Lord of the Flies: William Goldings Expression of the Anti-Utopian Reality of the 21st Century Society
LORD OF THE FLIES: William Golding’s Expression of the Anti-Utopian Reality of the 21st Century Society.
Ayoola Akinkunmi Olamide
Languages Department
Gombe High School
Gombe.
Because one step follows another, it is of importance to explain briefly the term “utopia”. Utopia can be traced to a book produced by Sir T. Moore in 1516. This book has to do with an imaginary island with a perfect socio-political system; ideally perfect place. An “Anti-Utopian Society” therefore is the one that interrogates the possibility of perfect existence of man, where man is at the mercy of powers over which he has no control, where man destroys other men and not himself as an individual. A place where people live a confused life and are moronized because of the existing problems.
In the text Lord of the Flies, it is very obvious that the text is in one way or another parables or fables. The book assures us that evil is natural to men, and not something that we recently invented. No wonder Steven Marcus, in his book The Novel Again said Lord of the Flies is “the only recent novel of imaginative originality that I am aware of which implies that society, insane and self destroying as it undeniably is…”It is also clear that in the deepest sense this is not a book about boys, but a novel about mankind in general, about adults and their capacity for evil and destruction. There are two aspects of this: first there is the question of the nature of evil and of sin, which is itself linked with the second, the breakdown of law and order and democratic institutions.
On the political perspective, the text shows the different types of people we have in the society - the democrats and autocrats. For the conflicts in it is between those who respect law and democratic forms of government and those who are totalitarians and who feel they have a divine right to rule. Lord of the Flies is much more significant now than it was on its publication. Ralph is the constituted elected leader. He is almost idealized, a specimen of masculinity; he is direct, simple, unsuspicious and reliable. Although, he lacks certain qualities of leadership; he is not very intelligent and, unlike Piggy, is incapable of deep thoughts. Basically unsure of himself, authority sits rather uneasily on Ralph’s shoulders. Yet he is charming and humane, and his presence is reassuring. Therefore, when the boys choose him rather than intelligent Piggy or Jack, who exudes authority, it is not just because he is the one who blew the conch, but because they know they can trust him; his presence reassures.(Pp. 21-32) If Ralph is the responsible leader, then Piggy is the brilliant adviser in our society, the power behind the throne, but he himself is obviously not of leadership material since he is handicapped by his asthma, his shortsightedness and his humble origin; unlike Jack who has the army, (that is he is a military dictator) and Ralph who has popular support. Piggy is like the Soyinkas of our society. They have no power base; as a result, they are debarred from the active political scene because of lack of a power base in the tribe or the party. Hence, the populace lives a confused life because they are ruled by a group of mediocre.
Again, Piggy is Jack’s real enemy. Jack’s hatred for Piggy is no less than the hatred of the ambitious military man for the intellectual man whom he sees as the most formidable obstacle to his attainment of power. It is a fact of political life in most African countries that military dictators, on coming to power, select the intellectuals for the most severe persecution. An instance is the case of Nigeria between 1993 and 1998, when assassination and self-exile became the order of the day. Jack sees that without Piggy to back him up; Ralph will lose. As a military man he desperately wants power and he knows that if he can deprive Ralph of his intellectual support he will be well on the way to attaining it. So he must get rid of Piggy. Like most intellectuals who dare oppose authoritarian military regimes, Piggy is destroyed. When he was killed, the conch, the symbol of democracy he loved to protect is shattered and anarchy takes over. (Pp. 222-224)Piggy once accused Jack thus: “You said Ralph was chief and you don’t give him time to think.” (P. 59)
The setting of the novel shows anti-utopianism in our present day society. How our military personnel turned things up-side down and made life unbearable for the populace. For instance, Jack knows that strength is on his side and that the whole community is dependent on him and his “army” for protection. Therefore he is openly scorns all democratic forms and demands leadership as his right. When he enters with his party boys, we see that he controls rather than leads them (P. 49) Jack’s instinct is to command the regiment and rule by decree, and he expects his commands to be obeyed without questions. He shows no real concern for the public good (Pp. 53, 223, 242-246), his interest being seizing power, exercising and retaining it. Jack in the novel represents the Samuel Does, the Robert Mugabes, the Sani Abachas, the Idi Amins, the Obasanjos - to mention just a few.
Finally, William Golding’s intention in writing this novel is to speak to the modern world. From the looks of things, it is so obvious that man’s inherent evil nature is responsible for the breakdown of democratic forms, as well as for the degeneration of the boys into savages. There is no essential difference between the boys and their forebears. Just as the absence of the restraints of civilization on the island leads to savagery, so the breakdown of civilization in the adult world leads to inhumanity. It is this chaos that brings the children to the island in the first place, and one of the parachutist’s functions is to remind us of this. (Pp. 118-120).?
About the Author
Ayoola Akinkunmi, Born in 1977 is a graduate of English and Literature at the Obafemi awolowo University, Ile-Ife, Nigeria. He is a creative writer, mystic poet and critic, presently teaching Literature in English
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