William Golding : Biography Essay, Research Paper

William Golding William Golding was a English novelist. His writings have influenced awide variety of audiences world wide. He is best known for his novel The Lord of theFlies which was published in 1954. Today Golding is considered as the greatest Englishwriter of our time. Golding was born in Cornwall in 1911. His father was a knowneducationist and he taught at Malborugh Grammar School, which is also where Golding attended school. After his completion, he carried further education in Oxford University where he studied science, which he later abandoned and devoted himself to study Englishliterature. When World War II began in 1940, Golding had joined the Royal Navy where he was involved in many important battles, for example the landing in Normandy. Golding’s war experiences changed his thinking about man. In the past he believed thatall men are innocent and that society was evil, but after Golding’s experiences in the war it was impossible for him to believe this any longer. This influence changed Golding’sview of life and human nature and it later had a great effect in his works. After the war Golding became a teacher of a all boys school in Salisbury,England. It was during this period of time where Golding started some of his first piecesof writings which included, a collection of poems, short stories, essays and articles. Withall this work, Golding did not look at himself as a writer until his debut with the novelLord of the Flies. Lord of the Flies is considered the greatest novel of Golding and this bookis what struck him to fame. The book is about a struggle for survival of a group of boyson a deserted island, without any adult to help them. Soon they will separate themselves

in two groups because of their differences about the way of playing. Lord of the Flies explains the real nature of the human being, portrayednot as innocent as we think they are. In the book Golding shows us two types ofmovements. The first being the escape movement to build a signal fire. The secondbeing the survival movement by becoming hunters, taking part in dances and even killingfellow members. Golding reveals to us that the second movement is stronger and theboys go right to it. We know that Golding used to teach in a boys school, which explainswhy the characters in the Lord of the Flies seem so real. The book captured attention ofcollege and high school students and soon they realized Golding’s true talent. Not only in The Lord of the Flies, most of Golding’s books had a relatedpattern, which was the nature of human beings which was expressed through characters,images and settings in his books. Due to this, it caused a vast amount of controversy overhis works but however Golding was not discouraged by it at all but instead it challengedhim to continue his works and writings. Throughout the years, the controversy of Golding’s lack of knowledge inhis writings continued. Following Lord of the Flies, Golding published several novels, The Inheritors (1955), Pincher martin (1956) and Free Fall (1959) which all brought himeven more success. All of Golding’s hard work paid off when in 1983, he was finally awardedwith the Nobel prize for his offer to the world of literature. ” I could hear my wifescreaming and I came to see what all the noise was about, when she told me I had won.I was thrilled ” ( movie watched in class ). Golding died in 1993.One can say William Golding was one of the greatest English writers of all time.