The Problem of Sensibility : Spectacles and Mental Images in
Lord of the Flies
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Author(s)
Citation
秋田英語英文学 (1986), 28: 26-33
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Sugimura, Yasunori
1986-11-20
http://hdl.handle.net/10252/4976
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This document is downloaded at: 2016-03-05T21:40:16Z
Barrel - Otaru University of Commerce Academic Collections
The Problem of Sensibility:
Spectacles and Mental Images in Lord of the Flies
Yasunori Sugimura
William Golding's Lord of the Flies1is generally regarded as an allegorical
fable,
and seems
to be limited to a mere problem of darkness inherent
in man's heart. But I think this fiction has something other than a philosophy of evil.
The difference of personality between Simon and
Jack
is
not
so much due to the moral and ethical nature as to the problem of sensibility
toward each phenomenon before their eyes.
In this paper,
instead of considering the value system of good and evil,
I'd like to throw light on the difference of the two boy's perceptive attitude
toward
the
constantly
shifting
spectacles
of
an
uninhabited
island
where they were forced to land.
I
It
or
is
acts
some
true
that
Simon is
independently of
Christlike
and
Ralph
had
some
who
sagacity
first
common
a
peculiar boy who
other boys.
which
embarked
experiences
is
on
on
But
this
alien
the
sometimes
to
does
others.
predicts
not
mean
It
was
expedition of this
their
way.
For
that he
Simon,
island,
instance,
future,
has
Jack,
and
they rolled
they
the
great rock which was the harbinger of a series of murderous acts(p.30). After
pushing
the
rock
on their way
and
to
down
the
but terflies.
into
top.
Such a
the
There
~hey
forest,
they satll a
beautiful
for
Simon
I
has
'the
superhuman
most
be quite unlike
ability
inclusive
but
future
at
the
sensibility
same
Jack?
because
he grasps a present phenomenon,
and
spectacle of flowers
33). The chances of appreciating these
paradisiacal scenes are equally provided
to
the mountainside
scene once more appeared when they found the aro-
matic bushes during their descent (p.
appears
arrived at
time.
he
has
among
the
them.
think
an
Why,
it
is
then,
not
introspective
children
at
this
is it that
because Simon
tendency
stage'~
and
When
he projects his mental images of both past
Consequently,
the
spectacle
before his
eyes
forms a new image in his mind through the interaction between the spectacle
and
his
mental
images.
This
method of recognition explains
his
idea
that
the imaginary beast other boys fear vaguely is the projection of the darkness
-
26-
of
our
soul.
Jack
wants
to
'destroy
the
objectification of
his
fears',
while Simon recognizes 'the dark terrors and evil of himself'~
It is not that in Jack's case we can't find any interaction of spectacles
and
mental
the
lmife
images.
in
the
When
air,
he
found
a piglet caught
his arm was
in creepers and rai.sed
transfixed long enough for
the piglet
to scurry into the undergrowth. Only a moment before, Jack as well as Simon
and Ralph had seen rock flowers fluttering, had felt the cool breeze blowing
on his
face,
green buds.
had enjoyed
the
aroma
of
evergreen
bushes
with
many waxen
These scenes were still vivid in his mind. Moreover, he could
picture what an enormity the stroke would bring about. The moment he raised
his
knife,
these
mental
pictures
overlapped
with
the
piglet
before
his
eyes and produced a new image which was not a mere piglet caught in creepers.
Jack's
sensibility
at
this
time
seems
to
be
no different
from
Simon's.
But Jack grew tired of concentrating his attention on the interaction between
actualities
a
pig,
and
urged
mental
by
unconsciously
the
without
images.
He
unconscious
paying
any
gradually
drive.
It
attention
gave
himself up
to
hunting
is extremely dangerous
to
to act
the mental images, because
such an action often incurs brutal cruelty. The constant reciprocity between
the actual objects and mental landscape
will keep our behaviour in check
and prevent us from lapsing into corruption. I think the crucial difference
between Simon and Jack comes from the ability of attending to this constant
reciprocity. This is more than the problem of good and evil.
II
Animals and plants, natural phenomena of this island have so many phases
that it is not easy to find out the mutual relationships among them, still
less build up the interaction between such spectacles and our mental landscape.
a
Dazzling sunshine,
black
blob
overflow of
bees,
of
flies,
blue
the
flowers,
constellations,
heat,
mirages,
red cliff,
aromatic
thunder,
a coral reef,
the calm lagoon,
evergreen bushes,
darkness,
the
jungle,
pigs,
rough ocean,
birds,
the
butterflies,
uncanny phosphorescent creatures-
--these and other various elements are joined together to form the natural
environment of this island. We are confronted with this
.
