Date of Award

4-21-1969

Degree Type

Master's Essay - Restricted

Degree Name

Master of Arts (MA)

Department

Literatures, Languages, and Cultures

First Advisor

Joseph Schwartz

Abstract

A reader upon putting down William Golding's Free Fall finds himself perplexed not with several levels of ambiguity, but with an unfortunate ambivalence. To pinpoint the source of his problem he is forced to examine not so much what the book says, but how it says it. What the book says is quite clear: either, man is a creature endowed with free will and, therefore, capable of responsible action; or, he is a crea­ture endowed with free will but because of environmental conditioning is prevented from implementing this faculty. Golding, in the course of the narrative gives the reader ample evidence to support either of these thematic state­ments; however, because the net result of Free Fall is this either-or proposition of mutually exclusive statements he undercuts the great unity and coherence which the book achieves structurally forcing the reader to examine the relationship of structure and theme.

Comments

An Essay Submitted in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of Master of Arts

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