William Golding Research Paper

Critically acclaimed novelist William Gerald Golding was born September 19, 1911 in Saint Columb, Cornwall, England (“Golding” 800-801). His father, Alec Golding, carried the family tradition of being a schoolmaster. Golding’s mother, Mildred, was an active suffragette. Golding recalls that as a child, he had been quite a brat and enjoyed bullying his peers (Biography.com). That being said, he was also an intelligent child with interests in science and literature. Growing up, his favorite authors were H.G. Wells, Jules Verne, and Edgar Rice Burroughs (“Golding” 800-801). He had always been interested in writing and attempted to write his first novel at the age of 12. The opening sentence reads, “I was born in the Duchy of Cornwall on the eleventh of October, 1792, of rich but honest parents,” (Encyclopedia). He gave up on the novel after realizing that his opening sentence exceeded his expectations and was better than the rest of the book he was writing could be. Golding attended Brasenose College in Oxford, England. He originally intended to major in science, but he changed his mind and decided to study English Literature to be a schoolmaster like his father and other relatives had. While in school, he published his first work, …show more content…
In Matty’s case, his darkness is internal. He carries around the burden of sins that he is not even sure he has committed, but he accepts the weight of them anyway. He spends his young adulthood traveling around in an attempt to escape his feelings and outrun the darkness. Sophy’s, on the other hand, manifests as outward fury. She only wants other people to suffer at her expense, so much so that she tries to burn down a building full of children in order to make some money. Both characters, and all others, have some type of darkness that follows them. How they develop as people depends on the type of darkness that burdens