,4
of experlence .
I
complex struc ture
Even the topography of the island symbolizes this variety.
-
27
On the other side of the island, swathed at midday with mirage, defended
by
but
the
shield
here,
faced
division,
may
it
uninhabited
at
and
Every
Even
the
first,
the
cause
the whole
should
might
of
the
dream
ocean,
one was helpless,
in order
to
produce
behaviour
is
examined,
butterflies
appeared
which was
system
to
recognize
new
repeated description of
appeared,
one
brute obtuseness
we
mountain,
lagoon,
of
the
rescue;
miles
of
one was condemned,
122)
destruction,
clearly
them.
the
quiet
island exists precariously on the internal conflict which
any moment
from
by
the
one was clamped down,
one was--- (p.
This
of
at
the
images
If we
the
of
is
a
with a blue
are
not
a
heep
totally
by this process.
mere
half-cirque
flower.
to
interaction among
and modified
butterflies
lip
5
juxtaposed elements
through
cheched,
the
filled
collapse.
duplicate
in
the
~
side
At
of
But the next time they
only a pair of them danced in the open space in the jungle where
'a patch of roch came close to the surface and would not allow more than
little plants
and
ferns
same
the
second,
place as
'threatened' (p. 146).
dripping vivid blood.
to
grow
but
Into
(p.
now
this
She was
61).'
the
The
third
sunlight
very
place
!
appearance
pel ted
the
down'
wounded
slaughtered on the spot,
is at
the
and the air
SOtv
staggered,
with the hot blood
spouting. Simon and Jach always share the same scene of butterflies, although
Simon does not tahe part in the pig hunt.
that Simon,
Jach,
It was on their first expedition
and Ralph saw butterflies 'lifting, fluttering,
settling'
in the mountainside filled with a blue flower.
A pair of gaudy butterflies
dancing
of
in
the
hot
air was
also
caught
sight
by both Simon and
Jach,
however different their situation might be. Wherever the butterflies flutter,
both Simon and
that
Simon
the
Jach
happen to be present.
difference
perceives
a
of
pair
sensibility
of
gaudy
But it is
between
butterflies
them
in
just after this scene
becomes
the
distinct.
intense
heat
of
When
the
sun, he revives his mental picture of the first butterflies in a blue flower.
A contrast
a
little
between
shoch
to
the
him.
spectacle and
He
will mediate this conflict.
tries
to
the mental
landscape
search
some
for
other
must
have
been
scenery which
He is sensing the sign in the sounds, colours,
smells, and the atmosphere of the island.
28 -
Evening
was
fantastic
advancing
birds,
towards
the
the
bee-sounds,
i.sland;
even
the
the
sounds
crying of
of
the
the
bright
gulls
that
were returning to their roots among the square rocks, were fainter ....
the
~hth
and
fading
urgency
between
the
under
trees
The
the
the
light
cooled away ....
the
sea.
of
till
light
that
riotous
colours
Darkness poured out,
they
candle-buds
the
were
opened
dim and
their
pricked down
,lIhi te
the first
the
heat
submerging the ways
strange
,lIide
from
died and
as
the
flowers
bottom of
glimmering
stars.
Their scent
spilled out into the air and took possession of the island (p. 62).
Here gaudy colours are subdued, and antagonistic elements negate one another
to
produce
a
landscape
picture
of
a
quiet
mood.
This
paysage
settled
in
his mind for the time being.
III
Jack,
in
the
scene
too,
must have found a pair of butterflies dancing round each other
hot
of
sun
the
when
he
got
butterflies
in
close
behind
the wounded
blue
flower
didn I t
a
sow,
but
the
first
come bacli in his memory
nor did the first anticipation which had kept him from stabbing the piglet
caught
owing
in
to
the
the
creepers.
absence
The
control
of new
images
function of the mind was out of order
generated by
the
conflict
between
the
spectacle and the mental image.
lbey were just behind her when she staggered into an open space where
bright
flowers
air was
and
from
the
Jacli
hot
the
grew and
and
still.
hunters
air
was
found
full
the
Here,
hurled
an unknown world
of
throat
butterflies danced
struck down by
themselves
at
her.
made
her
frantic;
swea t
and
noise
and
round
the
This
each other and the
heat,
the sow fell
dreadful
eruption
she squealed and bucked and
and
blood
and
terror....
Then
the hot blood spouted over his hands.
