The Artistic Parody In Lord Of The Flies

In the later half of the 20th century, two alternating streams of realism and experimentalism dominated the development of English novel. At the crossroad of the development of novel, Lord of the Flies, a masterpiece by William Golding, came to the open, showing a talent out of the ordinary. Through parody, Golding re-functions desert island story, and thus breaks the contract agreed by both writers and readers. This dissertation aims to examine the artistic parody of traditional desert island literature in Lord of the Flies, from the perspectives of parodic plots, motifs and characters. The main body of this dissertation consists of three chapters.Chapter One explores parody of traditional "desert island myth" within the plot of this novel. Golding imitates the same superficial structure of "trilogy" of traditional desert island literature, but by employing the narrative strategy of "anti-climax", he subverts traditional adventure stories where the desert island finally becomes Eden-like paradise. Parody on this level paves the way for overturning the happy ending and romantic tone of traditional desert island literature.Chapter Two concentrates on parody of the desert island and human nature motifs embedded in traditional novels. The desert island is depicted as the Garden of Eden on earth in early island stories, representing the optimism and faith in human nature and his future. However, in Lord of the Flies, Golding presents the desert island as a location of violence and despair, suggesting the worries about and the defects in man and society. And parody on this level amounts to a strong attack on the traditional optimistic attitudes towards the desert island and human nature.Chapter Three anatomizes parody of characters. Golding turns the stereotyped male images upside down and endows female absence with new significance. Parody on this level achieves transcendence of characterization over traditional desert island literature.In short, the artistic parody not only subverts traditional desert island stories, but also expresses Golding's concern over "desert island myth" and "goodness of humanity". Besides, the novel's artistic affect depends largely upon its exchange of obtrusive, frontal criticism to subtle imitative allusion of parody. In this sense, parody constitutes a key to understanding Golding's critical and artistic concern in this novel.