Social_Differences_in_Lord_of_the_Flies

SOCIAL CLASS DIFFERENCES IN THE SOCIETY AND ITS EFFECTS: AN ANALYSIS OF THE NOVEL LORD OF THE FLIES BY WILLIAM GOLDING 1. INTRODUCTION: 1.1: Rationale A group of people living in a region or country having interaction and social relations to one another is called society. While living in a society every member owes a specific job and role which gives him recognition among other members of the society or in other meanings provides him a social status. The same social status of many members in a society gives rise to a social class. This social class is the group of people having same access to opportunities and resources. Social classes are distinguished by their occupation, education and income. Although different social classes are inevitable in the society and they play an important role but at the same time there are some drawbacks as well. The upper class having power use their power in wrong way in the society thus creating disorder and harmful effect. This inequality brings a state of war among the people who cross their limits to which a society bounds them, thus causing destruction. Marxism is a political and economical theory proposed by Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels which is about the class differences in the society and struggle of a certain class to end up its oppression which favors a classless society. WILLIAM GOLDING (19 September 1911 – 19 June 1993) was a great British novelist and poet who was awarded by Nobel Prize in literature. He is best known for his first novel ‘LORD OF THE FLIES’ which is an allegorical novel. It gives complete understanding of different aspects of human nature in a society. Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels theory of Marxism supports the struggle of lower class against upper class and criticize class system in a society. The allegorical novel of William Golding also criticizes class and caste system. William Golding presents the idea of caste and class system through his characters and then shows the results of class differences. Although Golding does not support Marxist theory but in his novel he attacks caste system in a society. 1.2: AIM This research aims to point out the allegory related to class differences in the novel ‘Lord of the Flies’. William Golding did not support Marxism but still he criticizes the class differences and inequalities in a particular society and describes its drawbacks which lead society towards destruction and chaos. He also desired a classless society. THEORETICAL BACKGROUND: Marxism is a broad theory based on economical, political and social aspects including materialist interpretation of history, analysis of capitalism, and a theory of social change. This theory supports communism which is a classless society without any traces of inequality while opposes capitalism which is a society full of classes where inequality, race, and violation are inevitable. The materialistic concept of history in Marxism is the history of the struggle of social classes in a society. . Karl Marx proclaimed that history is the chronology of class struggles, wars, and uprisings. According to Marxists (who supports Marxism) in a capitalist society, a certain class dominates in society thus exploits the rights of other classes who have less authority and power. The wage-worker sells his labor-power to the owner of land and factories .As a result the lower class is unable to achieve further development and success. Another main component of Marxism is the theory of social change or revolution which is important to dissolve the inequality and differences among the humankind in a society. Marx argued that communism is dictatorship of leading classes where revolution must occur. In Towards a Critique of Hegel’s Philosophy of Right (1844), Marx wrote that the working class was a true revolutionary class. Marxism is a war against slavery. Karl Marx evokes the hostility and hatred of all bourgeois science. The Marxist doctrine is true as being comprehensive and harmonious. Marx’s philosophy has provided the working class with knowledge. Marxism is the opposite of capitalism because Marxists believe that low classes are crushed in a capitalist society where unemployment is common due to use of machines in every field whether it is agriculture or industry. Some other major concepts of Marxism are the exploitation, alienation of working class and class differences in society. It stresses the division of a society into different classes according to the means of production and income. Marxism describes the classes in a capitalist society which are upper class, middle class, working class and lower class. The upper class exploits other classes. The working class and lower class suffers in the society and the other two classes snatch their rights. The working and lower class practices religious beliefs as according to Marx religion was the response to the pain and earthly sufferings. In Towards a Critique of Hegel’s Philosophy of Right (1844), Marx wrote, “Religion is the sigh of the oppressed creature, the feeling of a heartless world, and the soul of soulless circumstances.” William Golding’s first novel “Lord of the Flies” does engage with contemporary historical, political, and social issues in diagnosing “the basic human condition.” The caste system and inequalities in English class system are greatly criticized in the novel. William Golding chooses instead to attack English class system lightheartedly rather harsh way. Golding has described himself a non-Marxist “socialist.” He says, “A writer is a citizen with a vote, access to his MP, access to the columns of magazines, newspapers and the BBC—a citizen with the right to speak in Hyde Park if he wants to or feels he ought. Surely that gives him enough opportunities for non-professional engagement in current affairs' I should think