The Appeal Of Harmony And Equality

William Golding is a British famous writer in modern times, his representative work Lord of Flies makes the readers see the epitome of Britain after World War II through depicting some children’s living condition in an isolated island. It leads readers to ponder deeply over the society and make them know good and evil of human-beings. Many critics interpret this novel from the perspective of religion to prove the human evil. Some scholars claim that it is an allegory which composed by the author to reflect the realistic society.The author of this thesis wants to make a further interpretation of Lord of the Flies from theory of eco-feminism which is against the anthropocentrism and the man-centered ideology. Eco-feminists believe that the exploitation towards the nature is same as the oppression towards women and aim to subvert the domination of the nature and oppression of women. The novel, Lord of the Flies, is set in the background of the war, where the males regard the world as the hunting ground and take the nature as their enemy. They arouse the war and get involved in it and kill each other bloodily. Though there are no women in the novel, the phenomenon of the absence of women reflected the man-centered ideology and the patriarchy. Through detailed interpretation of the absence of women, analysis of the scenery and the examination of nature discrimination, gender oppression of nature and women on the basis of eco-feminism, this thesis fully shows Golding’s eco-feminist consciousness and his hope for the construction of a harmonious relationship between men and women, human and nature as well as all of other creatures.There are five parts of this thesis:Chapter One is the introduction of Lord of the Flies and literature reviews, Chapter Two is about the eco-feminism theoretical foundations. Then the main parts are the third and fourth chapters, the theory of eco-feminism is used to interpret the absence of the women and analyze the slaughter towards the sow, the destruction of the island and the persecution between the companions. Meanwhile, the relationship between men and women, man and the nature, the strong and the weak are explained further with this theory. The last part is the chapter in which conclusions and limitations are summarized.In brief, this thesis presents Golding’s appeals for harmony, equality, wholeness and balance on the earth, which is just the perfect reflection of eco-feminist ideas. Meanwhile, the aim and significance of it is to get the attention of all human beings to establish a harmonious world without ethnic and gender segregation, to reach a state where harmony and equality for human and non-human, for men and women, and then to enlighten the modern people.