An Analysis On Lord Of The Flies

Stemming from Systemic Functional Grammar, Appraisal Theory is thederivation of interpersonal meaning. Appraisal Theory has three sub-systems, that is,Attitude, Engagement and Gradation. This research focuses on analyzing Lord of theFlies of original version in1954by William Golding with the Appraisal Theoryincluding the characters and environment description. Lord of the Flies contains manycharacters, description, and is rich in Appraisal resources that can be used to expresspeople’s attitudes, judgments and appreciation. It is reasonable and feasible to analyzeLord of the Flies with Appraisal Theory. But applying Appraisal Theory on Lord ofthe Flies is still inadequate. Appraisal Theory is a new way to comprehend the noveland the characters, so readers will comprehend and understand characters better in thenovel.The analysis in detail will be divided into three sub-systems of Appraisal Theory,Attitude, Engagement and Graduation. Meanwhile, the study still concerns thepositive and negative attitude, judgment and feelings. The present research focuses onthe following questions:1. What types of Appraisal resources are involved? How are the Appraisalresources distributed in the novel?2. In what ways could we analyze Lords of the Flies in light of Appraisal Theory?How does the Appraisal resources distribute in Lords of the Flies?In order to complete the research, this thesis adopts qualitative analysis and takesthree steps: firstly, the characters of the novel are classified into different types, goodor bad, kind-hearted or evil. Secondly, the sub-system of Appraisal theory are used toanalyze the characters and the description. Thirdly, the analysis of characters anddescription with the sub-systems of Appraisal Theory can be related to the nature andmood of the characters. Major findings are briefly introduced:1. The analysis shows that there areappraisal meanings in the novel Lords of the Flies and the appraisal meanings can beanalyzed from three different perspectives: Attitude, engagement and Graduation.2.Under Attitude, we find that the attitudinal meanings in the novel are all realizeddirectly with the words and indirectly by the describing the environment, and there areboth positive and negative feelings. Generally speaking, positive words deliverpositive feelings and negative words deliver negative feelings. Three subtypes ofAttitude—Affect, Judgment and Appreciation are obviously realized in the novel.Using different positive or negative words can reveal the speaker’s judgment towardothers, positive and negative; it is mainly concerned with judgment of social esteem.In addition, we also find attitude and gradation are more then engagement in the novel.3. Under Engagement, we find that this novel has both monogloss and heterogloss.4.Under Graduation, some sentences that are not gradable can become gradable with thehelp of certain modifiers so as to clearly indicate the speaker’s feelings.5. Throughthe analysis of appraisal meanings of the words describing the person andenvironment, we can figure out the speaker’s motivation and personal character.This study focuses on analyzing Lord of the Flies with the Appraisal Theory. Thesignificant of the study are as follows: firstly, the present research provides a newtheory for analyzing Lord of the Flies and provides readers a new way to understandthe novel. Secondly, readers are able to get a better and deeper understanding ofcharacters in the novel, their temperament and their feelings. Thirdly, the study makesreaders understand Golding’s stance, motivation of writing the novel, the backgroundand social environment at that time. Fourthly, this study is also related to pedagogyand pays attention on application of words. It is good for writing and speaking bychoosing the proper words. Besides, it is also helpful for reading by getting theimplicit meaning of the words.