that the Marxist ideal of total engagement has been blown on, even in Russia. I am a citizen, a novelist and a schoolmaster. If my teaching of English grammar need not be aimed specifically at the prevention of capital punishment why should my novels be'” (Crawford, politics and history in William Golding, 2002) Golding seems to consider Marxism, in a similar light to the Movement, as “a phase to be passed through in one’s adolescence and to be grown out of as one matures.” Yet his novel engages to attack class system. He exposes the poisonous nature of the English class system. This is particularly evident in attacks on English national identity that constructs itself in opposition to Nazism. Golding interrogates English community in its class structure in his novel and this attack is achieved through the use of fantastic ideas, language and colours. While reading the novel with the eyes of a Marxist, it impresses the reader as it serves cold war ideological perspectives. It is the story of upper class British school boys who are in the jungle of an island where they divide into different groups and classes. The upper class ridicules the lower class. The jungle is the society. The novel shows that there will always be rulers and ruled. Furthermore in a capitalist society a class exploits other classes. (proyect, Marxism, Lord of the flies). This novel explains sociological terms, concepts and principles, including the establishment of roles, statuses, and social class. It also shows the dictatorship of upper class in the society and their domination. Free from the rules and civilization boys divides into groups in which some behave peacefully while others becomes rebel and violence starts in the society. In the novel the elected leader by all boys is Ralph who have authority over all the boys and others have to obey his instructions but the dictator and cruel Ralph divides the boys into groups which causes destruction as he use his power in wrong ways. RESEARCH METHODOLOGY: By reading the text of the novel ‘Lord of the flies’, the autobiography of it’s author William Golding, interviews, letters, different articles about the novel and the author of this novel, internet surfing and reading a lot of sites the research of this article has been done. All the resources used in the research are aimed to explore the class differences in the society which are presented by William Golding in a delicate way. He does not only tell about the class system but also shows its effects on the society which leads it towards the destruction. Both the quantitative and qualitative research methodologies are applicable on the text of the novel, Lord of the flies. In this research both methodologies are used. DATA ANALYSIS: While going through the interviews and quotes of William Golding, it is evident that he hardly favors the Marxism as he has described himself a non-Marxist. “It was at a particular moment in the history of my own rages that I saw the Western world conditioned by the images of Marx, Darwin and Freud; and Marx, Darwin and Freud are the three most crashing bores of the Western world. The simplistic popularization of their ideas has thrust our world into a mental straightjacket from which we can only escape by the most anarchic violence.” William Golding attacks English class system in his novels. The novel Lord of the Flies does not directly hit the caste system in English society but in a very delicate and technical way. Marxism discusses the class difference and class inequality with respect to the economy but the whole novel is an allegory which presents Marxism through the division of power among the characters in different situations in the society. It reveals us the human nature and shows allegorically that class and caste system is the part of human nature. It proves that history of mankind is full of class struggle due to inequalities among them which gives rise to wars and revolutions. The final result of caste system in society is the destruction and chaos. It is the main reason of wars, murders, bloodshed and killings. The characters in the novel delicately symbolize different classes. The class differences are shown through the situations of the characters, colors, culture, and background of characters, the language and their attitude towards life. The authority and power which the characters hold in the novel shows the class differences and caste system. He provides an excellent picture of English caste system through limited characters of novel. This novel is the story of young English British school boys who are alone on the island after the crash of airplane in which grown ups perished. The island on which they have landed is with a coral reef off the coast; a lagoon; a rocky mountainous area and most importantly thick forest. The thick forest or jungle is the society where they depict the true human nature. First of all we are introduced to Ralph, a good-looking young boy who belongs to the upper class and whose father is in navy and is quickly voted as a chief by the other boys. Ralph represents the upper class that holds authority in the society but by the will of his people to keep law and order and to avoid chaos. Then another character Piggy, an intellectual and intelligent boy with eyeglasses who is suffering from obesity, asthma and other physical ailments represents the lower class in the society. Jack is a character who is physically powerful but not elected as a chief although he was already the leader of his choir boys. He is brave and can sing well. He presents the cruel upper class that snatches power from Ralph and has thrust of power. Simon is a religious character showing the lower middle class who do not have any concern with the power. Sam n Eric belongs to lower class that suffers from the cruelty of authority and power holders but does not protest against the powerful. Piggy although