Chapters 4 - 6: William Golding's Writing Style

In chapters 4-6 and all throughout the book, the writing style of William Golding is interesting and compelling. Though sometimes hard to understand, his ability to leave some interpretation up to the reader and dictate imagery and tone create an insightful and meaningful reading experience.

Golding often leaves the interpretation of certain events up to the reader. These events are often small, but if missed they can amount to a large amount of misunderstanding. In most cases, these interpretations are foreshadowing of events or things we expect to happen. We see an example of this on page 111 where “Piggy let out his breath with a gasp, reached for it again and failed. He lay against a log, his mouth gaping, blue shadows creeping around his lips.” It is hard to interpret what is going on at this point, as most would imagine that something awful is happening to Piggy, yet Golding leaves this topic alone after these sentences. His style of describing something as if it is momentous and then moving on without description is quite common throughout the Lord of the Flies novel. This writing style adds to the descriptive and exciting nature of the text.

Another aspect of the writing style of William Golding is his seemingly constant use of imagery throughout the novel. Using primarily visual and auditory imagery, Golding is able to paint a very realistic picture in the novel. We can see an example of visual imagery on page 112 as Golding writes: “This day promised, like the others, to be a sunbath under a blue dome. The beach stretched away before them in a gentle curve till perspective drew it into one with the forest; for the day was not advanced enough to be obscured by the shifting veils of mirage.” The description of the sunlight being overwhelming as the boys live “under a blue dome” creates the image that they are alone in the middle of nowhere. The description of the island and the word choice of “a gentle curve” paint an image of the state of the island on this particular day.

Though William Golding’s writing style can be at times quite difficult to understand, the rewards of interpretation and the richness of imagery create a truly interesting start to an eventful novel. It is interesting to see how this writing style will contribute to the novel as the story reaches its climax.