Alienation Of Space In Golding’s Lord Of The Flies

As the classic masterpiece of William Golding,winner of the Nobel Prize for Literature(1983),Lord of the Flies(1954)focuses on the primitive attempts of the British children who survived World War III(nuclear war)to rebuild a civilized society,and deeply explores the humanity themes of good and evil.Lord of the Flies not only occupies an important place in the history of world literature,but also attracts scholars at home and abroad to conduct in-depth research on it from the critical perspectives of semiotics,narratology,postcolonialism,etc.However,the crucial issue of alienation of space in the text is ignored,which constitutes the origin of the study.On the other hand,Lefebvre’s “the production of space” has contributed to the promotion of spatial turn in the British and American academia.Its physical space is closely related to nature,while spiritual space is more directed to literature,dreams,topological psychology,etc.,and social space focuses on social practice,thus forming a unique spatial triadic dialectic.In terms of alienation,with the highly developed Western material civilization,human subjectivity has degenerated into the materialized“other”,which is reflected in the deformed physical space,the distorted psychological space and the broken social space.And alienation of space has come into being,thus providing solid conceptual and logical support for the thesis’ exploration of the relevant topics of Lord of the Flies.In addition to the introduction and conclusion,the three main chapters of this thesis follow the logical deduction of Lefebvre’s three dimensions of space,exploring the representation of alienation of space in Lord of the Flies and its profound meaning from physical,psychological,and social spaces respectively.The first chapter starts with the historical development of the desert island novel,pointing out the alienation of the physical space,the deserted island,whose archetype is Eden;as well as the physical alienation of the typical marginal characters Simon and Piggy in the work.In this alienated space,the marginalized “other” is forced into the struggle for power.It can be seen from their situation that physical alienation occurs not only in the natural environment but also in the human body,and the metaphor behind this kind of alienation and its catastrophic consequences make the reader reflect on the state of human life.The second chapter begins from the expansion of the concept of alienation in the field of psychology,and explores the alienation of psychological space brought about by the emergence of power illusion,which led to the decline of religion,and the emergence of the alienated idolatry “Lord of the Flies”.The act of face-painting,which began with Jack,gradually spread throughout the society on the island;The wild release behind the mask “liberated from shame and self-consciousness”(Golding 53),which leads to the dissolution of personal identity and the emergence of cannibalistic atavism.The third chapter analyzes the alienation of social space in combination with the background of the era of the work.The psychological alienation brought about by the expansion of the desire for power results in the competition for spatial resources and ultimately leads to the alienation of social space.The war scenes repeatedly recreated in the novel are metaphors for the struggle for space,which limits the redemptive function of utopia and puts democracy in jeopardy.Facing the alienation of social space,the children are hopeless,and they can do nothing but hope for help from the world of adult,which is about to be destroyed.Totalitarianism has plunged mankind into an existential dilemma,utopia has collapsed,and human civilization is dying in the process of alienation.The study finds that the main causes of alienation is the fierce competition for space caused by the high development of material civilization,which in turn leads to the decline of human spiritual civilization,resulting in alienation and the collapse of social systems.The children’s experiment to rebuild a society fails,ending with a mechanical séance which save them from the burning island,however,war is continue in the real world,where is the ultimate salvation of mankind? The alienated physical space affects the psychological space of the characters in it,which in turn causes the alienation of the social space.It is difficult for the human beings trapped in it to get rid of the influence of alienation,and democracy and freedom eventually become the victims of alienation.The terrible consequences of alienation of space in Lord of the Flies have led to serious and profound reflections on the fate of mankind,thus giving the novel an important practical significance to the interpretation of alienation.