Light In The Darkness

Lord of the Flies is a famous novel published in 1954 by William Golding.Many critics have analyzed the novel from different perspectives for centuries.And archetypal criticism is one of the theories applied most commonly by critics.It is concluded that Golding employs many typical archetypal images and archetypal characters in the novel.Archetypal Criticism is an important and popular literary theory in 1940s and 1950s.One of the representative figures who contributed to the theory is Northrop Frye.He once gave his definition of archetype in his theory work.He held on the view that an archetype is "a symbol,usually an image,which recurs often enough in literature to be recognizable as an element of one’s literary experience as a whole".The thesis mainly analyzes Lord of the Flies with Frye’s archetypal criticism theory.And the thesis aims to interpret the images,characters and major themes of the novel based upon the western Christian culture and ancient Greek mythology.The introduction of the thesis mainly introduces William Golding’s life experiences and the major plot of Lord of the Flies.It also has a brief review of the development of archetypal criticism theory.Chapter One analyzes the dark side of human nature the author wants to reveal in the novel.This chapter mainly interprets the archetypal images and archetypal characters about darkness.Jack is the archetype of Dionysus and he represents the evilness and savageness hidden deep in human heart.Then Chapter Two analyzes the light side as well as the hopes of human civilization in the novel.Simon is killed by and sacrificed to lord of the flies by Jack and his followers.However,his death has the important meaning of redemption and bringing hopes to human beings.In Chapter Three,the thesis analyzes the major themes William Golding indicates in the novel.The first one is the evilness and savageness in human’s heart.A group of young boys lose their innocence and commit sins of hunting and killing their companions when they are far away from civilized society.But more importantly,human’s hopes are not completely faded.That’s the second important theme of the novel.Although most of the boys are given to the power of darkness in the novel.Ralph holds on to his faith and make a redemption from Simon’s death.And he is rescued in the end.It symbolizes the hopes of human beings.The argument of the thesis lies in the analysis of light side in Lord of the Flies.Most of the thesis on Lord of the Flies hold the view that Golding feels hopeless about the future of human beings and the story is simply a tragic.However,the thesis argues that hopes still exist weakly in human society and Golding wants to inspire people to create a better world.With the rapid development of economy and technology,people are so complacent with their achievements and ignore the dangers hidden behind the progress.Therefore,Golding aims to set warnings and find new path for human being.