belongs to lower class but he protest against the cruelty of upper class and demands his rights that is why he is crushed finally by the upper class to maintain their power in the society. Roger and Maurice belong to the upper middle class who is the secretary of jack and he helps jack in his cruelty as the Roger was the boy who murdered piggy. Some other characters are Henry, Johnny and Percival who are little boys and also show lower class without any rights in the society. These are the characters that show class differences through their status but as the story of the novel goes on the caste system prevails more and more which is described through various ways. Marxists are against the political system in which caste and class is the major problem creating the thrust of power in the society. William Golding also wants the same classless society that is why he criticizes English caste system. This is evident from one of Golding’s interviews about Lord of the flies. He said, “The theme is an attempt to trace the defects of society back to the defects of human nature. The moral is that the shape of a society must depend on the ethical nature of the individual and not on any political system however apparently logical or respectable.” When the characters are introduced in the novel, the class system is also mentioned delicately within the story. The class difference is shown through the use of language by the two characters. The language used by piggy also shows his relation to the lower class in the English caste system to which he belongs in his native area. His use of grammar in English language is wrong to show lower class language mistakes as they have less knowledge and opportunities to seek proper knowledge. He always uses grammar in wrong way. As in the very beginning he says, “I can’t hardly move with all these creeper things.”(Golding, 1954, 7) Some other examples of his use of wrong grammar are as follows; “We was attacked!” (Golding, 1954, 8) “I didn’t expect nothing” (Golding, 1954, 13) Other characters like Ralph and Jack who belongs to upper class does not make such mistakes. The class difference is also shown through colors and the dress they are wearing. William Golding shows these different colors to differentiate the classes the boys belong in their native area. “Some were naked and carrying their clothes; others half-naked, or more or less dressed, in school uniforms, grey, blue, fawn, jacketed, or jerseyed. There were badges, mottoes even, stripes of color in stockings and pullovers. Their heads clustered above the trunks in the green shade; heads brown, fair, black, chestnut, sandy, and mouse-colored; heads muttering, whispering.” (Golding, 1954, 19) Jack and Ralph’s attitude towards Piggy show that the upper class always make fun of lower class and the upper class does not care for the brilliant ideas of intellectual class when they belong to a low class. Piggy although belong to lower class but his ideas are useful and he is the only one who gave all the ideas about conch and meeting about making rules to live together. His name in the novel tells that jack belongs to upper class and hunts pigs so relevant to the name of piggy he also hunts piggy or the lower class which is the excellent allegory as the upper class hunts and crush the lower class. There is always a fight between the prey and the hunter which is seen in the novel from the first scene till the murder of Piggy. The historical materialism of Marxism also shows the same concept that is the class struggle as between Jack and Piggy. In the beginning when Ralph came to know Piggy’s name, he also make fun of him by repeating the name while laughing and dancing. Then afterwards jack and his group make fun of him by saying him fatty due to his physical appearance. Jack always use harsh language for piggy as he say “shut up” repeatedly to piggy showing proud for his power and stop Piggy to interfere. Jack said “shut up” to piggy 8 times in the novel while Ralph used this word as a whole 6 times in the novel. Pjggy used this word once or twice in the whole novel. Jack used fatty for piggy 6 times in the novel while Piggy never used bad words for jack. When the boys elect Ralph as their chief Jack gets angry as he wanted to be elected as the chief of all the boys. He wanted supremacy over all the boys and wish to have power. They divide into two classes when Ralph authorize Jack to be the leader of his choir boys in order to save his own rule because he knew that jack has power and Jack shows the upper class according to his physical features. The class differences are also evident from the backgrounds of Ralph and Piggy. Ralph’s father was a naval officer while piggy’s father died and his aunt was his guardian who just used to run a little shop. Thus Piggy is a poor fellow according to his status in society that is why he does not hold the qualities of a leader although he is the most intelligent and his ideas are much practical among all of the boys. Piggy does not know swimming but Ralph do know due to his father’s status as he says, “I could swim when I was five. Daddy taught me. He’s a commander in the Navy. When he gets leave he’ll come and rescue us. What’s your father'” Piggy flushed suddenly. “My dad’s dead and I used to live with my auntie. She kept a candy store” (Golding, 1954, 14) The two different priorities of Jack and Ralph points the difference and their priorities divide them in two classes as Ralph’s first priority was to be rescued and Jack wanted to get meat or power symbolically. He wanted to keep his supremacy. The conflict between Jack and Ralph starts from their different and opposite views. Jack says, “We want meat.” But Ralph says, Well, we haven’t got any shelter yet. And we want shelters. The two groups recognized in the novel by the littluns and biguns is also the division of society into two classes and these