A Study Of Original Sin Concept In William Golding’s Novels

William Golding (1911-1993) is a famous British writer in the twentieth century. He had finished a lot of works throughout his life and obtained greatly achievements of literature in the novel creation. The two world wars, especially The Second World War which aroused his meditation on human nature is the creative source of the author. What is unique about the works of Golding is the way he has combined all the methods of analysis of the human being and human society in the twentieth century and used this unified knowledge to discuss a serious and eternal theme:the darkness of human nature. The exploration of the darkness of human nature constitutes Golding’s persistent writing style. Lord of the Flies is Golding’s most famous and successful novel which helps him get The Nobel Prize for literature in1983.The former studies on William Golding in China mainly focus on the single novel Lord of the Flies. It is still a blank area in the study of Pincher Martin and The Spire. This thesis explores Golding’s writing ideas based mainly on his earlier stages’ three novels of Lord of the Flies, Pincher Martin and The Spire. These works are combined together by the same idea "original sin", that is, Golding’s tragic sense of human nature.Golding always sees the darkness in human nature, then believes evil cannot be got rid of, as consciousness and the guilt go together, the human innocence is a transient myth. Human fall cannot be avoided, as man always follows his instinct, desires and the society’s success standards to grasp as what he can catch. Man is trapped by his instinct, desires and practicality, finds the existence a chaos, far from the simple and happy, harmonious and poetic world. Even though sometime the protagonists in these novels glanced at his existence condition, they found themselves faced no choice. So the salvation is difficult. Such is Golding’s "Original Sin concept". It is also the theme of this thesis which is different from the previous thematic studies.The thesis is mainly divided into six parts. Chapter One begins with the literature review, research purpose and significance. Chapter Two makes an introduction of Original Sin concept. It includes the traditional theory of humanity in western countries and William Golding’s concept of humanity in his novels. Chapter Three includes three main parts. It is also the most important part and discusses different kinds of evil humanity in Golding’s three different novels comprehensively. The first part takes on the analysis of cruel and barbarous humanity in Lord of the Flies. Jack and Roger are two antagonists in the novel. They represent cruel and barbarous instinct within children. Jack has a strong desire for power. At the beginning, he is just interested in hunting wild pigs. However, with the development of the story, he immerses himself into human hunting. Roger and most of the other children become his loyal followers. Ralph and Piggy represent civilization and reason, but their potential evil nature also can be seen everywhere. Especially, they take part in the tragic murder of Simon who represents a kind of natural goodness. The second part undertakes to interpret the rapacious and selfish humanity in Pincher Martin. Pincher Martin has no love and belief. He goes on to fight against Death persistently on the sea just because of his rapacious and selfish nature. His greed for life makes his ego imagines a rock for him to hold on and he insists that he would be the last huge maggot in the tin box. He wants to kill his best friend, but ironically, he kills himself. The third part attempts to interpret guilty and sexual humanity in The Spire. Golding describes a sinful church dean named Jocelin who believes that he is chosen by God to finish the spire, and insists that it is a holy mission. He has strong sexual desire for Goody and takes advantage of Roger. His holy mission is full of human sacrifice. The spire just stands for the self fulfillment of human will. Chapter Four discusses the universality of the sin. Man is born with evil nature. It has been implanted in all human beings, including children, navy officer, and the church dean and so on. Nobody can escape from their doomed fate. Chapter Five introduces the four main factors that influence William Golding’s writing theme. It includes the influence of social conditions, personal experiences, religion and Greek literature and the main trend in modern literature. Chapter Six is conclusion. Through the analysis of the characters’ different kinds of sin from different angles, on the one hand, the thesis draws a conclusion that the evil human nature is universal and cannot be controlled. It comes from the instinct. On the other hand, it probes deep into some positive factors in an effort to get a better understanding and significance of Golding’s novels.