their life without grown-ups and spend much of their time splashing in the water and playing games.

The hunters fail in their attempt to catch a wild pig, but their leader, Jack, becomes increasingly preoccupied with the act of hunting.

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Plot in detail…

When a ship passes by on the horizon one day, Ralph and Piggy notice, to their horror, that the signal fire—which had been the hunters’ responsibility to maintain—has burned out.

F

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Plot in detail…

Ralph blows the conch shell and reprimands the boys in a speech intended to restore order. At the meeting, it quickly becomes clear that some of the boys have started to become afraid.

One of the littluns suggests that it hides in the sea—a proposition that terrifies the entire group.

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Plot in detail…

Not long after the meeting, some military planes engage in a battle high above the island. The boys, asleep below, do not notice the flashing lights and explosions in the clouds.

A parachutist drifts to earth on the signal-fire mountain, dead.

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Plot in detail…

The boys organize a hunting expedition to search for the monster. Jack and Ralph, who are increasingly at odds, travel up the mountain.

They see the silhouette of the parachute from a distance and think that it looks like a huge, deformed ape.

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Plot in detail…

Jack angrily runs away down the beach, calling all the hunters to join him. Ralph rallies the remaining boys to build a new signal fire, this time on the beach rather than on the mountain.

They obey, but before they have finished the task, most of them have slipped away to join Jack.

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Plot in detail…

Later, encountering the bloody, fly-covered head, Simon has a terrible vision, during which it seems to him that the head is speaking.

The voice, which he imagines as belonging to the Lord of the Flies, says that Simon will never escape him, for he exists within all men. Simon faints.

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Plot in detail…

When he wakes up, he goes to the mountain, where he sees the dead parachutist. Understanding then that the beast does not exist externally but rather within each individual boy, Simon travels to the beach to tell the others what he has seen.

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Plot in detail…

In the ensuing battle, one boy, Roger, rolls a boulder down the mountain, killing Piggy and shattering the conch shell. Ralph barely manages to escape a torrent of spears.

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Plot in detail…

Ralph hides for the rest of the night and the following day, while the others hunt him like an animal.

Ralph collapses in exhaustion, but when he looks up, he sees a British naval officer standing over him. The officer’s ship noticed the fire raging in the jungle.

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Plot in detail…

The other boys reach the beach and stop in their tracks at the sight of the officer.

The other boys begin to sob as well. The officer turns his back so that the boys may regain their composure.

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THEMES

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Suggested Questions

1. Of all the characters, it is Piggy who most often has useful ideas and sees the correct way for the boys to organize themselves. Yet the other boys rarely listen to him and frequently abuse him. Why do you think this is the case? In what ways does Golding use Piggy to advance the novel’s themes?

2. What, if anything, might the dead parachutist symbolize? Does he symbolize something other than what the beast and the Lord of the Flies symbolize?

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3. The sow’s head and the conch shell each wield a certain kind of power over the boys. In what ways do these objects’ powers differ? In what way is Lord of the Flies a novel about power? About the power of symbols? About the power of a person to use symbols to control a group?

4. What role do the littluns play in the novel? In one respect, they serve as gauges of the older boys’ moral positions, for we see whether an older boy is kind or cruel based on how he treats the littluns. But are the littluns important in and of themselves? What might they represent?

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What is "the scar" in Lord of the Flies? On a literal level, the "scar" is the mark

left by the conveyance that brought the boys to the island.  It crash-landed in a skid, knocking down trees and brush leaving a mark or "scar". 

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What is the allegory of "Lord of the Flies"?

James Stern of the New York Times said that the Lord of the Flies is:

an allegory on human society today, the novel’s primary implication being that what we have come to call civilization is, at best, not more than skin-deep

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Another perspective…

The main allegory for Lord of the Flies is that without civilization, savagery takes over.  The Lord of the Flies and the Beast are not really physical characters.  It is the evil that is in every human being.  Without civilization the boys unleashed this evil. 

