Golding and Huxley: The Fables of Demonic Possession - Critical Essay

Twentieth Century Literature, Fall, 2000 by James R. Baker

The religion in Huxley's fable emerges with what its followers call "the Thing." This is not simply a reference to the bioatomic catastrophe but also to the psychopolitical dialectics that led to violent climax and apocalypse. The Chief, a rude master of the work crews that dig the graves of Hollywood Cemetery in search of manufactured goods, explains to his prisoner, Dr. Poole: "The Thing. You know--when He took over....He won the battle and took possession of everybody. That was when they did all this" (71). There's no need to struggle for recognition here, since the future will resurrect a familiar idol known generically as the devil, though it is capable of assuming an interesting variety of forms. In a catechism offered by a "Satanic Science Practitioner" the children respond:

"Belial has perverted and corrupted us in all the parts of our being. Therefore, we are, merely on account of that corruption, deservedly condemned by Belial."

Their teacher nods approvingly.

"Such," he squeaks unctuously, "is the inscrutable justice of the Lord of Flies." (94-95)

As the lessons continue we learn that woman is the "vessel of the Unholy Spirit," the source of deformities and therefore "the enemy of the race" (98). Annually, on Belial Day, mothers are publicly humiliated, punished, and their deformed babies killed. The purpose of this blood sacrifice is, of course, a vain attempt to purify the race, but more broadly the catechism reveals, "The chief end of man is to propitiate Belial, depreciate His enmity, and avoid destruction as long as possible" (93). Similarly, the little Christian boys on Golding's island bow down before a ubiquitous fear and soon spontaneously invent a blood ritual to purge this fear ("Kill the beast! Cut his throat/Spill his blood!" [187]) and a rite of propitiation to ensure their survival. The pig's head on the stick becomes a "gift" for the beast and an idol, an incarnation of ancient Beelzebub, Lord of Flies. Like Huxley's devotees they invert and parody the lost and more hopeful religion given to them by a forgotten savior.

On the day of propitiation in 2108 crowds mass in the Los Angeles Coliseum and we witness "the groundless faith, the sub-human excitement, the collective insanity which are the products of ceremonial religion" (108) as the ritual unfolds and chanting is heard from a great altar. The chorus mourns that all have fallen "Into the hands of living Evil, the Enemy of Man":

Semichorus I

Of the rebel against the Order of Things

Semichorus II

And we have conspired with him against ourselves

Semichorus I

Of the great Blowfly who is the Lord of Flies

Crawling in the heart... (109)

The chorus curses woman, the mother, as "breeder of all deformities who is driven by the Blowfly," goaded "Like the soiled fitchew / Like the sow in her season" (112-13).

We know now that Lord of the Flies was not the title of the manuscript of a novel Golding sent to Faber in 1953. In a charming essay, Charles Monteith, who became editor of the manuscript, recalls the brief note attached: "I send you the typescript of my novel Strangers from Within which might be defined as an allegorical interpretation of a stock situation. I hope you will feel able to publish it" (57). Reader judgments were largely negative, much revision was demanded, the tide was rejected, and a new one--Lord of the Flies--suggested by another editor at Faber. Golding readily agreed, as well he might have, for it was quite appropriate to give his devil a familiar name (Beelzebub, the fly lord, was present in the "buzz" of conflicting voices at the parliaments on the platform rock), and his theme of submission to evil remained intact. The original tide, nevertheless, was no doubt deliberately chosen to reflect something built into the narrative progression-the gradual effacement of sane and civil behavior and the emergence of an alien power in the consciousness of the boys. The theme of demonic possession was most vital to Golding's purpose, and again it demonstrates the bond with Huxley. [5] When the Arch-Vicar delivers his talk on world history for Poole (all the while munching pig's trotters) he comes to a clear statement of his thesis on the downfall of civilization: