Analytical Study and Critical Reception of William Golding's "Lord of the Flies"

Abstract

This thesis aims to study the nature of the criticism that encountered William Golding‟s novel „‟Lord of the Flies‟‟, it is concerned with external critical analysis of the book and an overview of the novel. This research contains a research proposal and three chapters. The first chapter is about the novel „‟Lord of the Flies‟‟; it contains a biography of the author, the summary of the novel with its major themes and its motif and a critical analysis of its major characters in addition to a literature review. In the second chapter we discussed three passages as samples from the novel. The last chapter includes positive and negative reviews also each review followed by a personal interpretation, then we added the identifications of the reviewers with a conclusion of the third chapter and a general conclusion for the dissertation then a glossary. Most critics have praised Golding‟s novel and asserted its artistic value especially since it deals with various subjects, whereas others have considered it just a historical story. Others have considered it as a psychological study of human nature which is inappropriate for children‟s age, because it is very complex and its characters use violence, thus it can affect the child‟s behaviour negatively.