The death of Simon indicates how morality and goodness cannot survive within savagery.

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What does the pig's head represent in Lord of the Flies? The pig's head symbolizes both the savagery that

the boys now exhibit outwardly, and the "Lord of the Flies" because the rotting head is swarming with flies, as it sits perched on a stick.

it symbolizes loss of hope fear an it shows that evil is the beast and evil is in everyone.

it symbolizes evil that is in every human because no matter how rotten and old the pig head got, the remains still was left.

while it was breaking down and getting worse, it had a disgusting look and horrible smell. this symbolizes evil. something that isn't welcomed

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Also when the pig head started breaking down, the author described the skull as a laughing face. evil never leaves and it also teases because it's so hard to get rid of.

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What is the difference between metaphor and allegory in William Golding's Lord of the Flies? A metaphor is typically a phrase that is

used as a comparison to seemingly unrelated objects or actions.

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An allegory is also a representation of comparisons but on a much deeper note.

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Some examples…

EXAMPLES OF KNOWN METAPHORS: All the World's a stage, Killing him with Kindness, Frozen with fear, My stomach was a bottomless pit.

EXAMPLES OF KNOWN ALLEGORIES: Example #1: In the novel, Lord of the

Flies it  provides a compelling allegory of human nature, illustrating the three sides of the psyche through its sharply-defined main characters.

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Metaphor and allegory, as the answer above indicates, are similar; both of them make comparisons, but the primary difference between them is the depth of the comparison.

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One of the most recognizable metaphors Golding uses in the novel is the beast. While the term beast is used to name many actual things in the story (such as creeping vines, pigs, a parachutist), Simon recognizes the truth that they are the beast.

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“Fancy thinking the Beast was something you could hunt and kill!” said the head. For a moment or two the forest and all the other dimly appreciated places echoed with the parody of laughter. “You knew, didn’t you? I’m part of you? Close, close, close! I’m the reason why it’s no go? Why things are what they are?”

That is the metaphor: the beast is them. 

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Golding's use of metaphor on a larger scale becomes an allegory. These proper English schoolboys, who do know how to live in a civilized manner and obey rules, are deposited on an island on which there are no adults.

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What these boys (and remember, they really are just children) do and become over the course of the novel is a picture of unchecked human nature. Their transformation from boy to savage is the allegory Golding uses to make this point.

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What do you consider to be the most significant quotation from The Lord of the Flies? This one from chapter 2 is pretty

important, it's definitely one of the most famous:

"We've got to have rules and obey them. After all, we're not savages. We're English, and the English are best at everything."

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Why?

Probably the main theme of the novel is the very fine line between civility and savagery. The pinnacle of civility is held to be English life, which is echoed in the quote. Golding is saying that even the "most civilized" nation in the world is one step away from brutality. 

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From Chapter 5: "'Maybe there is a beast....maybe it's only us.'"

This is a good one because one of the main ideas is the beast that's inside of humanity. The boys are scared of the beast, but the beast is inside them...

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it shows Simon's heightened perception and his ability to express his idea that the Beast isn't merely a living thing to be afraid of. It is something that exists and lives in all of us and when there are no adults, and no law to condition our instincts and desires, we may also become savage

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This raises a question:

In chapter five of William Golding's Lord of the Flies, what does Simon mean when he says, "Maybe there is a beast"?

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In chapter five of William Golding's Lord of the Flies, the boys hold a meeting because, quite frankly, things are beginning to fall apart. They meet and they talk, but they do not get anything accomplished. The boys are having even more nightmares now, and their talk of beasts is rampant and rather outrageous.

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During the meeting, Simon feels compelled to speak, but it is something he does not want to do.

Simon felt a perilous necessity to speak; but to speak in assembly was a terrible thing to him.“Maybe,” he said hesitantly, “maybe there is a beast.”

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NOVEL IITHE END

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