The
sow collapsed under them and they were heavy and fulfilled upon her.
The butterflies still danced, preoccupied in the centre of the
clearin~
(p.
Above
all,
the
connection
Jack more than ever.
between spectacles
and
anticipation is
1 119)
lost
to
The striking exampl(' is the way he ac ted when he found
the sow. She was a mother of many pigletc.
-
29-
She was black and pink; and the great bladder of her belly was fringed
with a row of piglets that slept or burrowed and squeaked (p.
Under
Jack's
direction,
piglet
had
Roger's
squeal
and
staggered
with another
and
took
the
up
as
two
sticking
and
beast,
wooden
it
in her
offered
the
side.
in
towards
the
sea.
her
flanle
pigs.
The
One
sow gave a
She ran
away
The atmosphere was full of blood
smll,
still
fleLll
into
stuck
the
he could picture
spears
and ran
spears
When Jach: slaughtered
meat,
imaginary
sharp
spear behind
spear
terror.
the
148).
lugged out
dripping
in his
mind
head
the
in
neither
coloured guts,
sacrifice
the
to
the
butterflies
in
the blue flower nor the family of pigs resting under the trees. His behaviour
is at the mercy of crude lust.
Simon, with a quiet landscape in his mind, met with the butterflies again
in
the
same
place
as
was more intense,
the
arrow
of
confronted
This time, however,
the heat of the sunlight
and the sweat ran down from his hair.
the
him.
before.
sun
and
got
very
thirsty,
when
He couldn't escape
the
impaled
sow's
It grinned with blood triclding from its mouth.
head
Flies were
buzzing like a saw around the head and the pile of guts. A blackness spread
within a vast
mouth of the Lord of the Flies. He was shocked by the violent
conflict between this scene and his inner landscape,
~Vi
thout
building
half unconsciously,
body of a
flies
up any new image,
swarmed
he walked on
sometimes staggering.
paratrooper who had
about
this
and
toward
just
the
mountaintop
There he witnessed the decomposed
also been slaughtered
corpse
at last he fainted.
as
they
by
covered
human beings.
the
sow's
The
head.
A
foul smell of corruption attacked his stomach. But deep in his mind remained
the honey-coloured twilight,
green candle-like buds, white flowers glimmer-
ing under the first stars, and their scent spilling throughout
The
overlap
forms
a
lil~e,
though
a
so
cravllled
he was
this
new and
decisive
rocks
of
it
ultimate
is
not
action--to
that
from
landscape
the
the
mistaken for
image
the
in hj_s
free
to
the
may
gradually
We will soon know what it is
lines
from
inform other
the very beast
parachutist
This new image prompts him to take
tangled
escape
decomposed
mind.
described here.
corpse
forest
,vi th
the island.
and
of
the
indignity.
boys
of
this
parachute
from
the
No sooner had Simon
harmless
brutally murdered
by
beast
than
the boys who
were demented with the threatening weather. The rain began to fall in torrents
-
30 --
The
parachutist
the
beach,
slowly
slid
from
and moved out
from
the
beach
the
mountaintop,
to sea.
towards
Simon,
the
falling
now a
ODen sea.
and
dead
In
sinking
body,
the
towards
also moved out
following night
piece
we might feel his inner landscape he has ultimately acquired:
The
strange,
vapours,
tide
attendant
busied
moved
silver
themselves
further
surrounded
by
shape
creatures, with their fiery eyes and trailing
a
round his
along
fringe
beneath
the
of
the
head....
The
and
water
island
inquisitive
the
bright
great
wave of the
lifted.
creatures,
Softly,
itself
a
steadfast constellations, Simon's dead body
moved out towards the open sea (p. 170)
This is the most elaborate and the most impressive among all the descriptions
in Lord of the Flies. Here lies the wonderfully harmonized world of brilliant
light
with
during
the
grotesque
the night
are
scene.1 The
eerie
innumerable
transparencies
in
silverly bright
creatures
the daytime which come scav-
enging for carcasses of any landward life. They are no different from flies
in
terms
negates
of
scavengers.
their
uncanny
The
image
phase,
of
while
paradise Simon once had
only
a
sweet,
paradisaical
in. his mind
atmosphere
is modified by their avaricious nature.
IV
We might
Jack
by
have
a
new perspective
considering
it
in
terms
on the different behaviour of Simon and
of
sensibility,
not
from
moral,
ethical
or religious points of view. Simon's method of grasping a present phenomenon
together with his memory and prospect does not require any special ability.
It
is
a
common
perceptive method
other work of art.
a
bit
of artistic
nor
a
him
as
It
queer
true
temperament,
man of virtue.
a
is
man.
