Ecofeminism In Lord Of The Flies

William Golding, one of the50greatest British novelists since1945by the magazine Times in2008, is of abiding influence on later writers, renowned for his trenchant analysis of human nature, and serious reflection on the influence of hostile environmental forces on humanity. Among many of his brilliant works is Lord of the Flies, which enabled him to win Nobel Prize. This work embodies his concern on humanity and thus has triggered critics’interest. Yet so far critics have not paid enough attention to the interpretation of the novel from the perspective of ecofeminist theory. Thus this thesis is intended to apply feminist theories as well as the study of ecology to this novel, so as to bring new light on the understanding of this brilliant work by William Golding. Ecofeminism has been then employed to fulfill the task of analyzing the work with feminist theories and ecological study.The first chapter initially discusses how women in Lord of the Flies are represented through natural images so as to stage the first fold of women-nature relationship. The similarity between women and nature is disinterred so as to bridge the gap between women and nature, namely femininity. The second part of chapter one elaborates on how women are identified with nature in another dimension, namely, their intimacy with nature.The second chapter probes into the question of how men conduct their domination of both women and nature. Men’s exploitation of nature is addressed first in two major aspects, men’s domination of natural resources and men’s subjugation of natural environment. The discussion of men’s atrocities to nature is followed by analysis of men’s oppression of women, which is carried out by boys on the island by means of denying women’s presence, discourse right and also equal access to social activities.Chapter three then dwells on how women in the novel carry out their salvation of ecology, both natural ecology and social ecology. Two sections are designed to address their efforts in saving ecology. The first one focuses on how women spare efforts to check men’s demolition of nature and the second section centers on how women fight courageously for the better-up of social ecology.The study of ecofeminism in Lord of the Flies not only makes the study of ecofeminism complete (in that this theory has seldom been applied to the study of works written by male writers or works destitute of woman characters) but also instill vitality to the interpretation of William Golding’s work.