two groups are used to show class difference where one group is of bigguns which rules and the litluns are ruled. The attitude of the two groups (lower and upper class) is also different towards life. Jack and Ralph always want to have some fun but Piggy always thinks seriously and tries to solve the problems. He supports the one who is weak and trying to get his rights. He demands equality for all. When the rights of a small boy are snatched in the assembly, Piggy blows voice against the violence as evident in the novel, The small boy held out his hands for the conch and the assembly shouted with laughter; at once he snatched back his hands and started to cry. “Let him have the conch!” shouted Piggy. “Let him have it!” The upper class violates and exploits the lower class in the society. Most of the power holders use their power in wrong ways or to snatch the rights of other classes. After electing Ralph as a leader and appointing Jack as the leader of his choir boys, Ralph orders to explore the place whether it is island or not. At that time Piggy wishes to go with Ralph but Jack does not allow him to go by showing his power and attitude as he consider Piggy unable to do anything. He says, “You’re no good on a job like this. We don’t want you, we’re explorers.” In this way Jack violates the rights of lower class. Then Piggy is not willing to give his spectacles to burn fire but jack snatches his spectacles. Roger and Maurice who belong to the choir of Jack violate the rules by teasing littluns while they were playing. They both destroy the castles which were built by littluns because they knew that they both are more powerful than the littluns. William golding elaborates in his novel that the one with a little great power rules over the other resulting into class difference and caste. The three littluns were playing in the sand in the afternoon in the novel and among them Henry was elder and he was a leader of these two littluns that time which suggests that class difference is inevitable in the society. Human beings divide into classes on the base of minor differences as according to color, age ability etc. The lower classes are more obedient and have moral values. The upper class lacks morality mostly and their attitude towards their elder is different than the lower classes. Ralph and Jack do not have any importance for their parents even Ralph dances when he came to know that there are no grown ups on the island but piggy and the littluns love their guardians and elders so they want to go back to their homes and miss them on the island. The littluns and Piggy obeyed the rules and summons of the conch but Jack did not obey the rules and conch as he was also committed to obey jack. The bigguns does not obey the rules due to the power they hold as they were at the top of caste system. The upper class only rules and do not realize their duties as Jack and his choir’s duty was to keep the fir burning but they did not realized their duty and they lost the chance of rescue from where the conflict between Ralph and Jack starts. Jack violated the rules as he was the one who said tat they must have some after all they are English people. There lies the great criticism on the English caste system when Jack denies to obey the rules and break all the rules by himself a he was the representative of English people when he himself says these words in pride. On the mountain when piggy got the conch and tried to talk to all the boys, Jack stops him to address as he says that conch does not count on the top of mountain but later on at the same place Ralph, Jack and others use conch to address to assembly. In the climax of the novel the boys start supporting Jack because of his power and the meat, Jack hunts for them and he splits boys from the group of Ralph to strengthen his power and rule. The two main groups or classes are now the Jack’s group and Ralph’s group. Jack includes Sam n Eric in his group forcefully using his power. The piggy (lower class) revolt against the tyranny and cruelty of Jack (upper class) which is main component of Marxism is shown allegorically by the protest of piggy. The group of jack murders Piggy and in the result war starts between Ralph and Jack. This war is due to the wrong division of power among the people. Class differences and inequality brings destruction in the society as in the thrust to get whole power on the island, Jack sets whole jungle on fire to kill Ralph. The novel shows that how class differences destroy the whole society. The island was like a paradise when the boys landed on it having all resources of food, trees etc but the caste system and inequality brought revolt and war in the jungle (society) then finally the paradise was converted into hell. CONCLUSION: The novel slightly criticizes class and caste based system which leads society to war and bloodshed. In Lord of the Flies different characters, their behavior, authority symbolizes the different classes and inequalities among them. The three basic components of Marxism are also illustrated in the novel allegorically which are the class struggle of mankind, criticism on capitalism and then the revolution and war in a class based society. The war finally leads society towards destruction which is the drawback and effect of caste system and class differences. Marxist theory presents the class differences and inequality with respect to the economy but the Lord of the flies allegorically shows the division of economy among the people through the power and authority which the characters possess in the novel. Hence the statement of the article that William Golding did not support Marxism but still he criticizes the class differences and inequalities in a particular society and describes its drawbacks which lead society towards destruction and chaos allegorically is proved. 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