The
One
we
that
use when we
or any
Simon is a boy of receptive mind with
but he is an ordinary boy, neither a saint
problem lies
of
appreciate music
the
in other
main reason
for
boys
the
who always
demented
think of
society in
this fiction is the corruption of our normal sensibility under the 'special
circumstances ,8
of
this
isolated
island where there is no hope of rescue.
This problem must come before the abstract argument about morality, religion,
or the darkness of the soul.
ness
of
a
drowned
sailor
j.s
So with Pincher Martin in which the consciousvividly described,
-
31 -
or with
Rites of Passage
which deals with the abnormal conduct of a parson in the merciless condition.
The
author
closely
investigates
the
same
situation
in
the
society,
the
family, and the sexual relationships.
It
is not only for
'the end of innocence,
the darkness
of man's heart'
(p.
223) but also for the very rescue from an extreme situation that Ralph
and
other
case.
boys
wept
while
a
had
lost
even
the
They
rescue
is
meaningless,
naval
even
officer
sensibility
though
the
\l]as
of
hearing
crying.
cruiser
in
I
the
the
facts
don't
of
think
distance
the
this
suggests
the continuance of an atomic war and the novel is 'silent about salvation. ,9
At least we could stop the annihilation of mankind if we restored the wholesome sensibility with which Simon produces a new image one after the other
from the interaction between the present spectacle and the inner landscape.
He
this
saves
from
novel
total
..
10 I t
pesslmlsm.
might
safely
be
said
that
in this novel constant introspection and fresh sensibility are more stressed
than
ethical
or
religious
problems.
Therefore
it
is an easygoing and
dangerous interpretation to subordinate this work to morality or religion
by limiting it to a mere allegory showing the darkness of man's soul, because
characters
are
too
young
to
understand
clearly what
the
evil
is
like~1
Just as this uninhabited island is a mixture of various inconsistent elements.
so this fiction contains many irreconcilable elements of equal value, always
shaldng our
renewed
id~e
ideas
fixe.
The
significance
of
this
text
lies
in
the
ever-
ppoduced by constant interaction among juxtaposed elements.
The text itself calls fop our sensibility to pepceive totally this juxtaposition in opder to build up new meanings.
NOTES
1
LHlliam
Golding,
Lord
of
the
Flies
(London:
Faber
and
Faber,
1973)
All the subsequent page references to this novel are from this edition.
2
~1ark
Kinl\ead-Weekes
&
Ian
Gregor,
William
Goldin~
A Critical
Study
(London: Fabep and Faber, 1975), p. 30.
3
Vipginia Tiger,
LHlliam...Jloldin~
The
Dark
Marion Boyars, 1976), p. 63.
-
32-
Fields of Discovepy
(London:
4
Paul Elmen,
, ed.
Goldin~ntemporary
William
Roderick
Jellema
(Grand Rapids,
Publishing Company, 1967), p.
5
Arnold
Johnston,
Of
Earth
Writers in Christian
Pers~c­
l\1ichigan: tililliam B.
Eerdmans
34.
and
Darkness:
The
Novels
(Columbia & London: University of Missouri Press,
6
On
this
that
po in t,
this
I
can't
agree
fiction has a
the
repeat,:d
element
but
the
and
Expansion
duplicate
with
Jeanne
1980), p.
this
with
a
in Lord of
novel
is
difference.
the
Flies"
not a
(Jeanne
& Ian Gregor, pp. 52-53.
8
Mark Kinkead-Weekes
& Ian Gregor, p. 55.
9
Samuel
Pr e s s, 1 9 6 8), p.
10
Bernard
S.
Bernard
p.
F.
think
Some
"Rhythm
Critical
~exington, Kentucky:
(New
York
& London:
Columbia Uriiversi ty
16 .
Oldsey
and
(Bloomington and London:
11
Golding
I
197~, pp. 72, 86.)
Mark Kinkead-Weekes
William
argues
of others,
Delbaere-Garant,
in William Golding:
7
Hynes,
who
within it.
mere duplicate
Considerations, ed. Jack I. Biles & Robert O. Evans
The University Press of Kentucky,
19.
Delbaer'e-Garant
'never-ceasing reproduction'
in
of William Golding
Dick,
Stanley
Weintraub,
The
Art
of
William
Indiana University Press, 1968), pp.
William
Golding
(Boston:
Tlil1ayne
Golding
31-32.
Publishers,
1967),
3 Lf.
(Akita National College of Technology)
33 -