A Case of Eco-Critical Interpretation of Seascapes as a Memorable Story in Lord of the Flies in the Novel by William Golding

Abstract

The novel, Lord of the Flies, was written in 1954 and it was not the only one that earned Golding a Nobel Prize. It deals with the issue of human nature, society, and morality and is discussed by the story of a bunch of British boys who are trapped on an island and become savages.  It was won in 1983 when Nobel prize in literature was conferred on William Golding because of his novels which, with the straightforwardness of a realistic narrative art and the variety and universality of a myth, and enlighten us on the human condition in the world of today. It complicates the bond between humanity and nature, in this paper, we will examine explicit and implicit links between man and nature as depicted in the novel.  Using the prism of eco-criticism, the paper assesses the environmental awareness as presented in the personalities of the boys who are washed ashore to the island. The study has serious implications because it opens up a new avenue of analyzing literary works within ecological standpoints thereby extending the literary analysis. In this paper, the lord of flies by William Golding is explained in terms of the theoretical framework of blue ecology which holds a prediction of oceans, shoreline, watery spaces and human water relations ethics.  The waterscapes of the island used by Golding have had a significantly less eco focus. It claims that the sea, lagoon, beaches, tides and storms comprise an active blue ecological system; it is the one which mediates power, fear, survival, and moral crisis and imaginative transformation among the boys. The paper unveils the role of water as a non-living ecological power that impacts human behaviour, culture and the expression of the failure of moral order.