Which social groups are marginalized
Which social groups are marginalized, excluded or silenced within the text?
Social groups are significant in Golding’s novel “Lord of the Flies”, as they exhibit and accompany the development of a group of British schoolboys, which socially deteriorates into savagery, splitting into certain social sub-groups.
In a context shaped by the world wars and the resulting communal imbalance, perhaps creating or already foreshadowing a sense of rivalry and social disharmony, Golding employs several characters that differ according to age, physical capability, political approaches and have different positions in hierarchy. In my opinion, Golding creates social groups, which lead to marginalization, exclusion and silencing.
Physically weaker boys such as Piggy and the younger “littlunes” seem to be increasingly marginalized and perhaps silenced by the “biguns”, as community shifts to animality and chaos. In a meeting, Jack vigorously accuses the physically inferior boys for the bad “fear talk” about the beast:
“You littluns started all this (…) fear talk. Beast! Where from? (…) What does that mean but nightmares? Anyway, you don’t hunt or build or help – you are a lot of cry babies and sissies”.
Jack, whose masculine and dominant character very much represents the power of the “biguns” and particularly the choir boys, reveals his oppressing and antagonistic nature towards the smaller, innocent boys.
Rhetorical questions such as “Beast! Where from?”, which doubtfully question the authenticity of the “littluns” feelings and thoughts, imply making-fun and mockery. The small boys are not accepted and clearly tried to be undermined in this imperative address; Golding might depict an attempt of exclusion, as the implicit assumption that the “littluns” do not belong to the group might be promoted here. This is because the “littluns” do not follow Jack’s preferred actions, “hunting or building or helping”. Instead, they portray a sense of dependency, purely relying on the food
Social groups are significant in Golding’s novel “Lord of the Flies”, as they exhibit and accompany the development of a group of British schoolboys, which socially deteriorates into savagery, splitting into certain social sub-groups.
In a context shaped by the world wars and the resulting communal imbalance, perhaps creating or already foreshadowing a sense of rivalry and social disharmony, Golding employs several characters that differ according to age, physical capability, political approaches and have different positions in hierarchy. In my opinion, Golding creates social groups, which lead to marginalization, exclusion and silencing.
Physically weaker boys such as Piggy and the younger “littlunes” seem to be increasingly marginalized and perhaps silenced by the “biguns”, as community shifts to animality and chaos. In a meeting, Jack vigorously accuses the physically inferior boys for the bad “fear talk” about the beast:
“You littluns started all this (…) fear talk. Beast! Where from? (…) What does that mean but nightmares? Anyway, you don’t hunt or build or help – you are a lot of cry babies and sissies”.
Jack, whose masculine and dominant character very much represents the power of the “biguns” and particularly the choir boys, reveals his oppressing and antagonistic nature towards the smaller, innocent boys.
Rhetorical questions such as “Beast! Where from?”, which doubtfully question the authenticity of the “littluns” feelings and thoughts, imply making-fun and mockery. The small boys are not accepted and clearly tried to be undermined in this imperative address; Golding might depict an attempt of exclusion, as the implicit assumption that the “littluns” do not belong to the group might be promoted here. This is because the “littluns” do not follow Jack’s preferred actions, “hunting or building or helping”. Instead, they portray a sense of dependency, purely relying on the food