William Golding

1911-1993

Biographical Background

Born 1911 in Cornwall, England

Parents wanted him to be scientist

Favorite authors included H.G. Wells, Jules Verne and Edgar Rice Burroughs

Biographical Background Attended Oxford- majored not in science, but

in English lit. He was also an actor, writer and director in London.

Became a Schoolmaster at Bishop Wordsworth’s school in Salisbury, Wiltshire

Biographical Background

1939: WWII began and Golding served as as a lieutenant in the British Royal Navy on a rocket ship

Golding launched rockets at the beaches during the Normandy invasion and his ship helped sink the German battleship; The Bismark.

Biographical Background

Golding’s view on human nature… Quoted in his obituary from the New York Times on

June 20th, 1993, Golding said of human nature: "World War II was the turning point for me," he said. "I began to see what people were capable of doing. Anyone who moved through those years without understanding that man produces evil as a bee produces honey, must have been blind or wrong in the head." Another time he said: "Look out," he said, "the evil is in us all."

Biographical Background

Inspired by the savage events of WWII, the prospect of a world-wide nuclear war and a pessimistic view of the nature of man, Golding wrote his novel of young boys marooned on an island who descend into a primitive and cruel society.

Although the novel is highly symbolic, it may also have been inspired by Golding’s observations of his students as they argued and debated in class.

Aftermath

Golding continued writing after WWII

His first novel was Lord of the Flies (1954) and was an immense success

He won the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1983

He died in 1993